Henri Poitras

Henri Poitras studied acting at the Conservatoire Lassalle with its founder Eugène Lassalle and his wife Louise Darcey. He began his acting career after serving in World War I. Along with Jeanne Demons, Antoinette Giroux, Raoul Lery and Lise Bonheur, he founded the acting company Jeanne-Emons. As a good singer and dancer, he received roles with the Société canadienne d’opérette and the Variétés lyriques, and he also took part in radio play productions like Rue Principale and Le Curé de village. A co-director of the Théâtre Impérial, he founded the Théâtre du Rire in 1950, which performed at the Monument-National in Montréal. An historic four-storey building that went up between 1891 and 1894, it served originally as a French-Canadian cultural centre and home to the administrative services of the St-Jean-Baptiste Association. Noted for its 1620-seat theatre, the National Theatre School acquired the building in 1971 for $350,000. One of his last roles was playing Pantaléon Veilleux in the television series Le petit monde du Père Gédéon. Poitras was married to the actress Lucie Plante. There is a street named for Henri Poitras in Laval, just north of Montréal.