All countries have their movie stars. In the US, Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, Robert DeNiro, George Clooney are all big time movie stars. In Canada there are many famous movie actors, but if Canada has a George Clooney or a Brad Pitt it is french actor Roy Dupuis.
Last night I stayed up far too late rewatching a movie I have not seen in a few years, 1997's 'J'en Suis!'. The story is not exactly up there with Shakespeare but it is fun. Dupuis plays Dominique who pretends to be gay in order to get his business back on track. The movie also has two brief frontals of Roy in the shower with the equally beautiful actor Patrick Huard.
Although many of you might be familiar with Roy from his work on 'Le Femme Nikita', Roy has been making men and women swoon in Canada since the late 80's. Roy has never been shy about showing his body, nor about playing gay or having a big gay audience. One of Roy's best roles was in 'Being at Home with Claude' where he gives a tour-de-force performance as gay hustler Yves.
Roy also is known by many Canadians for playing one of their heroes, French-Canadian ice hockey icon Maurice "Rocket" Richard, who played for the Montreal Canadiens from 1942 to 1960 in Maurice Richard (The Rocket). Roy also portrayed him previously on Canadian television in 1997 and 1999.
Roy studied acting in Montreal, at the National Theatre School of Canada (L'École nationale de théâtre du Canada), from which he graduated in 1986.
He lives southeast of Montreal, in an 1840 farmhouse located on 50 acres of land which he bought in 1996 and which he has restored and renovated. He enjoys sports, particularly hockey, sky-diving, and golf. His hobbies include astronomy and physics (his interests in high school). He learned to play the cello as a boy and, at times, still plays, sometimes in dramatic roles. For the past few years, between television and film projects, he has been occupied with learning to sail; he owns a couple of sailboats, and he is custom-outfitting the larger aluminum-keeled vessel in preparation for extended ocean voyages. Although Roy has never married he did date actress Céline Bonnier for many years.
THere are many great Roy sites out there, but my favorite, which has a great library of magazine articles is Roy Dupuis Online which you can find HERE:
Below: Roy in 'Le Femme Nikita'
Below: Roy in 'Les doigts croches' (2009) Roy is the last guy on the left.
Below: With Patrick Huard in 'J'en suis!' (1997).
Thanks to all the cappers for some of the shots on this post!
