Actor known for deep, rolling voice
Quebec star named to Order of Canada in 1989
Quebec actor Albert Millaire, whose voice resonated across the province’s stages and television screens throughout a half-century, died surrounded by loved ones at the age of 83 on Wednesday afternoon.
Until the very end of his life, Millaire continued to “speak of theatre with passion,” said a statement from his agency, Premier Rôle.
Born in Montreal on Jan. 18, 1935, Millaire studied at the Conservatoire d’art dramatique du Québec and in Paris and London. He began his professional career at age 20, tackling major roles such as Figaro, Hamlet and Vladimir in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.
In the late 1950s, he was recruited by the fledgling television industry to act on the small screen. He appeared in more than a dozen Radio-Canada television dramas, including Othello, Phèdre and Cyrano de Bergerac.
He went on to be the resident actor at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde (TNM) and to direct the Théâtre populaire du Québec, the Théâtre du bois de Coulonge in Quebec City and the Théâtre de Repentigny.
Many Quebecers remember him as the image of Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville, who he played in a popular television series in 1969. He also portrayed Sir Wilfrid Laurier in a miniseries about the ex-prime minister in 1987.
More recently he spent five seasons acting and directing at Stratford in the 1990s.
In 1998, he performed in The Witches of Salem at the TNM and, in 1994, he acted as an older Alceste in a contemporary production of Molière’s Misanthrope, which he also performed in as a young man.
His deep, rolling voice was frequently featured in narrative documentaries, audio books and advertisements.
Millaire was diagnosed with cancer in 2000, but continued to work nonetheless.
In 2010, he published Mes amours de personnages, in which he recounted his life as an actor and the 50 great characters he has played in theatre, television and cinema. Millaire was also president of the Académie québécoise du théâtre from 1996 to 1999, secretary general of the Union des artistes and president of the Canadian Council of the Status of the Artist.
Millaire won the Gémeaux prize in 2014 for best supporting actor in a soap opera for his role in Mémoires vives.
In 1983, he received the Victor Morin Prize for the Performing Arts of the St-Jean-Baptiste Society of Montreal.
He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1989 and a Companion in 2001, as well as Knight of the National Order of Quebec in 1995.
Presse Canadienne