Roy Michael Joseph Dupuis (French pronunciation: [ʁɔj dypɥi]; born April 21, 1963) is a Canadian actor best known in America for his role as counterterrorism operative Michael Samuelle in the television series La Femme Nikita. In Canada, specifically Quebec, he's known for numerous leading roles he's played in film. He portrayed Maurice Richard on television and in film and Roméo Dallaire in the 2007 film Shake Hands with the Devil.
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Early life and education
Dupuis was born in New Liskeard, Ontario to French-Canadian parents. From early infancy until he was 11 years old, Dupuis lived in Amos, Quebec in the Abitibi Regional County Municipality. Over the next three years he lived in Kapuskasing, Ontario, where he learned to speak English. His father was a travelling salesman for Canada Packers; his mother was a piano teacher. He has a younger brother and an older sister. When he was 14, after his parents divorced, his mother moved the family to Sainte-Rose, Laval, where he finished high school. After high school, he studied acting in Montreal, at the National Theatre School of Canada (L'École nationale de théâtre du Canada), from which he graduated in 1986.
Personal life
Dupuis lives southeast of Montreal, in an 1840 farmhouse located on 50 acres (20 ha) of land which he bought in 1996 and which he has restored and renovated. He enjoys sports, particularly hockey, skydiving, and golf. His hobbies include astronomy and physics (his interests in high school). He learned to play the cello as a boy and, at times, still plays, sometimes in dramatic roles. In recent years, between television and film projects, he has been occupied with learning to sail; he owns a couple of sailboats, and he is custom-outfitting the larger aluminum-keeled vessel in preparation for extended ocean voyages.
Career
Dupuis is a celebrity in French-speaking areas of Canada and is also well known in anglophone areas due to his English-language and bilingual projects. He has performed in many theater productions, movies, and television series. Among the stage roles that he has performed so far are: Luc in Michel Marc Bouchard's Les Muses orphelines (The Orphan Muses), directed by André Brassard in 1985; Roméo in a Québécois adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (Roméo et Juliette), directed by Guillermo de Andrea in 1989; and Jay in Jean-Marc Dalpé's Le Chien (The Dog), Adrien in Jeanne-Mance Delisle's Un Oiseau vivant dans la gueule (A Live Bird in Its Jaws), and Lee in a Québécois version of Sam Shepard's True West, all three productions directed by Brigitte Haentjens, in 1987-89, 1990, and 1994, respectively.
Dupuis gained popularity in Quebec as Ovila Pronovost in the series Les Filles de Caleb (also known as Emilie) when it premiered on Radio-Canada (1990–91), and he co-starred as the journalist Michel Gagné in four seasons of Scoop (1992–95). He was introduced to the American public on television as Oliva Dionne in Million Dollar Babies (1994)--Les jumelles Dionne: La véritable histoire tragique des quintuplées Dionne (The Dionne "Twins": The True Tragic Story of the Dionne Quintuplets). In the United States, he also debuted on the big screen in such film roles as Becker in Screamers (1995) and as John Strauss in Bleeders (1996), also known as Hemoglobin (1997) in the UK. In 1997, he began appearing as "Michael Samuelle" in the television series La Femme Nikita on the USA Network." He was nominated for a MetroStar Award for his role as Ross Desbiens in Le Dernier Chapitre: La Vengeance (2003), the sequel to Le Dernier Chapitre (2002), both filmed simultaneously in dual-language versions broadcast in French and English on Radio-Canada and the CBC, respectively.
Dupuis's first appearance on film was in a 1987 short experimental work inspired by the 1926 avant-garde film Anémique Cinéma, by Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, featuring the same title.
Among Dupuis' film performances are Yves, in Being at Home with Claude (1991; Cannes, Un Certain Regard 1992)--his first major screen role—directed by Jean Beaudin, adapted from a screenplay by Johanne Boisvert, based on the 1986 stage play by René-Daniel Dubois; and Kevin Barlow, in Manners of Dying (2004), the first feature film directed by Jeremy Peter Allen, adapted from his own screenplay based on the short story first published in the 1993 collection The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios and Other Stories by Yann Martel. His performance as Alexandre Tourneur in Looking for Alexander (Mémoires affectives) (2004), directed by Francis Leclerc, who co-wrote the screenplay with Marcel Beaulieu, received awards.
Selected awards
MetroStar: 1991: Comédien - Téléroman ou mini-série: Les Filles de Caleb
Gémeaux: 1991: Meilleure interprétation dans un premier rôle masculin: série dramatique: Les Filles de Caleb
Fipa d'Or: 1991: Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels (Cannes): Best Actor: Les Filles de Caleb
MetroStar: 1992: Comédien de téléroman ou mini-série québécoise: Emilie [English-dubbed version of Les Filles de Caleb]
MetroStar: 2003: Rôle masculin/Télésérie québécoise: Le Dernier Chapitre: La Vengeance
Genie: 2004: Meilleure interprétation dans un premier rôle masculin (Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role): Mémoires affectives
Jutra: 2005: Meilleur acteur (Best Actor): Mémoires affectives
Tokyo International Film Festival: 2006: Best Actor: The Rocket
Genie: 2007: Meilleure interprétation dans un premier rôle masculin (Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role): The Rocket
Jutra: 2008: Meilleur acteur (Best Actor): Shake Hands with the Devil
Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival- Louisiana: 2020: Meilleur acteur (Best Actor in a Feature Film): Les Fleurs oubliées
Toronto Film Critics Association Awards 2024: Finalist for Outstanding Performance in a Canadian Film, Rumours
Selected stage performances
Les Deux Gentilshommes de Vérone (The Two Gentlemen of Verona), by William Shakespeare (1985)
La Passion selon Pier Paolo Pasolini (The Passion According to Pier Paolo Pasolini), a play by René Kalinsky based on Teorema (1985)
Harold et Maude (Harold and Maude), trans. and adapt. by Jean-Claude Carrière of the play by Colin Higgins (1986)
Toupie Wildwood, by Pascale Rafie (1987)
Au pied de la lettre (At the End of the Letter), by André Simard (1987)
Fool for Love, by Sam Shepard, trans. Michèle Magny (1987)
Le Chien (The Dog), by Jean-Marc Dalpé (1987–1989)
Les Muses orphelines (The Orphan Muses), by Michel Marc Bouchard (1988)
Roméo et Juliette (Romeo and Juliet), by William Shakespeare, trans. Jean-Louis Roux (1989)
Un Oiseau vivant dans la gueule (A Live Bird in Its Jaws), by Jeanne-Mance Delisle (1990)
True West, by Sam Shepard, trans. Pierre Legris (1994)
Blasted, by Sarah Kane, trans. as Blasté by Jean-Marc Dalpé (2008)
Selected television performances
Le Parc des Braves (The Park of the Brave) (1984–88; episode in 1987)
Les enfants de la rue: Danny (Children of the Street: Danny) (1987)
L'Héritage (The Inheritance) (1987–90; episode in 1987)
L'amour avec un grand A [Also known as: Avec un grand A) (Love with a Capital L)] (1985–95): Hélène et Alexis (1988)
Lance et Compte (He Shoots, He Scores) (1986–89): Tous Pour Un (All for One [1990]--"téléfilm" based on the TV series)
Le Grand Jour (The Big Day) (1988)
La Maison Deschênes (The House of Deschênes) (1987-89: episode in 1989)
Les Filles de Caleb (Caleb's Daughters) (1990–91) [Also known as: Emilie]
Scoop (1991–95)
Emilie (1992) [English-dubbed version of Les Filles de Caleb]
Blanche (1993) [Sequel to Les Filles de Caleb]
Dark Eyes (Pilot) (1994)
Million Dollar Babies (1994) [Also known as: Les jumelles Dionne: La véritable histoire tragique des quintuplées Dionne (The Dionne "Twins": The True Tragic Story of the Dionne Quintuplets)] (1994)
Urgence (Emergency Call: Hospital Code 66) (1995)
Heritage Minutes (Minutes du patrimoine) [Also known as: Historica Minutes or History by the Minute]: Louis Riel and Maurice "Rocket" Richard (1997)
