Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
Roux, Jean-Louis
Director/actor/translator, born in Montreal Quebec May 18, 1923. he received a classical education (alongside friend and long-time theatrical partner, Jean Gascon ) and was noticed even as he acted in school productions.
He began his career with the Montreal Repertory Theatre and Compagnons de Saint-Laurent before being counselled to study in France. He left his studies in medicine at the Université de Montréal, in 1946, to do just that. On his return to Canada he founded the Théâtre d'Essai de Montréal (1950-51) and then co-founded the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde /TNM becoming a lead actor and director with the company. He took over as artistic director in 1966 and remained there until 1982 when he was named director of the National Theatre School of Canada . He returned to a freelance career in 1987.
As actor he has performed in over 150 productions playing leads in many works of Shakespeare , Molière , Chekhov and Shaw and has performed in English as well including at the Stratford Festival . He has also translated many works including Shakespeare's King Lear, Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, and Peter Shaffer's Equus.
As a translator his work is faithful to the original and avoids literariness even as it embraces a love of language. When spectators and critics see Roux, the actor, they usually notice, first, the voice and then the elegant presence. His style is reminiscent of the Old Vic school. As a director Jean-Louis Roux's work is unobtrusive and intelligent; stylistic hijinks are left behind.
He has also had a successful career on television and in film. He is particularly well remembered for his role of Ovide in La Famille Plouffe/The Plouffe Family a Radio-Canada and CBC television co-production that had the cast performing an episode in French one evening on Radio-Canada and in English the next on CBC.
He is a Companion of the Order of Canada, and was appointed to the Senate in 1994. After he was appointed to become the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, in 1996, a scandal erupted around M. Roux concerning certain activities in which he participated while he was a student in university. M. Roux, in an interview, had admitted that he had worn a swastika on his lab coat during the war and had joined in an anti-conscription rally which turned into an anti-Jewish rally. As a result of the storm of controversy which followed the interview, he resigned from the governor-generalship.
In 1998 he published his memoirs. Also in 1998 he took over the Canada Council .
Jean-Louis Roux continues to work, notably playing Freud in the recent production of Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt's Le Visiteur at Théâtre les gens d'en bas and, more recently, in the Nouvelle Compagnie Théâtrale/Théâtre Denise-Pelletier production of de Musset's Lorenzaccio (March, 1999) and in the National Arts Centre production of Quand Marie est partie (November, 2000).
Viewings: Côté cour... côté jardin, dir. Roger Blais. National Film Board, 1953 - backstage during a TNM performance of L'Avare/The Miser
(Additional information provided by Alvina Ruprecht)
Last updated 2009-07-21
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