Robert Charlebois (born June 25, 1944) is a Canadian author, composer, musician, performer and actor.
Biography
Charlebois was born in Montreal, Quebec. Among his best known songs are Lindberg (the duo with Louise Forestier in particular), Ordinaire, Les Ailes d'un Ange and Je reviendrai à Montréal. His lyrics, often written in joual, are funny, relying upon plays on words. He won the Sopot International Song Festival in 1970.
In 1970, he sang with Italian singer Patty Pravo the Italian song La solitudine. In the same year, he performed at the Festival Express train tour in Canada, but did not appear on the documentary film.
In 1968, he had an acting role in Jean Pierre Lefebvre's film Straight to the Heart (Jusqu'au cœur). He co-starred with Terence Hill, Miou-Miou and Patrick McGoohan in the western Un genio, due compari, un pollo (A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe, 1975) as Steamengine Bill. Thirty-eight years later, Charlebois had a cameo as Jean-Seb Bigstone, the French-Canadian Broadway producer, in the 2012 Gad Elmaleh/Sophie Marceau film Happiness Never Comes Alone.
The Quebec-based microbrewery Unibroue was owned, in part, by Charlebois until it was purchased by Sleeman Breweries in 2004 which in turn was bought by Japanese beer brewing giant Sapporo in 2006.
He was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010https://www.cshf.ca/songwriter/robert-charlebois/.
In 2021, he was named a Compagnon des arts et des lettres du Québec, in recognition of his role in “crystallizing the state of an awakened population” and his cultural influence through more than 50 years of creative contributions.
On 31 January 2024 a new tour and show were announced in celebration of his 80th birthday year, with dates in Quebec and a Paris engagementhttps://www.journaldemontreal.com/2024/01/31/nouveau-spectacle-et-nouvelle-tournee-pour-robert-charlebois.
Honours In 1994, Charlebois received a Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement for his contribution to music in Canada. In 1999, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.http://www.gg.ca/honours/search-recherche/honours-desc.asp?lang=e&TypeID=orc&id=4595 In 2008, he was made an Officer of the National Order of Quebec. Charlebois was one of the four musicians who were pictured on the second series of the Canadian Recording Artist Series issued by Canada Post stamps on July 2, 2009.Canada Post Stamp Details, July to September 2009, Volume XVIII, No. 3, p. 6 On June 21, 2010, Charlebois received an honorary doctoratehttp://archives.concordia.ca/charlebois Concordia University Records Management and Archives from Concordia University in Montreal. In his acceptance speech he made the remark that this was the first post-secondary diploma he had received in his life. In 2016 he became a recipient of the Order of Montreal.https://ville.montreal.qc.ca/ordre/en/robert-charlebois In 2021, Charlebois was named a Compagnon des arts et des lettres du Québec.
Music in films Between Salt and Sweet Water (Entre la mer et l'eau douce) (1967) by Michel Brault, with Geneviève Bujold, Claude Gauthier Je T'aimerai Toujours (1969; TV Movie) Two Women in Gold (Deux Femmes en or) (1970) by Claude Fournier, with Monique Mercure, Louise Turcot A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe (1975) by Damiano Damiani, with Terence Hill, Patrick McGoohan L'Agression (1975) by Gérard Pirès, with Jean-Louis Trintignant, Catherine Deneuve (1983) by Charles Nemes, with Thierry Lhermitte, Barbara Nielsen (1986) by Michel Drach, with Carole Laure, Jeanne Moreau August 32nd on Earth (Un 32 août sur terre) (1998) by Denis Villeneuve, with Pascale Bussières and Alexis Martin C.R.A.Z.Y. (2004) by Jean-Marc Vallée, with Michel Côté and Marc-André Grondin Gabrielle (2013) by Louise Archambault, with Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin and Alexandre Landry
Selected discography
1965 – Volume 1 1966 – Volume 2 1967 – Demain l'hiver... 1968 – Robert Charlebois avec Louise Forestier 1969 – Québec Love 1971 – Un gars ben ordinaire 1971 – Le Mont Athos 1972 – Fu Man Chu (aka Charlebois) (#51 CAN )(single Conception was #83) 1973 – Solidaritude 1974 – Je rêve à Rio 1976 – Longue Distance 1977 – Swing Charlebois Swing (featuring guitar by Frank Zappa on Petroleum) 1979 – Solide 1981 – Heureux en amour? 1983 – J't'aime comme un fou 1985 – Super Position 1988 – Dense 1992 – Immensément 1996 – Le Chanteur masqué 2001 – Doux Sauvage 2010 – Tout est bien
References
External links https://www.robertcharlebois.com
Article at thecanadianencyclopedia.ca