Comedian Gérard Poirier died overnight from Saturday to Sunday, his daughter, Anne-Marie Poirier, confirmed to Press.
The 91-year-old actor had suffered from Alzheimer’s for several years. Last August, he was transferred to CHSLD Pierre-Joseph Triest. His condition had worsened over the past few weeks.
In more than 60 years of career, Gérard Poirier has embodied hundreds of characters in theater, television and cinema. Among the multitude of roles, many will remember the touching Tancred in The Braves park and notary Cyprien Fournier in The time of a peace, account signed Pierre Gauvreau on rural Quebec between the First and the Second World War.
PHOTO MICHEL GRAVEL, ARCHIVES THE PRESS
Gérard Poirier in 1976
Actress Marie Tifo worked alongside him in the series The park of the Braves. “Gérard was the nobility. […] Playing with him was always a precious moment. I keep it in my heart forever, ”commented M.me Tifo at The Canadian Press.
She remembers a man “intelligent”, “very funny”, “an incredible deadpan”. Mr. Poirier had a “very large imprint on a whole generation of actors”, underlined Mme Tifo, for whom he was an inspiration.
Mr. Poirier was born in Montreal in 1930. Holder of a bachelor’s degree in pedagogy from the École normale, he quickly abandoned teaching in 1955. At that time, he set up an amateur theater company, the Company des Sept, which will feature actress Lucille Papineau.
It is the latter that will allow him to enter Radio-Canada, whose decision-makers he won over from his very first hearing. Impressed by his diction and his talent, the directors therefore strongly recommended him to all directors.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY RADIO-CANADA
Gérard Poirier in The Braves park, in 1984
In addition to multiplying roles in radio and teletheat series, he was closely involved in the growth of the Théâtre du Rideau vert. He also made his mark at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde (TNM) and in Jean Duceppe’s company. He has directed and signed some pieces of his own.
“Gérard Poirier was a man of all eras. Discreet for a few years, his memory will nonetheless remain indelible ”, commented on his Facebook page the playwright Michel Marc Bouchard, who had worked with the deceased for two plays at the TNM, The Coronation Journey and The Flood Scrolls.
Coming from classical theater, he played alongside Jean Duceppe, Françoise Faucher, Jacques Godin and Janine Sutto, being praised for his presence and his naturalness.
A great lover of the stage and the French language, Gérard Poirier admitted having experienced professional difficulties with the advent of joual on television in the 1970s.
“A curious phenomenon, I was then labeled as a French actor and I was temporarily removed from theatrical life. For six or seven years, I didn’t do anything on TV at all. I continued to play in the theater, but that is not enough to earn a living, ”he told the newspaper. The duty, in 2002.
Mr. Poirier then taught drama for a few years to students of the Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique du Québec, and it is thanks to these young people, he said, that he succeeded in understanding what was happening in Quebec.
Gérard Poirier is one of those actors who have had the chance to have a long and busy career. Already in 1995, when he had been practicing the profession for four decades, he was aware of his good fortune.
“I discovered the immense pleasure of saying no and only accepting what really gives me pleasure, now free from all anxiety and only animated by the pleasure of doing this job. This is a great luxury, ”he admitted in an interview to the Sun.
He also distinguished himself in the cinema, in particular in the skin of the priest Folbèche in The Plouffe by Gilles Carle (1981). However, he has often commented that he was not spoiled on this side and that he would have liked to play more on the big screen.
PHOTO BERTRAND CALMEAU, PROVIDED BY THE PRODUCTION
Gérard Poirier in the movie Henry, by Yan England
In 2013, Mr. Poirier still got a taste of the Oscar race, thanks to the short film Henry, by Yan England, in which he played the title role of a man with Alzheimer’s.
More recently still, he played the role of Clermont Geoffrion in the series Vivid memories and that of Mathias Fréchette in the soap opera The inn of the black dog, both broadcast on Radio-Canada.
He also won two Gemini awards during his career, in 1988 for his role in The Braves park and in 2002 for his participation in My best enemy.