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Ouimette, Stephen

Stephen Ouimette
Stephen Ouimette

Ontario-based actor and director, born June 30, 1954 in St. Thomas, Ontario, and a graduate of the University of Windsor. Stephen Ouimette has enjoyed a very distinguished and varied career, but his name is most closely linked to the Stratford Festival, where he has performed in a wide variety of roles since 1979 for twenty seasons, and was assistant director of nine seasons. Among the many roles he has played with the Festival are Richard III, Grumio in Taming of the Shrew, Mozart in Amadeus, Estragon in Waiting for Godot (1996 and 2013), Hamlet, Aguecheek in Twelfth Night (2011), Octavius in Anthony and Cleopatra, the alchemist in Ben Jonson's play (2015), and a hilarious hypochondriac in Moliere's play (2016). In 2018, he played a devious Tribune in Robert Lepage's controversial interpretation of Coriolanus. In 2016, he was appointed director of the Stratford Festival’s Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre.

Ouimette received the Sterling Award in 1993 (La Bête, Citadel Theatre). He has received three Dora Mavor Moore Awards for his roles in Seven Stories (Tarragon Theatre, 1991); B Movie; The Play (Shaw Festival, 1987); and Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Eran Productions, 1986).

Tom McCamus and Stephen Ouimette (left) in Waiting for Godot, Stratford Festival, 1996, directed by Brian Bedford
Tom McCamus and Stephen Ouimette (l) in Waiting for Godot, Stratford Festival, 1996, directed by Brian Bedford

Among other theatres in which he has played are the Vancouver Playhouse, Grand Theatre, London, Royal Alexandra Theatre, Manitoba Theatre Centre (Art , 1999), Soulpepper Theatre Company (Mill on the Floss, 2000 and A Flea in Her Ear, 2001), and Goodman Theatre, Chicago.

He has also worked extensively in television, most notably as the ghost of an artistic director of a Shakespeare theatre festival very much like Stratford in the CBC production, Slings and Arrows (2003-2006).

His voice-over work is evident in numerous cartoons, including Babar, and as Beetlejuice in the long-running series.

Profile by Gaetan Charlebois. Information provided by Lindy Cooksey; additional information provided by Roger D. Moore, Joel Greenberg, and Anne Nothof.

Last updated 2021-07-19