Background
Roux, Jean-Louis was born on May 18, 1923 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Son of Louis and Berthe (Leclerc) Roux.
Actor politician translator Member of the Senate of Canada Lieutenant Governor of Quebec
Roux, Jean-Louis was born on May 18, 1923 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Son of Louis and Berthe (Leclerc) Roux.
Bachelor, University Montreal, 1943. Doctor of Arts (honorary), Laval University, 1988. Doctor of Laws (honorary), Concordia University.
After travelling and performing in New York and Paris he returned to Montreal and helped create the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde and became a frequent actor in and director of its productions for the next several years. He also turned to writing and wrote successful plays, radio dramas, and television shows. His greatest fame comes from his role on La famille Plouffe, a very successful Quebec situation comedy.
Roux served as President of the Canadian Conference of the Arts from 1968 through 1970. In 1994 he was appointed to the Senate and remained there until resigning in 1996. A fierce federalist, great controversy arose when he compared Quebec separatists to Nazis.
Upon leaving the Senate he was, at age 73, the oldest person ever appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec on August 8, 1996. Controversy reemerged when pictures were found showing Roux wearing a swastika on his lab coat in protest of the proposal to invoke conscription for service in World War II, and evidence emerged that he had participated in a 1942 protest against conscription in which some protesters, but not Roux, smashed the windows of some Jewish-owned businesses. The controversy was widely viewed as an attempt to discr an outspoken opponent of the Quebec sovereignty movement, as well as to whitewash emerging revelations that some figures in the Quebec sovereignty movement had also expressed fascist and anti-Semitic views in the past.
He retained the office, to give Prime Minister Jean Chrétien time to find and appoint a replacement, until Lise Thibault officially succeeded him on January 30, 1997. On May 31, 1997 Roux returned to public life when the federal government appointed him to be chair of the Canada Council. He died in Montreal on November 28, 2013.
Roux served (training) in the Canadian Army from 1942 to 1946. He had no known ties to fascist or anti-Semitic groups, and had in fact been a quite outspoken opponent of Nazism and anti-Semitism throughout his career, sometimes even refusing to accept roles in productions which he considered to include anti-Jewish stereotypes. He later issued an apology for the swastika incident, which he described as "a medical student's mischievous desire to show off and be provocative, and in no way corresponded to any political conviction or ideology on my part," and announced his resignation as lieutenant governor on November 5, 1996.
Administrative secretary Canada Theatre Center, 1959-1964. Member Society des Auteurs (president 1953-1964), Conference Canadienne des Arts (president 1967-1969), Society des Écrivains, Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists association, Royal Society Canada, Union Des Artistes, Association Canada television and Radio Artists, Canada Actors Equity Association M C.
Married Monique Roux, 1950. 1 child, Stephane.