Albert Millaire (1935-2018)

2006 Lifetime Artistic Achievement (Stages (formerly Theatre))

Actor, director and artiste engagé, Albert Millaire has appeared on stage, on television and in films, working with equal ease in English and French. In a career spanning over five decades he has witnessed some of the great moments in the evolution of Canadian theatre, and his elegant, compelling presence and huge, rolling voice have etched him indelibly in the public imagination.

Born in Montreal in 1935, Mr. Millaire studied at the Collège de l'Assomption and the Conservatoire d'art dramatique du Québec. Immediately after his graduation in 1956, Gratien Gélinas and the Théâtre-Club cast him in roles that launched his remarkable career.

He has dazzled audiences across Canada, the United States and Europe with his performances in leading roles ranging from the classics (including Shakespeare) to contemporary works. Career highlights include four seasons acting and directing at Stratford in the 1990s; appearing in over a dozen Radio-Canada television dramas, including Pierre Perrault's Au cœur de la rose, Othello, Phèdre and Cyrano de Bergerac; and directing numerous operas, plays and musicals. He is the former associate artistic director of the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde and former artistic director of the Théâtre populaire de Québec.

Briefly sidelined by cancer (which he vanquished), he returned to the stage in 2001 in Howard Baker's (Uncle) Vanya, directed by Serge Denoncourt, winning the Masque for Best Supporting Actor—an award he received a second time for his 2004 performance in Oreste: The Reality Show by Luce Pelletier and Serge Denoncourt.

Besides his busy performing career, he has been active with numerous cultural organizations: among others, he is the former Chair of the Académie québécoise du théâtre and of the Canadian Council on the Status of the Artist.

Still irrepressibly energetic at age 71, he appeared most recently in Jeff Baron's Visites à Monsieur Green, produced by Jean-Bernard Hébert.

Albert Millaire was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1989, elevated to Companion in 1991. He is a Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Québec (1995) and a recipient of the Prix Victor-Morin awarded by the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste (1982).