Jean Hotte-Duceppe (25 October 1923 – 7 December 1990) was a Canadian stage and television actor from
Montreal
Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
,
Quebec
Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
.
Early life and education
Born on 25 October 1923 to a family of local shopkeepers in working-class
Montreal
Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
, Jean Duceppe came to the theatre with no formal training and was completely self-taught.
Career
Duceppe began performing at the Arcade, seven days a week. Between 1941 and 1947, he performed in 34 different plays.
He appeared in over 160 productions on radio, on television, and in films.
He hosted radio shows and collaborated on numerous radio and TV series, including the first one broadcast on 3 August 1952, on
SRC, ''Le Seigneur de Brinqueville''. From 1953 to 1959, he started in ''
La famille Plouffe
''La famille Plouffe'' was a Canadian television drama, more specifically a téléroman, about a Quebec City family that first aired in the French language on Société Radio-Canada in 1953. The show was created to fill a void in francophone tel ...
''.
[
Some of his greatest successes included his portrayals of Willy Loman in ''La Mort d'un commis-voyageur'' ('']Death of a Salesman
''Death of a Salesman'' is a 1949 stage play written by the American playwright Arthur Miller. The play premiered on Broadway in February 1949, running for 742 performances. It is a two-act tragedy set in late 1940s Brooklyn told through a ...
'') and Premier Maurice Duplessis
Maurice Le Noblet Duplessis, (; April 20, 1890 – September 7, 1959) byname "Le Chef" (, "The Boss"), was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 16th premier of Quebec. A Conservatism in Canada, conservative, Quebec nationalism, ...
in ''Charbonneau et le chef'' (''Charbonneau and the Chief'').[
In 1973, he founded the ''Compagnie de théâtre Jean Duceppe'' ( Jean-Duceppe Company).
]
Views
Duceppe supported the "yes" option in the first Quebec sovereignty referendum in 1980. One of his sons is Canadian politician Gilles Duceppe, a supporter of the independence of Quebec from Canada and a former leader of the Bloc Québécois
The Bloc Québécois (, , BQ) is a centre-left politics, centre-left and list of federal political parties in Canada, federal political party in Canada devoted to Quebec nationalism, Quebecois nationalism, social democracy, and the promotion o ...
.
Recognition
Duceppe received numerous awards and honours throughout his career.
In 1957, he was named Performer of the Year.[
In 1968, he received the Prix Victor-Morin from the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste.][
In 1971, he won an ]Etrog
Etrog (, plural: ; Ashkenazi Hebrew: , plural: ) is the yellow citron (''Citrus medica'') used by Jews during the weeklong holiday of Sukkot as one of the four species. Together with the ''lulav'', ''hadass'', and ''Aravah (Sukkot), aravah'', th ...
from the Canadian Film Awards for Best Performance By Lead Actor for his role in the film '' Mon oncle Antoine''.
In 1978, for his outstanding contribution to theatre, he was awarded the Molson Prize
The Thomas Henry Pentland Molson Prize for the Arts is awarded by the Canada Council, Canada Council for the Arts. Two prizes are awarded annually to distinguished individuals. One prize is awarded in the arts, one in the social sciences and human ...
from the Canada Council
The Canada Council for the Arts (), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporations of Canada, Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It is Canada's public arts funder, with a mandate to ...
.[
In 1979, he won the Prix Marc-Lescarbot as well as the Prix Denise-Pelletier, awarded by the Minister of Cultural Affairs of the ]Government of Quebec
The Government of Quebec (, ) is the body responsible for the administration of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. The term is typically used to refer to the executive of the day (i.e. Minister of the Crown, mini ...
.[
In 1985, he was made a Knight of the ]National Order of Quebec
The National Order of Quebec ( French: ), also known as the Order of Quebec, is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of Quebec. Instituted in 1984 when Lieutenant Governor Jean-Pierre Côté granted royal assent to the (Natio ...
.[
In 1987, he became an inductee of the Academy of Great Montrealers in the Cultural category.][
In 2016, he was made a Commander of the Order of Montreal.][
]
Death
He died at the age of 67 on 7 December 1990.
Notes
References
External links
The Canadian Encyclopedia entry for Jean Duceppe
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duceppe, Jean
1923 births
1990 deaths
20th-century Canadian male actors
Best Actor Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners
Canadian male radio actors
Canadian male stage actors
Canadian male television actors
Knights of the National Order of Quebec
Male actors from Montreal
New Democratic Party people
Prix Denise-Pelletier winners
Quebec sovereigntists