Jaclyn Michelle Linetsky (January 8, 1986 – September 8, 2003) was a Canadian actress who played Megan O'Connor on '' 15/Love'' and the

title character The title character in a narrative work is one who is named or referred to in the title of the work. In a performed work such as a play or film, the performer who plays the title character is said to have the title role of the piece. The title of ...

on ''

Caillou ''Caillou'' () is a Canadian educational children's television series which aired on Teletoon (both English and French versions), with its first episode airing on the former channel on September 15, 1997; it later moved to Treehouse TV, with i ...

'' during the show's second and third seasons, replacing the character's original voice actor,

Bryn McAuley Bryn McAuley (born June 7, 1989) is a Canadian actress. She is best known for playing Caillou on the television series of the same name, Anne Shirley on '' Anne of Green Gables: The Animated Series'', Gina Lash in ''Angela Anaconda'', Skye Blue ...

, who voice the character in the first season of the show. After Linetsky's death in 2003,

Annie Bovaird Lindsay Anne Bovaird (born February 28, 1992) is a Canadian actress best known for voicing the title character in the animated TV series ''Caillou'', after the previous voice actress Jaclyn Linetsky died in a car crash. She also voiced Elsa in '' ...

took Linetsky's place as Caillou's voice actor.

Early life

Jaclyn Michelle Linetsky was born on January 8, 1986, at the

Jewish General Hospital The Jewish General Hospital (JGH; french: Hôpital général juif), known officially as the Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital (french: Hôpital général juif Sir Mortimer B. Davis) since 1978, is an acute-care teaching hospital in M ...

to religious Jewish parents, Terry (née Weiner) and Larry Linetsky. She was the youngest of three children and had two older siblings, Kelly and Derek. She was of Russian-Jewish descent. Linetsky was raised in

Dollard-des-Ormeaux Dollard-des-Ormeaux (; commonly referred to as D.D.O. or simply Dollard) is a predominantly English-speaking suburb of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is located on the Island of Montreal. The town was named after French martyr Adam ...

, then moved to

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

, a suburb in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

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 ...

. She graduated from

St. George's School of Montreal St. George's School of Montreal is an independent school in Montreal, Quebec, Canada founded in 1930. It consists of two campuses: the elementary school campus in Westmount, Quebec, and the high school campus in Montreal just 15 minutes' walk fro ...

in 2003 where she made a speech at the graduation ceremony.

Career

Linetsky began acting at age eight, performing in theatre productions. Her first major gig was in a milk radio advertisement at age 10. Linetsky provided the voice of the title character in the animated series ''

'' from 2000 until her death in 2003. She also provided the voices for Bitzi in the animated series ''

Daft Planet Daft Planet is a Canadian cartoon, first airing on Teletoon. The first episode ran on September 2, 2002 and the show continued to run for almost two years even though only 13 episodes were produced. Its main claim to fame is that it was the first c ...

'' (2002); Lori Mackney in the second season of ''

What's with Andy? ''What's with Andy?'' (''Sacré Andy !'' in French) is an animated children's television series loosely based on the semi-autobiographical ''Just!'' book series by Australian author Andy Griffiths. The animated series was primarily produced by Can ...

'' (2003–2004) replacing US voice actress

Colleen O'Shaughnessey Colleen Ann O'Shaughnessey (born September 15, 1971) is an American voice actress. She is best known as the voice of Sora Takenouchi in the ''Digimon'' anime, Jazz Fenton in ''Danny Phantom'', Wasp in '' The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes' ...

; Kit on ''Kit & Kaboodle'', Shei-Hu, his cousin Shei-He, and a large group of other mice on ''

Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat ''Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat'', or simply ''Sagwa'', is a children's animated television series based on the children's book of the same name by Amy Tan which aired on PBS Kids, co-produced by Canada-based animation studio CinéGroupe and ' ...

''; Yukari on ''

Tommy & Oscar ''Tommy & Oscar'' ( it, Tommy e Oscar) is an Italian animated television series co-created by Max Alessandrini and Iginio Straffi, with graphic creation by Pietro Dichiara and Carlo Rambaldi. It was the first major project from Rainbow, which late ...

''; Brenda on ''

Rotten Ralph ''Rotten Ralph'' is a series of children's picture books written by Jack Gantos and illustrated by Nicole Rubel. About twenty ''Rotten Ralph'' books have been published from 1976 to 2011. ''Rotten Ralph'' is also the first book in the series, ...

'' and Meg in ''

Mega Babies ''Mega Babies'' is an animated children's television series created by the Tremblay brothers, Christian and Yvon, who previously had made the Hanna-Barbera show '' SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron''. It is produced by CinéGroupe and Landmark Enter ...

''. Other roles in voice acting included, ''

The Kids from Room 402 ''The Kids from Room 402'' is an animated series produced by CinéGroupe and Saban Entertainment that premiered on October 9, 1999 on the Fox Family Channel in the USA, and on August 29, 2000 on Teletoon in Canada. It consists of 52 half-hour epi ...

'', ''

Wunschpunsch ''Wunschpunsch'' (french: Wounchpounch, german: Der Wunschpunsch) is a children's animated fantasy television series, co-produced by Saban International Paris, CinéGroupe and TF1, with the participation of Ventura Film Distributors B.V. and A ...

'', ''

The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures ''The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures'' is an animated television series co-produced by CINAR Films and France Animation, produced in association with Ravensburger Film & TV, WIC Entertainment, Reader's Digest (Season 1), TVOntario ...

'', ''

Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings ''Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings'' is a British children's animated series about the adventures of a young boy named Simon, who has a magic blackboard. Things that Simon draws on the chalkboard become real in the Land of Chalk Drawings, whic ...

'', ''Jim Button'' and video games ''Alex Builds His Farm'' and ''

Evolution Worlds ''Evolution Worlds'' (known as in Japan) is a role-playing video game developed by Sting Entertainment for the GameCube. It was first published in Japan in 2002 by Entertainment Software Publishing and later by Ubisoft in North America and Euro ...

''. In 2003, Linetsky was cast in the tennis-circuit-themed dramatic series '' 15/Love'' on YTV. Her character, Megan O'Connor, was mutually falling in love with co-star Vadim Schneider's character, Sebastien Dubé.

Death

On September 8, 2003, Linetsky and Vadim Schneider were on their way to the set of ''15/Love'' in St. Cesaire,

, in a

Dodge Caravan The Dodge Caravan (and the long-wheelbase Dodge Grand Caravan) is a series of minivans that was manufactured by Chrysler from the 1984 to 2020 model years. The Dodge version of the Chrysler minivans, the Caravan was marketed as both a passenger v ...

. For unknown reasons, the Dodge Caravan went off its original trajectory around 12:15 P.M. to go through the middle band of the highway and found itself in the wrong direction on Highway 10 West. The van then swerved into oncoming traffic, crossed the median, and struck a 20-foot

semi-truck A semi-trailer truck, also known as a semitruck, (or semi, eighteen-wheeler, big rig, tractor-trailer or, by synecdoche, a semitrailer) is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer a ...

head on, causing the vehicle to burst into flames. Schneider was killed instantly upon the impact of the collision, and less than two hours after, along with the combined factors of trauma, severe injuries and burns, Linetsky, who had been unconscious on impact, went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at the Pierre Boucher Hospital in

Longueuil, Quebec Longueuil () is a city in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is the seat of the Montérégie administrative region and the central city of the urban agglomeration of Longueuil. It sits on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River directly acr ...

. They were both 17 years old. On the day of Schneider and Linetsky's deaths, filming for ''15/Love'' was cancelled and filming went on a two week hiatus citing a desire to speak with their families. The writers of ''15/Love'' eventually decided that Linetsky's and Schneider's characters Megan O'Connor and Sebastien Dubé would be killed off in a plane crash off the coast of the Isle of Wight, England, after a tennis tournament. Following her death, Linetsky was replaced by

Eleanor Noble Eleanor Noble (born June 15, 1980) is a Canadian actress. She is President of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA). Career She voiced Lori Mackney in later episodes of ''What's with Andy?'' following Jaclyn Lin ...

as the voice of Lori Mackney in ''What's with Andy?'', and by

as the voice of Caillou. In a statement, Stuart Snyder, President and CEO of

Cinar Corporation Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc. (also known as Cookie Jar Group and originally known as CINAR; renamed as DHX Cookie Jar Inc. from 2012 until 2014, or simply just Cookie Jar) was a Canadian media production and distribution company owned by DHX M ...

, wrote: "Jaclyn's voice enchanted thousands of children and viewers and she brought her own special personality and character to Caillou. She was a very talented performer and will be deeply missed by us all." "On behalf of everyone at CINAR, I want to express our most sincere and heartfelt sympathies to Jaclyn's family."

Tributes

The episode of ''

'' entitled "Nurse Jen" was dedicated to her memory, as was the ''15/Love'' episode entitled "Curveballs P.1" and the ''Caillou'' film ''

Caillou's Holiday Movie ''Caillou's Holiday Movie'' is a 2003 Canadian animated Christmas film, based on the 1997 Canadian TV series ''Caillou'', itself based on the 1989 book series of the same name by Hélène Desputeaux. ''Caillou's Holiday Movie'' was released dir ...

''. The very last episode of ''15/Love'' was also dedicated to her memory. In 2009,

, Linetsky's alma mater, renamed their performing arts program "The Jaclyn Linetsky Performing Arts Program" in her honour.

Filmography

Animation

Live-action

Film

Video games

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Linetsky, Jaclyn 1986 births 2003 deaths Accidental deaths in Quebec Anglophone Quebec people Burials in Quebec Canadian child actresses Jewish Canadian actresses Canadian voice actresses Actresses from Montreal Road incident deaths in Canada People from Hampstead, Quebec 20th-century Canadian actresses 21st-century Canadian actresses