French-Canadian actor, Roy Dupuis, was born on April 21, 1963, in Québec's remote Abitibi region. He spent part of his youth in the small town of Kapuskasing in Northern Ontario. He has a younger brother, Rodrick, and an older sister, Roxanne.

As a seventh grader he excelled in hockey, track and field, basketball, and volleyball. That same year his family moved to Montréal.

Roy started out studying physics and was fascinated by science until he saw the movie Molière. The next day, he dropped physics for theatre. On a lark he replaced a friend at an enrollment audition for l'École nationale de théâtre du Canada (The National Theatre School of Canada) and was chosen out of two thousand applicants. Thus his career in the arts began.

Roy graduated from the National Theatre in 1986 and began working in film in 1988 after a successful career in theatre. His first feature films included the French-Canadian films "Les Enfants de la rue," "How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired" and "Jesus of Montréal."  His short film "Sortie 234" garnered an award at Montréal's Festival International du Nouveau Cinéma.

The turning point of Roy's career occurred when he was cast as Ovila Pronovost in the French-Canadian TV series "Les Filles de Caleb"(Emilie), for which he won Best Actor in the Cannes Audio/Video Festival. According to Roy "85% of the province of Quebec was watching every week . . . in one day everyoone knew me in Montreal."

In 1991, Roy starred as a gay hustler in the internationally acclaimed film "Being at Home With Claude," which was Canada's official selection at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. 

The following year, his work in "Cap Tourmente" earned him a 1993 Genie nomination for best interpretation in a lead role.  

He also starred in "Waiting for Michelangelo," "J'en Suis" and "Aire Libre," an international co-production in which he spoke both French and Spanish.

In 1995, Screamers marked his entry into mainstream U.S. cinema. His introduction to American television came with Million Dollar Babies, an American/Canadian co-produced mini-series about the Dionne Quintuplets.

In addition to winning the Fipa d'Or of the Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels (Cannes) for Emilie, 1991; Dupuis has won the Métrostar Award for best actor, 1991 and 1992; and the Rose d'Or for actor of the year, 1991.

Roy recently completed his 5th season starring as Michael in USA Network's La Femme Nikita. In 1999, Roy played Maurice Richard, French-Canada's legendary hockey champion. His role in this mini-series earned him a nomination for another Metrostar award.  He has said that eventually he would like to direct documentary films.

Roy lives outside Montréal in his 19th century farmhouse. He enjoys ice hockey, cross country skiing, skydiving, and other athletic pursuits. Roy has begun practicing the cello again which he played for years as a child.

 He enjoys traveling to unusual destinations, such as Turkey, Nepal, and Vietnam. Since completing the majority of the renovations on his farmhouse, Roy has become interested in sailing, even taking a five day navigation course.  In the summer of 1999 Roy sailed down the east coast of Canada and the USA. He would like to buy a sailboat and sail around the world.

When filming of "La Femme Nikita" ended in 2000, Roy said he 'mourned' the character of Michael while Royettes everywhere mourned the end of their  weekly dose of Roy and anxiously await news of his next project.

Awards

Roy's awards include 2 consecutive Metrostars (Best Actor at the Gala Metro Star in 1991 and 1992, the Gemeaux Award for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series form "Les Filles de Caleb" in 1992, and the Rose D'or, a popular Canadian vote for Actor of the Year in 1992.

 

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Roy Dupuis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

 

Roy Dupuis (born April 21, 1963) is a celebrated French-Canadian (Québécois) actor. Internationally, he is best-known so far for his role as Michael Samuelle in the television series La Femme Nikita (or Nikita) filmed in Toronto beginning in 1996 and first broadcast in the U.S., Canada, and other countries from 1997 to 2001 (still re-run throughout the world).

He spent a significant portion of his childhood (from early infancy until he was eleven years old) in Amos, which is in a region of Québec called Abitibi, before moving from there to Kapuskasing, Ontario, for the next three years, when he learned to speak English. His father (now deceased) was a traveling salesman for Canada Packers, a meat company (now part of Maple Leaf Foods). His mother, who is still living, was a piano teacher. He has a younger brother and an older sister. When he was fourteen, after his parents divorced, his mother moved the family to Sainte-Rose, Laval, Québec (in the greater Montréal area), where he finished high school. After high school, he studied acting in Montréal, at the National Theatre School of Canada/L'École nationale de théâtre du Canada, from which he was graduated in 1986.

While becoming an accomplished actor in Québec and well-known in some of the rest of Canada, Roy Dupuis performed in many theatre productions, movies, and television series. Among the stage roles that he has performed so far are: Luc in Michel-Marc Bouchard's Les muses orphelines (The Orphan Muses), directed by André Brassard in 1985; Roméo in a Québécois adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (Roméo et Juliette), directed by Guillermo de Andrea in 1989; and Jay in Jean-Marc Dalpé's Le Chien (The Dog), Adrien in Jeanne-Mance Delisle's Un Oiseau vivant dans la gueule (A Live Bird in Its Jaws), and Lee in a Québécois version of Sam Shepard's True West, all three productions directed by Brigitte Haentjens, in 1988, 1990, and 1994, respectively. Dupuis was introduced to the American public via U.S. television as Oliva Dionne in Million Dollar Babies (1994), followed by more large-screen appearances in films such as Bleeders (1995) and Screamers (1997). In 1997 he began appearing as Michael Samuelle in the television series La Femme Nikita, which is also known as Nikita and was based on the 1990 film by French director Luc Besson. Among his "tour-de-force" film performances are Yves in Being at Home with Claude (1991), his first major screen role, and Kevin Barlow in Manners of Dying (2004), one of his most recent ones.

Roy Dupuis lives southeast of Montréal, on 50 acres (200,000 m²) of land, in an 1840s farmhouse, which he bought several years ago and has restored and renovated. Sports in which he has participated include hockey, sky-diving, and golf. His hobbies include astronomy and physics (his interests in high school). He learned to play the cello as a boy and, at times, still plays, sometimes in dramatic roles. For the film Jack Paradise, he learned very precise jazz piano hand movements accompanying the actual piano playing (performed on the movie sound track by pianist James Gelfand, the composer of the original music). For the past few years, between film projects, he has been occupied with learning to sail; he owns a couple of sailboats, and he is custom-outfitting the larger aluminum-keeled vessel in preparation for extended ocean voyages.

Dupuis' most recently-completed full-length feature film (release date: 25 Nov. 2005) is "Maurice Richard," directed by Charles Binamé (Séraphin: Un homme et son péché), in which he stars as French-Canadian hockey icon Maurice "Rocket" Richard, who played for the Montréal Canadiens from 1942 to 1960 and whom he portrayed previously on Canadian television in 1997 and 1999. His own experience playing hockey and his ability to perform on the ice on authentic period hockey skates are especially useful for this film, in which several professional hockey players are also cast in supporting roles.

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Awards

Roy Dupuis has won various awards, including:

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Stage Performances

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Television Work (TV-ography)

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Filmography

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Civic and Philanthropic Activities

For well over a decade, Roy Dupuis has actively supported Fondation Mira/the Mira Foundation, a non-profit organization which provides and trains guide dogs and service dogs for the visually impaired and otherwise disabled. (For background and updated information, one may visit "About Mira: Stars At Mira" and related projects links on its web site.)

Roy Dupuis is also co-founder and vice president of Fondation Rivières/the Rivers Foundation, an organization whose mission is to protect the wild rivers of Québec and their natural and cultural habitats from small hydro-electric power dam projects and other environmental and economic threats and to encourage the development of alternative energy sources through education (For background and updated information, one may visit its web site.)

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Selected Unofficial Fan Websites Featuring Pertinent External Links

(Some information provided in this article comes from numerous newspaper and magazine articles and other material posted on these sites [as listed alphabetically]. Credits are provided there.)

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Related Sources

NOTE WELL: This article has been composed and edited by various contributors at various times. Some details presented here are still in the process of fact-checking and other verification by contributing editors, including some experienced researchers and scholars.

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