With the death of Michel Côté at the age of 72, Quebec loses one of its most beloved actors. In the spring of 2022, he announced his retirement from public life due to bone marrow disease. Gifted as much for drama as for comedy, Michel Côté left his mark on the cinema, in CRAZY, on television, in Omertaand on stage, in brewamong other memorable titles from a roadmap that contains many.
Few performers can claim to have collected so many successes over such a long period, five decades. Perhaps this public loyalty stemmed in part from the fact that one felt the man was fundamentally sympathetic. Anyone who has interviewed him will confirm this: in interviews, he liked to make people laugh; it was never complicated, never “formatted”.
Born in 1950 in Alma, in the region then known as Lac-Saint-Jean, Michel Côté was not destined for an acting career. On the contrary, despite his modest origins, he can enroll in the classical course, the only way to access the so-called “liberal” professions. At the time, he devoted himself to the theater as an amateur.
However, the taste of the boards ends up prevailing, and he enters the National School of Theater. During his formative years, he was often given the roles of father and old man, which he attributed to his voice, which he found unusual.
Among his first feats of arms on the small screen, we will mention the situation comedy Tit for tat (1976-1982), on which he met his future spouse, actress Véronique Le Flaguais.
From top to top
His first real main role, he created it himself, in 1979, in brew (written by Claude Meunier, Jean-Pierre Plante, Francine Ruel, and Louis Saia), where he replies to his friends Marc Messier and Marcel Gauthier. Set in a Quebec tavern just before women were admitted there, the play was a success that was as phenomenal as it was lasting. Some 3,322 performances and a Guinness record for longevity later, the three actors and authors bow out in 2017, after 38 years.
Her film career began somewhat by chance, after Guy L’Écuyer (The happy life of Leopold Z), with whom he was playing at the theatre, suggested that he contact the filmmaker André Forcier, who was then preparing a new film. In an interview with Elephant: memory of Quebec cinema, Michel Côté confides in 2020 on this subject: “I did not know Forcier. We went to the tavern, we took a brush, and it was my audition. »
Released in 1983, In the moonlight, in which Michel Côté plays an albino night owl, is one of the filmmaker’s most singular and poetic films. In the same interview, the actor continues: “It’s a film that I love […] Forcier is our own Fellini. »
Filmmaker and actor would meet again years later on the equally whimsical Wyoming wind, in 1994. In the meantime, Michel Côté had one of his biggest successes in cinema: Cruising Barby Robert Ménard, published in 1989. Despite certain dated elements, this satirical farce gives us a lesson in acting from the actor, who composes four contrasting men.
To colleague Odile Tremblay, he explained when the sequel was released in 2008: “When we wrote brew, we thought we were approaching the end of a macho era… Wrong! We wanted to give a boost to the male sex in both Cruising Bar Also. My characters are archetypes. »
Also in 1989, Michel Côté was one of the headliners of the feature film In the belly of the dragon, science fiction mixed with humor concocted by Yves Simoneau. In 1995, the thriller Blacklistby a newcomer named Jean-Marc Vallée, works very well and allows the actor, who passes from the role of good guy to that of bad guy during the plot, to recall how much the dramatic register suits him GOOD.
Then, it is the triumph on the small screen, where, in the series Omertaby Luc Dionne, he amazed between 1996 and 1999 in the role of the investigator Gauthier, mafia breaker.
When he returns to the cinema, the public follows him, both in the horror film On the doorstep (2003), by Éric Tessier, based on the novel by Patrick Senécal, only in the suspense production The last tunnel (2004), by Érik Canuel, on the life of criminal Marcel Talon.
The CRAZY triumph
Already enjoying, and for a long time, enormous popularity, Michel Côté further increased his popularity in 2005 when, under the direction of yesterday’s accomplice Jean-Marc Vallée, he triumphed in CRAZY Family chronicle dealing in particular with the stormy relationship between a conservative father and his gay son in Quebec in the 1970s, CRAZY raises more than five million dollars in theaters. As for Michel Côté, he received the interpretation prize at Iris (then Jutra) and Canadian Screens (then Genie).
Considering how much he played fathers at the time when he would have preferred to be entrusted with the roles of young first, it is a beautiful irony that this moving score of macho patriarch which softens later turns out to be his most unforgettable composition. . Basically, he had started rehearsing very early.
In 2009, From father to cop, where he embodies a completely different kind of father, but who also gives his offspring a hard time (defended by Louis-José Houde), in turn explodes the box office. The film will be entitled to a sequel. Released in 2010, Stuck between heaven and earth, based on the life and exploits of Commander Piché, is worth another success, and other prizes, to Michel Côté. In the film, his son Maxime Le Flaguais plays him younger.
In 2017, Québec Cinéma salutes his entire career. In the interview conducted by Éléphant, he concludes: “I had fun. I have always defended my characters. I love my characters. »
U.S. too. To qualify his long and fruitful career, let us quote Michel Côté himself, or finally, one of his characters in brew: ” It is very impressive. It’s of all beauty. »