2024-03-02 22:06:06
The cult film team Les Boys lost one of its “leaders” on Saturday, when Paul Houde, who played the role of goalkeeper “Fern”, passed away.
“Paul was a leader. When he arrived for filming, he wouldn’t stop talking. It was like turning on the radio in the bedroom,” says Richard Goudreau, producer of the films, on the line.
The latter learned the news on Saturday afternoon while he was talking about Paul Houde’s state of health with a friend on the phone.
“Les Boys 1” – Quebec film directed by Louis Saia, released in 1997. In the photo: Paul Houde (Fernand Fern Rivest), Michel Barrette (Roger), Yvan Ponton (Jean-Charles Taillefert), Rémy Girard (Stan Ouellet) Photo credit: courtesy Photo Courtesy
“What is happening? Are we dreaming?” he asked himself. “It’s such a big loss.”
“I find it scary. He wasn’t old. I am in shock,” reacted actor Rémy Girard, who played the role of coach “Stan”.
Lovers of Boys also shared on social media on Saturday a quote from Fern that they adapted to the departure of Paul Houde to pay tribute to him.
“Today, the big club decided to call you back. The Lord made you a first pick in the draft. For you the indicator table stopped at 69 years old […] Goodbye, Paul, you are not dead, you are in overtime.”
Photo d’archives
“Tightly woven” Boys
The Boys were alerted by Paul’s state of health two weeks ago, when the latter had to be absent from a meeting of the actors of the film for the ceremonial puck drop of the Quebec Pee-Wee Tournament.
“I told the Boys this news at supper. They were all wondering why he wasn’t there. It gave them a shock,” says Mr. Goudreau.
Richard Goudreau
Photo Chantal Poirier / JdeM
“The Boys are a very tight-knit team. I’ve been in the business for a long time and I’ve seen teams on films, but The Boys is something else,” he adds.
The producer had been following the health concerns of his friend Paul “for almost two months”.
“Two weeks ago on a Friday, he had surgery at the CHUM. It lasted 10 hours. He came out well. He needed to rest, to do exercises.”
He had indeed successfully undergone surgery for a brain mass, his sister Johanne Houde wrote on Facebook. “Unfortunately, his heart stopped suddenly following complications,” she announced on Saturday.
“An extraordinary companion”
“He’s one of the Proud Boys, one of the funniest in fact,” argued Marc Messier, who played the role of Bob Chicoine. “We had a lot of fun. He’s a guy who knew the sport well, a statistician. He was a bit like his character, actually. He was a good guy.”
Rémy Girard remembers Paul Houde as “an extraordinary companion” with an “incredible” general knowledge.
Rémy Girard in his role as Stan Ouellet. Courtesy
“He created an extraordinary atmosphere on the film set because he told us a lot of stories. Paul was our reference.”
The actor remembers, among other things, his trip to Chamonix, in France, for the filming of Les Boys 2.
“He decided to take Serge Thériault and me in a cable car. Paul was a mountaineering specialist, and he knew all the mountains by their nickname. We couldn’t believe it!”
Richard Goudreau, who was Paul’s neighbor across the street for many years, was also marked by his friend’s knowledge and exceptional memory.
“We often had dinners with Marc Messier on Saturday evenings. A game we played with him was that I opened the encyclopedia of Olympic records and made him guess performances at random.”
“It was incredible. It gave the correct name of the athlete, during which Olympics and in which year! We were laughing so much. There were about 500 pages in the book!”
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