Widely acknowledged as a founder of modern French-Canadian theatre, his status is due almost equally to his contributions, in chronological order, as actor, author and director over a period of more than 60 years.
Gélinas was born in the village of Saint-Tite de Champlain, but brought in early infancy to Montreal. His mother, Geneva Davidson, of Scots-Irish extraction, and his father Mathias, a salesman and saddler by trade but chronically under- or unemployed and alcoholic, proved to be incompatible, something of which Gratien was long ashamed, especially when the marriage dissolved and his father disappeared for years at a time.
After traditional classical studies at the Collège de Montréal and while occupying various jobs as salesman and bookkeeper he began working with student troupes in his free time, in the late 1920s. With no specific...
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Citation: Doucette, Leonard Eugene. "Gratien Gélinas". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 February 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5260, accessed 09 June 2026.]
