Geneviève Bujold Biography

GENEVIÈVE BUJOLD

Date of Birth: July 1, 1942

Geneviève Bujold is a decorated and veteran Canadian actress who has been working in the film industry for over 50 years. She was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1942 to bus driver Firmin Bujold and Laurette Bujold. For 12 years, Geneviève was a student at the Hochelaga Convent in Montréal. In her final year at the strict institution, she was expelled for reading a “forbidden” book—one that hadn’t come from the convent’s library. Bujold took it in stride and enrolled at the Conservatoire d’Art Dramatique where she learned about classical French dramatic arts. Shortly before her graduation at the age of 19, she accepted a role in a theater production of The Barber of Seville and left the Conservatoire without her diploma. During a tour of France with a Montreal theater company, she was cast by French director Alain Resnais in La Guerre est finie (1966) opposite Yves Montand. She went on to star in numerous French films in France before returning to Canada.

In 1967, she married a fellow Québecer, Canadian television producer and director Paul Almond, and together they had a son, Matt. The couple divorced in 1973. Two years into her marriage, Bujold broke into Hollywood as Anne Boleyn in Anne of the Thousand Days, co-starring opposite Richard Burton as King Henry VIII. She received a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama and an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Although Universal wanted to make a sequel to the movie called Mary, Queen of Scots, Bujold, who was then under contract to the studio, opted out because she was afraid of being typecast. Universal sued her for $750,000 and they eventually made the movie with Vanessa Redgrave. Bujold didn’t pay Universal the money; instead, she went to Greece to film The Trojan Women with Katharine Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave, Irene Papas and Brian Blessed.

Bujold returned to Hollywood and healed her relationship with Universal by filming The Earthquake with Charlton Heston and The Swashbuckler with Robert Shaw. Unfortunately, the quality and number of roles she was offered in Hollywood were affected by her dispute with Universal. She decided to settle down in California anyway and in 1977, she met her current partner, carpenter Dennis Hastings, while he was building her house in Malibu. Three years later, they had a son, Emmanuel Bujold. They are still living in California together today.

Bujold continued to star in films and on television, both in the States and in Canada, where she starred in a number of English and French-Canadian independent movies. She continued to work with Paul Almond professionally despite their divorce and, over the course of her career, she has starred in five of his films: Isabel, Act of the Heart, Journey, Final Assignment and The Dance Goes On. Some of her more unusual film choices include David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers, the family film The Adventures of Pinocchio and The Trotsky with Jay Baruchel. In 1994, she was cast as Captain Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager, but she quit the role after the first day of filming because she felt the schedule was too demanding. By 70, she was continuing to work on small budget, independent films and has three in total, including Still Mine opening in 2013.

Her awards and nominations have been numerous, including a Saturn Award nomination for Best Actress for the Michael Crichton movie Coma (1978) with Michael Douglas and Rip Torn. She also won Best Performance by a Lead Actress at the Canadian Film Awards in 1967 (Israel), 1970 (Act of the Heart) and 1973 (Kamouraska). She was nominated for Genie awards in 1981, 1989 and 1994, and won one for Best Supporting Actress in Murder By Decree. Most recently, she was nominated for Best Actress at the 2013 Canadian Screen Awards for Still Mine.

Filmography

Northern Borders (2013)
The Legend of Sarila (2013)
Still Mine (2013)
Pour l’amour de Dieu (2011)
The Trotsky (2009)
Délivrez-moi (2006)
Disappearances (2006)
By the Pricking of My Thumb (2005)
Downtown: A Street Tale (2004)
Finding Home (2003)
Jericho Mansions (2003)
Chaos and Desire (2002)
Alex In Wonder (2001)
Eye of the Beholder (1999)
You Can Thank Me Later (1999)
Last Night (1998)
Dead Innocent (1997)
The House of Lies (1997)
The Adventures of Pinnochio (1996)
Mon amie Max (1994)
An Ambush of Ghosts (1993)
The Dance Goes On (1992)
Rue de Bac (1991)
False Identity (1990)
Dead Ringers (1988)
The Moderns (1988)
Trouble in Mind (1985)
Choose Me (1984)
Tightrope (1984)
Monsignor (1982)
Final Assignment (1980)
The Last Flight of Noah’s Ark (1980)
Murder By Decree (1979)
Coma (1978)
Un autre homme, une autre chance (1977)
Alex & the Gypsy (1976)
Obsession (1976)
Swashbuckler (1976)
L’incorrigible (1975)
Earthquake (1974)
Kamouraska (1973)
Journey (1972)
The Trojan Women (1971)
Act of the Heart (1970)
Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)
Isabel (1968)
Drifting Upstream (1967)
Israel (1967)
La voleur (1967)
Le roi de coeur (1966)
La guerre est finie (1966)
La terre à boire (1964)
La fleur de l’âge, ou les adolescentes (1964)
Amanita Pestilens (1963)