La Presse
By Mario Girard
December 19, 2021
Comedian Gérard Poirier died on the night from Saturday to Sunday, his daughter, Anne-Marie Poirier, confirmed to La Presse.
The 91-year-old actor had suffered from Alzheimer's for several years. Last August, he was transferred to CHSLD Pierre-Joseph Triest. His condition had worsened over the past few weeks.
In more than 60 years of career, Gérard Poirier has embodied hundreds of characters in theater, television and cinema. Among the multitude of roles, many will remember the touching Tancrède in Le parc des Braves and the notary Cyprien Fournier in Le temps d'une paix , a story by Pierre Gauvreau on rural Quebec between the First and Second World Wars.
The actress Marie Tifo worked alongside him in the series Le parc des Braves. “Gérard was the nobility. […] Playing with him was always a precious moment. I keep in my heart forever, "commented M me Tifo The Canadian Press.
She remembers a man "intelligent", "very funny", "an incredible deadpan". Mr. Poirier had a "very large imprint on a whole generation of actors", underlined Ms. Tifo, for whom he was a source of inspiration.
Mr. Poirier was born in Montreal in 1930. Holder of a bachelor's degree in pedagogy from the École normale, he quickly abandoned teaching in 1955. At that time, he set up an amateur theater company, the Company des Sept, in which the actress Lucille Papineau will appear.
It is the latter that will allow him to enter Radio-Canada, whose decision-makers he won over from his very first hearing. Impressed by his diction and his talent, the directors therefore strongly recommended him to all directors.
In addition to multiplying roles in radio and teletheat series, he was closely involved in the growth of the Théâtre du Rideau vert. He also made his mark at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde (TNM) and in Jean Duceppe's company. He has directed and signed some pieces of his own.
“Gérard Poirier was a man of all eras. Discreet for a few years, his memory will nonetheless remain indelible, ”commented playwright Michel Marc Bouchard on his Facebook page, who had worked with the deceased for two plays at the TNM, Le voyage du corononnement and Les manuscripts du Déluge .
Coming from classical theater, he played alongside Jean Duceppe, Françoise Faucher, Jacques Godin and Janine Sutto, being praised for his presence and his naturalness.
A great lover of the stage and the French language, Gérard Poirier admitted having experienced professional difficulties with the advent of joual on television in the 1970s.
“A curious phenomenon, I was then labeled as a French actor and I was temporarily removed from theatrical life. For six or seven years, I didn't do anything on TV at all. I continued to play in the theater, but that was not enough to earn a living, ”he told Le Devoir newspaper in 2002.
Mr. Poirier then taught drama for a few years to students of the Conservatoire de musique et d'art dramatique du Québec, and it is thanks to these young people, he said, that he succeeded in understanding what was happening in Quebec.
Gérard Poirier is one of those actors who have had the chance to have a long and busy career. Already in 1995, when he had been practicing the profession for four decades, he was aware of his good fortune.
“I discovered the immense pleasure of saying no and only accepting what really gives me pleasure, now free from all anxiety and only animated by the pleasure of doing this job. This is a luxury, "he had then acknowledged in an interview with Sun.
He also distinguished himself in the cinema, notably in the skin of the priest Folbèche in Les Plouffe by Gilles Carle (1981). However, he has often commented that he was not spoiled on this side and that he would have liked to play more on the big screen.
In 2013, Mr. Poirier still got a taste of the Oscar race, thanks to the short film Henry, by Yan England, in which he played the title role of a man with Alzheimer's.
More recently still, he played the role of Clermont Geoffrion in the series Mémoires vives and that of Mathias Fréchette in the soap opera L'auberge du chien noir, both broadcast on Radio-Canada.
He also won two Gemini awards during his career, in 1988 for his role in Le parc des Braves and in 2002 for his participation in My best enemy.
POIRIER, Gérard
Born: 2/4/1930, Montréal, Quebec, Canada
Died: 12/19/2021, Montréal, Quebec, Canada
Gérard Poirier’s western – actor:
Tomahawk (TV) – 1967 (Dubois)
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