Richard Monette

Richard Jean Monette CM, DHum, LLD (June 19, 1944 – September 9, 2008) was a Canadian actor and director born in Montreal, Quebec, the son of Florence M. (née Tondino) and Maurice Monette. He is best known for serving as artistic director of the Stratford Festival of Canada from 1994 to 2007, a 14-season tenure that made him the longest-serving person to hold that position. He was educated at Loyola High School in Montreal and Loyola College, now Concordia University, where he graduated in 1967. He was the nephew of Canadian painter Gentile Tondino.

Monette's aptitude for performance emerged early, when he took top acting honours at the 1959 Hart House Inter-Varsity Drama competition in Toronto while still a student. His first professional role came at age 19, when he played Hamlet at the Crest Theatre in Toronto. He joined the Stratford Festival Company in 1965, taking on a variety of smaller parts, and also appeared in television plays for the CBC during this period.

His path to Broadway came through a production of Soldiers, which he performed at the Royal Alexandra Theatre before the show transferred to New York. He appeared on Broadway between 1968 and 1974, with credits that include both Soldiers and Hosanna. His work during this period earned him a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Play in 1975. In 1969, between his Broadway engagements, he relocated to London, England, where he performed in open-air Shakespeare productions in Regent's Park and appeared in the original London staging of Oh! Calcutta!

Returning to Canada in 1974, Monette took the title role in the English-language premiere of Michel Tremblay's Hosanna at the Tarragon Theatre, playing a conflicted transvestite obsessed with Elizabeth Taylor's portrayal of Cleopatra. He also rejoined the Stratford Company, where he played Hamlet and remained one of the festival's principal leading men for the following decade. A lifelong struggle with stage fright gradually led him to shift his focus toward directing. He staged a short play at Stratford in 1978, and his first full-length production there was The Taming of the Shrew in 1988, set in Rome in the 1950s and featuring Goldie Semple and Colm Feore.

Monette was named Artistic Director Designate of Stratford in 1992 and assumed the full title of artistic director in 1994. Over the course of his tenure he directed every one of Shakespeare's plays and also programmed large-scale musicals including My Fair Lady and Anything Goes. His leadership eliminated the festival's significant financial deficit and attracted new audiences. Among his lasting contributions to the institution are the Birmingham Conservatory acting school, a $50 million endowment fund, and the opening of the 260-seat Studio Theatre, a fourth performance space at the festival.

Monette maintained an active screen career alongside his stage work. His film appearances include Dancing in the Dark (1986) and I've Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987). On television, he played the Storyteller in multiple episodes of the BBC children's series Jackanory in 1968 and later appeared in The Littlest Hobo (1981), Street Legal (1988), and The Twilight Zone revival series (1989). In a 1991 episode of Counterstrike starring Christopher Plummer, he played Mr. Norman, a corrupt city official acting on behalf of a mob boss. His television movie credits include the role of Amadeus Mozart in Titans (1981), Tommy in A Far Cry from Home (1981), Stuart Kessler in Murder by Night (1989), Dr. Lloyd in And Then There Was One (1994), and Sal in While My Pretty One Sleeps (1997).

Monette retired from the Stratford Festival in 2007. He died on September 9, 2008, from a pulmonary embolism, approximately one year after his retirement.