Suzanne Lapointe


Suzanne Lapointe, C.M. was a Canadian singer, actress and television presenter.

Biography

Suzanne Lapointe was born in Montreal on 16 May 1934, the second of six children of Armand Lapointe, a commercial traveler, and Lucette Brousseau, who created clothing. With a voice worthy of a prima donna, she went initially towards her study of singing as a young girl after her classical studies. Initiated by her singing aunt Marthe, who was a soprano for Variétés lyriques, she studied classical singing at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal where she also studied acting with Jean Valcourt and drama in Sita Riddez's class. In 1959, she successfully auditioned to become a hostess on the television show La Poule aux oeufs d'or, which became a gateway to the artistic field in Quebec. In 1960, she received a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, which allowed her to spend two years singing in New York City. From time to time, she sang in television programs including L'heure du concert and Music-Hall.
An outstanding cook, Lapointe animated Attention c'est chaud on Télévision de Radio-Canada, a show on cooking with young chef Daniel Vézina, and published more than twelve books of recipes from 1970 to 1984, including La cuisine de maman Lapointe and Plaisir de recevoir. However, her career reached a peak in 1987 when she co-animated Les Démons du midi with comedian Gilles Latulippe. Their madness and laughter invaded homes around Quebec every day of the week for six years with a total of 1,050 shows, Suzanne's unique and communicative laughter being a distinctive sign. Having survived breast cancer in the mid-1990s shortly after her husband's death, she became very involved in the cause to find a cure.
In 2009, the Order of Canada introduced:
Without children and a widow of Pierre Larin for about twenty years, but surrounded by her four surviving sisters and their children, she was suffering from Alzheimer's disease for a few years before she died from lymphoma on 2 January 2015 at a retirement home in Sainte-Adèle where she lived for four months.

Honours