Monique Mercure

{{Infobox person

| name = Monique Mercure

| honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|CC|GOQ|size=100%}}

| image = Cropped_Photo_of_Monique_Mercure.jpg

| caption =

| birth_name = Marie Lise Monique Émond

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1930|11|14|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Montreal, Quebec, Canada

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2020|5|16|1930|11|14|df=y}}

| death_place = Montreal, Quebec, Canada

| education = Cégep de Saint-Laurent

| occupation = Actress

| years_active = 1947–2020

| spouse = {{Marriage|Pierre Mercure|1949|1958|end=divorced}}

| children = 3

}}

Marie Lise Monique Émond {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|CC|GOQ|size=100%}} (14 November 1930{{spnd}}16 May 2020), better known as Monique Mercure ({{IPA|fr|mɔ.nik mɛʁ.kyʁ|}}), was a Canadian stage and screen actress.{{cite web|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/m/article/monique-mercure/|title=Monique Mercure|website=The Canadian Encyclopedia|access-date=26 June 2018|archive-date=27 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627005210/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/m/article/monique-mercure/|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Mercure%2C%20Monique|title=Monique Mercure|website=Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia|access-date=26 June 2018}} She was one of the country's great actors of the classical and modern repertory. In 1977, Mercure won a Cannes Film Festival Award and a Canadian Film Award for her performance in the drama film J.A. Martin Photographer.

Early life and education

Mercure was born Marie Lise Monique Émond in Montreal, Quebec, the daughter of Eugene and Yvonne (née Williams) Emond. Her parents enrolled her as a young child in diction, tap dancing, musical theory and cello classes. She married composer Pierre Mercure in 1949. The couple had three children;[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3428000124.html Profile], encyclopedia.com; accessed 27 August 2015. their daughter Michèle also worked as an actress, most notably in the films Kid Sentiment and A Scream from Silence (Mourir à tue-tête).{{cite web|title=Michèle Mercure|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba381b0fd|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804024425/https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba381b0fd|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 August 2020|access-date=17 May 2020|publisher=British Film Institute}}

Mercure studied music and dance before studying theatre at St. Lawrence College, Ontario. In 1960 she held her first major role in replacing an actress in The Threepenny Opera.

Awards

At the 1977 Cannes Film Festival Mercure won the award for Best Actress for the film J.A. Martin Photographer.{{cite web|url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/2015/year/1977.html|title=Festival de Cannes: J.A. Martin Photographer|access-date=10 May 2009|work=festival-cannes.com}} She won the Canadian Film Award for Best Actress at the 28th Canadian Film Awards for the same film that same year.{{cite news|title=Tributes pour in for award-winning Quebec actress Monique Mercure|url=https://www.prpeak.com/tributes-pour-in-for-award-winning-quebec-actress-monique-mercure-1.24136707|date=17 May 2020|access-date=17 May 2020|newspaper=Powell River Peak|agency=The Canadian Press|archive-date=23 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523001321/https://www.prpeak.com/tributes-pour-in-for-award-winning-quebec-actress-monique-mercure-1.24136707|url-status=dead}}

In 1978, she received a Canadian Film Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the 29th Canadian Film Awards for The Third Walker."Four films nominated for Etrogs". The Globe and Mail, 24 August 1978.

Mercure was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1977. She was subsequently promoted to Companion seventeen years later in 1994.{{cite news|title=Montreal's Monique Mercure dies at 89 after 60-year acting career|url=https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreals-monique-mercure-dies-at-89-after-60-year-acting-career/|date=17 May 2020|access-date=17 May 2020|first=Susan|last=Schwartz|newspaper=Montreal Gazette}}

At the 4th Genie Awards in 1983, Mercure was a Best Actress nominee for Beyond Forty (La Quarantaine). She won a Genie Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1992 for her role as Fadela in Naked Lunch. In 1999, she won another Best Supporting Actress Genie for her role as Grace Gallagher in Conquest.[http://biographie.radio-canada.ca/personnalites/monique-mercure Biography] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150829012937/http://biographie.radio-canada.ca/personnalites/monique-mercure |date=29 August 2015 }}, radio-canada.ca; accessed 27 August 2015.{{in lang|fr}}

Mercure received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement,{{cite web|title=Monique Mercure biography|url=http://ggpaa.ca/award-recipients/1993/mercure-monique.aspx|publisher=Governor General's Performing Arts Awards Foundation|access-date=27 August 2015}} the Prix Denise Pelletier, and the Prix Gascon Roux du Théâtre du Nouveau Monde.{{cite news|title=Le prix Gascon-Thomas à Monique Mercure|url=https://ici.radio-canada.ca/arts-spectacles/PlusArts/2008/10/23/001-monique-mercure-prix.asp|date=23 October 2008|access-date=17 May 2020|work=Radio Canada International|publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation}} {{in lang|fr}} The University of Toronto conferred an honorary doctorate on her in 1998. In 2006, she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.{{cite web|title=2006 New Fellow Citations|url=http://www.rsc.ca/files/media/newfellows/new_fellows_2006_citations.pdf|date=9 January 2007|access-date=17 May 2020|publisher=Royal Society of Canada|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718191706/http://www.rsc.ca/files/media/newfellows/new_fellows_2006_citations.pdf|archive-date=18 July 2011}}

Death

Mercure died on 16 May 2020, at a palliative-care centre in Outremont, Montreal. She was 89, and had been suffering from throat cancer. News of her death was first announced by her daughter Michèle,{{cite news|title=La comédienne Monique Mercure s'éteint à 89 ans|url=https://www.lapresse.ca/arts/202005/17/01-5273927-la-comedienne-monique-mercure-seteint-a-89-ans.php|date=17 May 2020|access-date=17 May 2020|first1=Stéphanie|last1=Morin|first2=Luc|last2=Boulanger|newspaper=La Presse|location=Montreal}} {{in lang|fr}} who was at her bedside.{{cite news|title=L'actrice Monique Mercure s'est éteinte|url=https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1703824/deces-actrice-monique-mercure-cinema|date=17 May 2020|first=Yannick|last=Donahue|access-date=17 May 2020|work=Radio Canada International|publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation}} {{in lang|fr}} Messages of condolence were conveyed by Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, Quebec premier François Legault, and Montreal mayor Valérie Plante. Trudeau praised Mercure for how she "helped promote Quebec cinema beyond our borders", adding that "her legacy will live on through her work".{{cite web |last1=Vlessing |first1=Etan |title=Monique Mercure, 1977 Palme d'Or Winner, Dies at 89 |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/monique-mercure-dead-palme-dor-winner-dies-at-89-1294967 |website=The Hollywood Reporter |date=18 May 2020 |language=en}}

Filmography

=Film=

class="wikitable" ! Year ! Title ! Role ! Notes
1963	À tout prendre	Barbara
1965	Mission of Fear (Astataïon, ou Le festin des morts)	Indian woman
1966	This Is No Time for Romance (Ça n'est pas le temps des romans)	Madeleine
1967	Waiting for Caroline	Yvette
1969	Don't Let the Angels Fall	Mrs. Pelletier
1970	Two Women in Gold (Deux femmes en or)	Fernande Turcot
1970	Love in a Four Letter World	Louise
1971	Finalement...
1971	Mon oncle Antoine	Alexandrine
1972	The Time of the Hunt (Le Temps d'une chasse)	Richard's wife
1972	Françoise Durocher, Waitress
1974	Once Upon a Time in the East (Il était une fois dans l'est)
1975	The Vultures (Les Vautours)	Yvette Laflamme
1975	For Better or For Worse (Pour le meilleur et pour le pire)	Loulou
1976	Let's Talk About Love (Parlez-nous d'amour)	Madame Jeannot
1976	The Absence (L'Absence)	Estelle
1977	J.A. Martin Photographer (J.A. Martin photographe)	Rose-Aimée Martin
1977	The Third Walker	Marie Blanchard
1978	The Song of Roland (Le Chanson de Roland)	Marie
1978	Christmas Lace
1979	Quintet	Redstone's Mate
1979	Stone Cold Dead	Dr. Bouvier
1980	Contrecoeur	Blanche Lavallée
1980	La cuisine rouge	The mother
1981	De jour en jour	Odette
1982	Odyssey of the Pacific	Aunt Elsa
1982	Beyond Forty (La Quarantaine)	Grosse Louise
1982	A Day in a Taxi (Une journée en taxi)	Passenger
1984	The Years of Dreams and Revolt (Les années de rêves)	Yvette Laflamme
1986	Qui a tiré sur nos histoires d'amour	Madeline
1989	In the Belly of the Dragon (Dans le ventre du dragon)	Mireille
1991	Montreal Stories (Montréal vu par...)	Dame Moufette	Segment "La Toile du temps"
1991	Naked Lunch	Fadela
1992	La fenêtre	Mother
1994	La fête des rois
1998	Conquest	Grace Gallagher
1998	The Red Violin	Madame Leroux
1999	When Justice Fails	Pauline Wesson
1999	Set Me Free (Emporte-moi)	Hanna's grandmother
2004	Geraldine's Fortune	Olive Larose
2004	Battle of the Brave (Nouvelle-France)	Hortense
2005	Saint Martyrs of the Damned (Saints-Martyrs-des-Damnés)	Malvina 1
2007	Twilight (La Brunante)	Madeleine
2009	The Master Key (Grande Ourse, la clé des possibles)	Centenarian
2011	Récits d'hyperinflation	Comtesse de Mompiédout
2011	The Girl in the White Coat	Mrs. Valinsky
2011	Human Beasts (Bêtes humaines)	Monique Messier
2015	Marche avec moi	Old lady in the garden
2017	It's the Heart That Dies Last (C'est le cœur qui meurt en dernier)	Pierrette