Catherine Bégin (22 April 1939 – 29 December 2013)
was a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
actress.
Biography
Catherine Bégin's parents were
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
sound engineer Lucien Bégin (1895–1964) and Belgian accountant Marie-Louise Vanhavre (or Van Havre) (1906–1967), who married in 1935. Catherine was born in
Bois-Colombes
Bois-Colombes () is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. In 2017, it had a population of 28,239. International companies such as Colgate-Palmolive, IBM and Aviva have their French head ...
, France in 1939. They were in Paris when World War II was declared and fled to Périgueux, then Lisbon, arriving in Montreal in August 1941.
Bégin graduated from the
Montreal Conservatory of Dramatic Art in 1959.
She portrayed more than a hundred roles on the stage,
frequently including the classical (Euripides, Corneille, Racine, Molière, Musset, Marivaux, Beaumarchais, Chekhov), contemporary (Cocteau, Arrabal, Bernhardt), and
Québécoise repertoires (
Marcel Dubé,
Réjean Ducharme
Réjean Ducharme (August 12, 1941 – August 21, 2017) was a Québécois novelist and playwright who resided in Montreal. He was known for his reclusive personality and did not appear at any public functions since his first successful book was ...
,
, ,
Évelyne de la Chenelière). Her interpretations of Madame Rosa (''La vie devant soi''), Hécube (''Les Troyennes''), and La Mé (''Jouliks'') won her a for Best Female Performance in a Supporting Role.
She has been seen in about 30
Société Radio-Canada
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...
teleplays and in about 20
téléroman
A téléroman ("telenovel" or ''annual drama series'') is a genre of French-language drama television series in Canada, similar to a soap opera or a Spanish language telenovela. In France, the ''téléroman'' genre is known as feuilleton télév ...
s, including ', ', ', ', ', ', and ''
Virginie
''Virginie'' was a French-language Canadian television series that aired Monday through Thursday on Radio-Canada (the French-language CBC television network). It debuted in 1996. The show examined the public and private lives of teachers, stud ...
''.
In the cinema, Bégin acted under the direction of
Jean-Claude Lord
Jean-Claude Lord (6 June 1943 – 15 January 2022) was a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He was one of the most commercial of the Québécois directors in the 1970s, aiming his feature films at a mass audience and dealing with political ...
(''Délivrez-nous du mal'', ''Panique''),
Denys Arcand
Georges-Henri Denys Arcand (; born June 25, 1941) is a French Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. His film ''The Barbarian Invasions'' won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2004. His films have also been nominated three f ...
(''Stardom''),
Bernard Émond
Bernard Émond (born 1951) is a Canadian director, screenwriter, novelist and essayist working in the French-language. He studied anthropology at university and lived for several years in the Canadian north where he worked for the Inuit Broadcast ...
(''Contre toute espérance''), Ghyslaine Côté (''Le Secret de ma mère'') and
Denis Côté
Denis Côté (born November 16, 1973) is an independent filmmaker and producer living in Quebec, of Brayon origin. His experimental films have been shown at major film festivals around the world.
Life and career
Côté was born in Perth-Andover ...
(''Elle veut le chaos'').
She embodied the disturbing character of Mademoiselle in
Pascal Laugier
Pascal Laugier (; born 16 October 1971) is a French screenwriter and film director.
Career
Laugier is a former assistant to director Christophe Gans, having directed the "making-of" documentary about Gans' 2001 film, ''Brotherhood of the Wolf' ...
's genre film ''
Martyrs
A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external ...
''. One of her last performances in the cinema was Mamy Rose, under the direction of
Xavier Dolan
Xavier Dolan-Tadros (; born 20 March 1989) is a Canadian filmmaker, actor and costume designer. He began his career as a child actor in commercials before directing several arthouse feature films. He first received international acclaim in 2 ...
in ''
Laurence Anyways
''Laurence Anyways'' is a 2012 Canadian romantic drama film written, directed and edited by Xavier Dolan. The film competed in the ''Un Certain Regard'' section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival where Suzanne Clément won the Un Certain Regard Aw ...
''.
As a theater instructor at
Collège Lionel-Groulx
Collège Lionel-Groulx is a general and vocational college (CEGEP) located in Sainte-Thérèse, Quebec, Canada. The college has about 5,200 full-time students and 2,000 continuing education students.
History
The college traces its origins to ...
for over 20 years,
she helped train a generation of young actors.
Involved in the cause of a better recognition of the importance of the arts, and the improvement of the status of artists and creators in Quebec, Bégin acted as spokesperson for the World Coalition of Arts and Cultural Affairs (1986–1990). In particular, she participated in the works of the boards of directors of the
Union des artistes
The Union des artistes (UDA; literally "Union of Artists") is a Quebec-based labour organization representing stage, television, radio, and film performers in French-language media in Canada. (The English-language labour organization is the Allian ...
(1976–1980) and the Association des directeurs de théâtre (1980–1984).
She chaired the Quebec Council of Theatre (1986–1990)
and the (1999–2003).
Bégin passed away in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
in 2013. Her archival
fonds
In archival science, a fonds is a group of documents that share the same origin and that have occurred naturally as an outgrowth of the daily workings of an agency, individual, or organization. An example of a fonds could be the writings of a poe ...
(P964) are housed in the
Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
The Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec ( 'National Library and Archives of Quebec') or BAnQ is a Quebec government agency which manages the province's legal deposit system, national archives, and national library. Located at the G ...
.
Performances
Theatre
Film and television
Awards and distinctions
*1998 –
*2005 – for best female performance in a supporting role, ''Jouliks''
*2014 –
Prix Gémeaux
The Prix Gémeaux () or Gémeaux Awards honour achievements in Canadian television and digital media that is broadcast in French. It has been sponsored by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television since 1987. Introduced as a French-language equ ...
(posthumous) for Female Interpretation: Digital Media – Fiction for ''Michaëlle en sacrament''
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Begin, Catherine
1939 births
2013 deaths
People from Bois-Colombes
French emigrants to Quebec
French Quebecers
Actresses from Montreal