Monique Miller

Monique Miller, actor (b at Montreal 9 Dec 1933). A lively and passionate actress who holds her own in theatre activities despite the passage of time, Monique Miller has played innumerable roles on every stage, as well as on radio, television and film. A bold performer, portraying stubborn heroines, and as capable in classical drama as in dark comedy, Miller's performances demonstrate indisputable accuracy and style.

Monique Miller was born into a working class family in Rosemont, and when very young she enrolled in the class of Mme Jean-Louis Audet, who helped her get her first radio engagements at the age of 11. The child learned much by observing her fellow artists. In 1952, she appeared onstage at the THÉÂTRE DU NOUVEAU MONDE as Marianne in Moiré's L'Avare, was in the premiere of Marcel DUBÉ's De l'autre côté du mur, and played the role of Marie-Ange, the hero's fiancée in the film Tit-Coq by René Delacroix and Gratien GÉLINAS. The following year her performance as Ciboulette in Dubé's Zone won best actress in the Dominion Drama Festival (Montréal region) and was later adapted for Radio-Canada's burgeoning television industry. From then on, Monique Miller was very active on the small screen, notably in several television dramas produced by Paul Blouin. She was in Pinter's The Collection and the Lover, played the title role in Lorca's Yerma, Macha in Chekhov's Three Sisters, and Lucille in Michel TREMBLAY's En pièces détachées.

Monique Miller divides her time between international repertoire by Claudel, Sophocles, Pirandello, Musset, Marivaux, Corneille, Sartre, Shakespeare, and O'Neill, and new Québécois plays by Françoise Loranger (Une maison...un jour, THÉÂTRE DU RIDEAU VERT, 1965); Louis Saïa and Claude Meunier (Appelez-moi Stéphane, Théâtre des Voyagements 1979 and Les Voisins, with the Compagnie Jean-Duceppe, 1980); Roch Carrier (Le Cirque noir, a solo written for her, Café de la Place, 1982); and Carole Fréchette (Baby Blues, Théâtre d'Aujourd'hui, 1991). Her career continued under the guidance of, among others, Serge Denoncourt who directed her in Arthur Miller's memorable View from the Bridge (Duceppe, 1993); Le Temps et la Chambre by Strauss (TNM, 1995), Berkoff's Décadence (Théâtre de Quat'Sous , 1997 - Masque for best actress from the Académie québécoise du theatre); Je suis une mouette (non, ce n'est pas ça) based on Chekhov's The Seagull (Quat'Sous, 1999); and Howard Barker's Gertrude, Le Cri ( Espace GO, 2005). In January 2008, Monique Miller again lit up the stage as the indignant old lady in À présent, a new work by Catherine-Anne Toupin, at the Théâtre de la Manufacture.

Active on television from Septième Nord in the 1960s- it was she who answered the telephone in the opening credits - to Montréal P.Q. by Victor-Lévy Beaulieu (1991-1994) as the fearsome innkeeper Mme Félix, Monique Miller made films with Arthur LAMOTHE, Claude JUTRA, Anne-Claire POIRIER, Jean-Claude Labrecque, Denys ARCAND and Robin Aubert. In 2002 she was named an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Author RAYMOND BERTIN