Viola Leger no longer exists Le Journal de Montreal

Viola Léger no longer exists

Entertainment News / By /

Academic actress and performer Viola Léger died on Saturday at the age of 92.

His death was announced on Facebook by his publicist, Carol Doucet.

She retired from public life in January 2017 after suffering a stroke.

Born in 1930, one of Canada’s greatest artists, he was known as an actress and performer, particularly after playing the character of Antonine Maillet’s La Sagouine.

She had played the role more than 3000 times to the delight of her admirers.

Viola Léger also sat in the Canadian Senate from 2001 to 2006 after representing artists and advocating for minorities. She has also served on the Indigenous Peoples Committee and the Official Languages ​​Committee.

The actress was also known as an ambassador of Acadian culture in Canada and abroad.

Prior to that, she taught high school literature and drama for 15 years.

In 1985, Ms. Léger founded her own theater company, Compagnie Viola Léger, of which she was artistic director until 2008.

Viola Lightweight has received numerous awards including the Order of Canada, the New Brunswick Excellence in the Arts Award and the Order of New Brunswick.

In 2019, a school in Ontario was named after him, Viola-Léger Elementary School in Bowmanville.

The Viola Léger Foundation was founded in 1999 by the actress herself with the aim of promoting and developing theater in Acadia and “supporting the excellence of young actors and actresses, helping our performing artists, without always having the concern and the fear , not being able financially to do it,” in his own words.

During her career she played more than 30 roles including several characters created by Antonine Maillet. Versatile, she was also seen in the cinema and on television.

In response to her death, Antonine Maillet said, “She was always one of my best friends and certainly the greatest actress Acadia has ever known,” the publication read.

Details of his funeral have not yet been released.

Mathieu Lacombe, MNA for Papineau and Minister for Culture and Communication, Youth of Outaouais and Abitibi-Témiscamingue, mourned his death on Twitter: “A great woman leaves us after imprinting the imagination of several generations with La Sagouine. It is a great loss for Acadie and for all of us too. All our thoughts are with his loved ones. Have a good rest, Madame Léger.”

Liane Roy, President of the Federation of Francophone and Acadian Communities (FCFA), spokesperson for the Francophone and Acadian communities living in 9 provinces and 3 territories, expressed her sadness: “I am saddened to learn of the death of Viola Léger. We are losing an extraordinary, talented woman who is deeply rooted in her community. She knew how to make Antonine Maillet’s writings real, interpreting them around the world and thus making Acadian culture known,” we read in a tweet.

Among many others, the President and Director General of the Center de la francophonie des Amériques, Sylvain Lavoie, expressed his condolences on the network.