Rita Lafontaine

Rita Lafontaine OC OQ (8 June 1939 - 4 April 2016) was a Canadian theatre, film, and television actor. Born in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec. She has been described as the muse of playwright Michel Tremblay and director Andre Brassard. Her career spanned over fifty years and left an "indelible mark on Quebec theatre, film and television". She is a four-time recipient of the Gemeaux Award; three times for Best Lead Actress and once for Best Supporting Actress. She was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2005 and an Officer of the National Order of Quebec in 2011.

Lafontaine was born on 8 June 1939 in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec.

In the 1960s, Lafontaine joined the Mouvement Contemporain and worked closely with playwright Michel Tremblay and director Andre Brassard. In 1966, the trio produced Cinq, an early version of En pieces detachees at Le Patriote-en-Haut in Montreal. Their first professionally produced show was Les Belles-sours which premiered at the Theatre du Rideau Vert in 1968. It remains the group's most popular and translated work. Gaetan Charlebois from the Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia noted that the play "changed much of what was believed to be Quebec culture; language, the form of theatre, which plays should be done at which theatres, the displacing of the Old Guard."

Later that year, Lafontaine performed in L'Ecole des bouffons, directed by Brassard and written by Michel de Ghelderode, at the Centre du Theatre d'Aujourd'hui. Other notable shows include Double Jeu by Francoise Loranger at Theatre de la Comedie-Canadienne in 1969, and Le Pays du dragon by Tennessee Williams at the Theatre de Quat'Sous in 1972.

She was a very down-to-earth ordinary person who truly inhabited a role with great authenticity. She could make you cry and laugh, and she didn't seem to be trying. She made the line between actor and character disappear. That is a rare gift.

In 2010, Lafontaine assisted in establishing a certificate program in theatrical interpretation at l'Universite du Quebec a Trois-Rivieres.

Lafontaine married Jacques Dufour and together they had a daughter, Elsa Lessonini, who died of cancer in 2013. Lafontaine died on 4 April 2016 from complications while undergoing surgery for an intestinal condition.