Screenwriter, Actor

(b. March 25, 1935 Montreal, Quebec)

A leading figure of Quebec cinema for more than four decades, Marcel Sabourin has appeared in more Quebec films than any other performer and is perhaps best known for his work with Jean Pierre Lefebvre, particularly the trilogy comprised of Il ne faut pas mourir pour ça(1967), Le Vieux Pays où Rimbaud est mort(1977) and Aujourd’hui ou jamais (1998). Some of his more notable credits include Jean-Claude Labrecque’s Les Smattes (1972); Denys Arcand’s La Maudite Galette (1972), Gina (1975) and Jésus de Montréal (1989); Clément Perron’s Taureau (1973); Gilles Carle’s La Mort d’un bûcheron (1973); Micheline Lanctôt’s L’Homme à tout faire (1980); John Greyson’s multiple Genie Award-winning Lilies (1996); and Daniel Roby’s Jutra Award-winning La Peau blanche (2004).

At the age of nineteen, when he was already an established TV star in Quebec, Sabourin moved to Paris for five years to study theatre. Upon his return to Canada, he worked primarily in the theatre before turning to cinema in 1967 with his starring role in Lefebvre’s Il ne faut pas mourir pour ça. Sabourin co-wrote the screenplay with Lefebvre, and the film marked the beginning of what would prove to be a fruitful collaborative relationship. The various characters Sabourin played for Lefebvre – in such films as La Chambre blanche (1969), Les Dernières Fiançailles (1973) andLe Vieux Pays où Rimbaud est mort – established his talent for portraying dreamy, vacillating men, though he avoided being pigeonholed by this stereotype. One of his most impressive roles was as the photographer in J.A. Martin photographe (1977), a film he wrote with director Jean Beaudin.

A distinguished professional noted for his modesty, generosity and integrity, Sabourin gravitated away from the theatre in the seventies to spend more time with his family and repeatedly turned down lucrative commercial work to stay true to his artistic ethics. He won a Canadian Film Award for his performance in André Mélançon’s Des armes et les hommes (1973) and received a Jutra Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1999.

Film and video work includes

Ti-Jean caribou series, 1963 (actor; TV)
Le Festin des morts, 1965 (actor)
La Ribouldingue series, 1968 (actor; co-writer with Micheline Girard, Roland Lepage, Elizabeth Lesieur)
La Chambre blanche, 1969 (actor)
Eliza's Horoscope, 1970 (actor)
Le Martien de Noël, 1971 (actor)
Les Maudits Sauvages, 1971 (actor)
Tout écartillé, 1972 (music)
Des armes et les hommes, 1973 (actor)
Ah! Si mon moine voulait..., 1973 (actor)
Basingstoke - Runcorn - Villes nouvelles britanniques, 1974 (sound editor)
Bologne - Une Ville ancienne pour un société nouvelle, 1974 (sound editor)
Centre-ville et piétons, 1974 (sound editor)
Düsseldorf - Équilibre urbain, 1974 (sound editor)
La Fougère et la rouille ou Collage 2, 1974 (actor)
Grenoble - La Villeneuve - Réinventer la ville, 1974 (sound editor)
Montréal - Retour aux quartiers, 1974 (sound editor)
New York - Twin Parks Project - TV Channel 13, 1974 (sound editor)
Par une belle nuit d'hiver, 1974 (actor)
Sapporo - Croissance planifiée, 1974 (sound editor)
Saskatoon - La mésure, 1974 (sound editor)
Les Troubbes de Johnny, 1974 (actor; writer)
Varsovie-Québec - Comment ne pas détruire une ville, 1974 (sound editor)
Mustang, 1975 (actor)
Du tac au tac series, 1976 (actor; TV)
Duplessis series, 1977 (actor; TV)
Grand-Papa series, 1976 (actor; TV)
Ti-mine, Bernie pis la gang, 1977 (actor)
Les Armes à feu et la Sécurité, 1979 (co-director with Gilles Gascon)
Riel, 1979 (actor; TV)
Le Québec est au monde, 1979 (editor)
Le Château de cartes, 1980 (actor)
Cordélia, 1980 (actor; co-writer with Jean Beaudin)
Salut! J.W., 1981 (actor; TV)
Salut champion: Tempête sous un masque, series, 1981 (actor; TV, one episode)
La Bonne aventure series, 1982 (actor; TV)
Le Goût du miel, 1982 (director; writer; editor)
Doux aveux, 1982 (actor)
Laurier series, 1985 (actor; TV)
Le Jour S..., 1984 (actor)
Mario, 1984 (actor)
The Cuckoo Bird, 1985 (actor; TV)
La Bioéthique: une question de choix - L'Homme à la traîne, 1986 (actor)
Alfred Laliberté: Sculpteur, 1987 (actor)
Ernest Livernois, photographe, 1988 (writer)
Les Portes tournantes, 1988 (actor)
Le Voyage de Kachtanka, 1988 (co-writer with Pierre-Michel Tremblay)
Lance et compte III series, 1989 (actor; TV)
Mount Royal series, 1989 (actor; TV)
Sous les draps, les étoiles, 1989 (actor)
Super sans plomb series, 1989 (actor; TV)
Trois pommes à côté du sommeil, 1989 (actor)
La Fille du Maquignon, 1990 (actor; TV)
Peggy, 1990 (actor)
Berlin Lady series, 1991 (actor; TV)
Les Bums du paradis, 1991 (actor)
Coup de chance, 1991 (actor)
Le Fabuleux voyage de l'ange, 1991 (actor)
Lance et compte: Le retour du chat, 1991 (actor; TV)
The Hitman, 1991 (actor)
Coup de chance, 1992 (actor; TV)
Double or Nothing: The Rise and Fall of Robert Campeau, 1992 (actor)
Montréal ville ouverte series, 1992 (actor; TV)
Le Clochard, 1993 (actor)
Repas compris, 1993 (actor)
La Fête des rois, 1994 (actor)
Meurtre en musique, 1994 (actor)
Million Dollar Babies, 1994 (actor; TV)
Rival le marin, 1994 (actor)
Trial at Fortitude Bay, 1994 (actor; TV)
Le Vent du Wyoming, 1994 (actor)
Anna à la lettre C, 1996 (actor)
L'Homme perché, 1996 (actor)
Omerta, la loi du silence series, 1996 (actor; TV)
L'Oreille d'un sourd, 1996 (actor)
Ozias Leduc...comme l'espace et le temps, 1996 (voice)
Madame le consul: Le Bûcher des innocentes series, 1997 (actor; TV, one episode)
L'Age de braise, 1998 (actor)
Aujourd'hui ou jamais, 1998 (actor; co-writer with Jean-Pierre Lefebvre)
Les Enfants d'un siècle fou, 1998 (appears as himself; TV)
La Part des anges series, 1998 (actor; TV)
Revoir Julie, 1998 (actor)
2 frères series, 1999 (actor; TV)
Souvenirs intimes, 1999 (actor)
Gypsies series, 2000 (actor; TV)
Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, 2000 (actor; TV)
Luce Guilbeault, explorActrice, 2000 (appears as himself)
Le Monde de Charlotte series, (actor; TV)
See You in Toronto, 2000 (actor)
Sincèrement, Guy L'Écuyer, 2000 (appears as himself)
Willie series, 2000 (co-writer with Jean Beaudin, Claude Paquette)
Emma series, 2001 (actor; TV)
Ne dis rien, 2001 (actor)
Encore dimanche, 2002 (actor)
The Sum of All Fears, 2002 (actor)
Idole instantanée, 2005 (actor)
Trudeau II: Maverick in the Making series, 2005 (actor; TV)
Au coeur brisé / The Broken Hearted, 2006 (actor)
Roméo et Juliette, 2006 (actor)
Ma tante Aline, 2007 (actor)