Rita Lafontaine

Rita Lafontaine (8 June 1939 – 4 April 2016) was a Canadian theatre, film, and television actor. Born in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. She has been described as the muse of playwright Michel Tremblay and director André Brassard. Her career spanned over fifty years and left an "indelible mark on Québec theatre, film and television".

Career In the 1960s, Lafontaine joined the Mouvement Contemporain and worked closely with playwright Michel Tremblay and director André Brassard. Gaëtan Charlebois from the Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia noted that the play "changed much of what was believed to be Quebec culture; language, the form of theatre, which plays should be done at which theatres, the displacing of the Old Guard."

In 1991, she won the Prix Guy-L'Écuyer for L'homme de rêve.

In 2010, Lafontaine assisted in establishing a certificate program in theatrical interpretation at l'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières.

Personal life and death Lafontaine married Jacques Dufour and together they had a daughter, Elsa Lessonini, who died of cancer in 2013.

Filmography

Honours and awards