Monique Mercure

Monique Mercure grew up in Montréal and obtained a BA in Music from Montréal’s Vincent d’Indy Advanced School of Music, where she studied cello and singing. She moved to France to study under the famous mime and movement teacher, Jacques Lecoq, and took dramatic art lessons at Théâtre National Populaire and l’École Dullin. Returning to Canada, she continued her studies in English, working three years at the Montréal Drama Studio, a branch of the Actors’ Studio. Working both in French and in English, Monique Mercure has appeared in more than 30 films including such classics as Claude Jutra’s Mon oncle Antoine and Jean Beaudin’s J.A. Martin photographe for which she won a Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival and at the Canadian Film Awards in 1977. She won a Genie Award in 1992 for her role as Fadela in The Naked Lunch. Her role in Conquest also brought a Genie for best supporting actress in 1999. Her stage credits are many. She was in Les belles-soeurs by Michel Tremblay, Night of the Iquana in Atlanta, and performed, over the years, the parts of three characters of different ages in Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera, plus roles in plays by Strindberg, Tennessee Williams, Genet and Shakespeare. She was the General Director of Montréal’s National Theatre School from 1991 to 2000. One of Canada’s most distinguished actresses, Monique Mercure was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1979 and was promoted to Companion in 1993. In 2006, she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.