Date of Birth

1 July 1942, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Genevieve Bujold spent her first twelve school years in Montreal's oppressive Hochelaga Convent where opportunities for self-expression were limited to making welcoming speeches for visiting clerics. As a child she felt 'as if I were in a long dark tunnel trying to convince myself that if I could ever get out there was light ahead'. Caught reading a forbidden novel, she was handed her ticket out of the convent and she then enrolled in Montreal's free Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique. There she was trained in classical French drama and shortly before graduation was offered a part in a professional production of Beaumarchais' 'The Barber of Seville'. In 1965 while on a theatrical tour of Paris with another Montreal company, Rideau Vert, Bujold was recommended to director 'Alain Renais' (by his mother) who cast her opposite Yves Montand in La guerre est finie (1966). She then made two other French films in quick succession, the Philippe de Broca cult classic Le roi de coeur (1966) and Louis Malle's The Thief (1967). She was also very active during 'this time in Canadian television where she met and married director 'Paul Almond' in 1967. They had one child and divorced in 1973. Two remarkable appearances - first as Shaw's Saint Joan on television in 12/67, then as Anne Boleyn in her Hollywood debut role Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)- introduced Bujold to American audiences and yielded Emmy and Oscar nominations respectively. Immediately after 'Anne', while under contract with Universal, she opted out of a planned _Mary, Queen of Scots (1971)_ ('it would be the same producer, the same director, the same costumes, the same me') prompting the studio to sue her for $750,000. Rather than pay, she went to Greece to film The Trojan Women (1971) with Katharine Hepburn. Her virtuoso performance as the mad seer Cassandra led critic Pauline Kael to prophesy 'prodigies ahead' but to assuage Universal, Bujold eventually returned to Hollywood to make _Earthquake_, co-starring Charlton Heston. A host of other films of varying quality followed but she managed nevertheless to transcend the material and deliver performances with her trademark combination of ferocious intensity and childlike vulnerability. In the 1980s she found her way to director Alan Rudolphs nether world and joined his film family for three movies including the memorable Choose Me (1984). Highlights of recent work are her brave performance in the David Cronenberg film Dead Ringers (1988) and a lovely turn in the autumnal romance Les noces de papier (1990) (TV).

She gave up the demanding job of Captain of the USS Voyager ("Star Trek: Voyager" (1995)) after only one day of filming. Kate Mulgrew followed her into the Captain's Chair.

Was cast as Baroness Kessler in Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate (1999), but became ill at the last moment and had to give up the part.

Her son with director 'Paul Almond', Matt Almond, is also an actor and director.

Is related to the late Louis Cyr, who was named the strongest person in the world.

Her longtime companion (since 1977) is Dennis Hastings. They have a son, Emmanuel Hastings, born around 1980.

Footage of Genevieve Bujold appearing as Captain Kathryn Janeway (Star Trek: Voyager) is one of the most sought-after video pieces among certain group of Trek fans.

According to Richard Burton's biography "And God Created Burton" Bujold had an affair with the actor when they were filming Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) together.

Price:  £25.00