Singer and host Serge Laprade died Wednesday evening from cancer. A huge television star from the 1960s, he was one of the personalities who shaped the beginnings of Quebec stardom. He was 83 years old.
Serge Laprade made himself known in the middle of the yé-yé period, at the time of Youth todaywith romantic ballads, like Capri is over, a cover by French singer Hervé Villard. With his advantageous physique, he quickly rose to the rank of sex symbol, like Michel Louvain, Pierre Lalonde and Donald Lautrec.
Then, in 1970, he surprised by playing alongside Danielle Ouimet in The initiationan erotic film by Denis Héroux which followed the very controversial Valerie. “He took a huge risk in accepting the role. He was a huge popular star and I was very controversial because of Valerie. But we had so much fun on set. We laughed so much. If people knew all the moves we did, they would find that there was nothing erotic in this film,” Danielle Ouimet jokes.
The host and actress is mourning a friend today. She will remember “a great man”, generous and easy to approach. Within the Quebec showbiz community, Serge Laprade enjoyed an excellent reputation, she assures.
The King of Four Seasons
In the 1970s, he was the host of the very popular game show The line work on Radio-Canada. Then, in the 1980s, he hosted with Michèle Richard Garden Party on the airwaves of the young Télévision Quatre-Saisons (TQS). Their collaboration ends abruptly when an argument breaks out between the two co-hosts. Michèle Richard does not accept that the names of her sponsors do not appear first in the credits. During a press conference that will go down in history, she accuses Serge Laprade of being a “thin fox” and of having tried to “morally destroy” her. It was during this famous press briefing that the diva exclaimed: “I am not a servant at Quatre-Saisons, I am the queen of Quatre-Saisons. I was ! The queen is dead, long live the queen. »
The two stars would reconcile years later during the show The return of our idolsin which Serge Laprade participated in 2016.
Extroverted in front of the camera, Serge Laprade was also a reserved and discreet man, particularly when it came to his private life. Like Michel Louvain, he led his career while carefully avoiding publicly revealing his homosexuality. The general public only learned about it last October during her marriage to her partner of the last 50 years, Daniel Arsenault.
“You have to know that it was a different time. Michael [Louvain] and he were charming singers. Their female audience would not have followed them if they had made their coming out. Even if everyone in the industry knew it, they would have been banned from TV. They would have been treated like depraved people. Morals have changed today, and fortunately,” underlines Danielle Ouimet.
Politicized man
Danielle Ouimet describes Serge Laprade as a very intelligent, very cultured person, something that most people did not suspect, who associated him with lightness because of his image as a variety host. An observation shared by Gilles Proulx, who worked with him while he hosted on the CKLM station.
“He was hired in the early 1970s to be the boss of CKLM, which was experiencing difficulties. At first, we laughed at him. We looked down on him. We wondered what a variety singer could possibly know about the radio. But ultimately, he managed to change the programming to uplift the station. He was a true gentleman. I never heard him speak ill of anyone,” recalls the polemicist.
Gilles Proulx, an early sovereignist, remembers having heated political conversations with Serge Laprade, a federalist, who also stood out in the very nationalist world of Quebec show business at the time. Serge Laprade, who had studied political science at the University of Montreal before achieving fame, even wore the colors of the Liberal Party of Canada in the riding of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve during the 1988 federal elections. He was defeated by the progressive conservative candidate.
“He wasn’t a star who knew nothing about politics, who ran because a party asked him. He had real political thoughts. It was a sincere commitment. Serge was a reforming federalist, the likes of which no longer exist. He admired Robert Bourassa. He truly believed that Canada could be changed by amending its constitution. He was surely disappointed…” added Gilles Proulx.