Pierre Lebeau

Lebeau, Pierre

Pierre Lebeau, actor (b at Montréal 22 July 1954). Pierre Lebeau graduated from the National Theatre School in 1975. He played in various productions, notably Roland Lepage's Le Temps d'une vie, directed by André Pagé, presented at the Festival d'Avignon in 1977. In the 1980s, he wrote for summer theatre (Bonne nuit M. Gingras, Théâtre des Voyagements) and for the magazine le Croc and various comic programs (Pop Citrouille, Les Lundis des Ha! Ha!, Samedi de rire).

In 1990, Pierre Lebeau returned to the stage with a triple success at Théâtre UBU: first, repeats of Oulipo Show and Merz Opéra, on tour, then Cantate grise by Samuel Beckett. This was the beginning of a productive collaboration with Denis Marleau, whom the actor served admirably in various "style exercises." Then followed Les Ubs (1991) adapted from Alfred Jarry; Luna Park (1992), using scenes from Russian authors; Roberto Zucco (1993) by Bernard-Marie Koltès; Georg Büchner's Woyzeck (Théâtre national de Belgique, 1994); Thomas Bernhard's Maîtres anciens (1995); Frank Wedekind's Lulu (Théâtre du Nouveau Monde/UBU, 1996); and Quelqu'un va venir (National Arts Centre, 2002) by Jon Foss. With these shows he would make European tours, and he returned to Avignon with Maîtres anciens in 1996.

Pierre Lebeau soon became a key figure on the Québécoise theatre scene. His imposing presence and deep voice made him a rare theatre natural, able to play roles in widely diverse styles. He could portray a virile energetic Mafia character in Matroni et moi (Groupement Forestier du Théâtre, 1995) as well as he did the tormented lover Cyrano de Bergerac (TNM, 1997), Irving in Les oranges sont vertes (dir. Lorraine Pintal, TNM, 1998), Lennie, the naive giant in Of Mice and Men (dir. Pierre Collin, Théâtre Denise-Pelletier, 1999), or the bloody Macbeth (dir. Fernand Rainville, TNM, 2001). Lebeau's wonderful bass voice was shown to advantage in plays in which narratives were dominant, such as The Odyssey (dir. Dominic Champagne, TNM, 2000) and Novecento (dir. François Girard, Théâtre de Quat'Sous, 2001). François Girard directed him again in Kafka's The Trial (TNM, 2004). Lebeau acted in Oreille tigre et bruit (GFT, 1996), the play by Alexis Martin, and together they performed and directed Eric Bogosian's Sexe, drogue et rock & roll (Théâtre de Quat'sous, 1997).

Since 1995, Pierre Lebeau has also had a prolific career in film and on television. On the big screen he was seen for the first time in Le Siège de l'âme (1996) by Olivier Asselin, then in, among others, Les Boys I to IV (1997-2005) by Louis Saïa, Paul Tana's La Déroute (1998), Jean-Phillippe Duval's Matroni et moi (1999), and Séraphin, un homme et son péché (2002; prix Jutra, best actor) by Charles Binamé. He also appeared in Erik Canuel's bilingual film Bon Cop, Bad Cop (2006). On the small screen he brought to life roles such as Inspector Jean-Marie Dufour in Fortier, which garnered him a Métrostar fan favourite award in 2004, and the hotelkeeper Albert Lauzier in Chambre no 13 (2006). He reprised the role of Meo in Les Boys in a 2007 television series by the same name.