Janine Sutto

Family and Early Career

The Sutto family immigrated to Canada during the thirties, where, encouraged by her father Léopold Sutto, once associated with Charles Pathé, founder of the large film production company, and the actor and family friend Sita Riddez, Janine began her acting career at 18. She was quickly integrated into the French company of the Montreal Repertory Theatre directed by Mario Duliani. There, she crossed paths with other significant figures of this pioneer period: Gisèle Schmidt, Huguette Oligny, and Jean-Louis Roux.

Theatre, Radio and Television

In the early forties, she played in several light comedies at the Théâtre Arcade in company with the sisters Antoinette and Germaine Giroux who were big stars at the time. In 1944, she married Pierre Dagenais, a central figure in l'Equipe, and one of the first Quebec directors, but the marriage only lasted two years. Janine Sutto took a sabbatical in Paris, where she met the French theatre personality Henri Deyglun, who would become her second husband in 1957.

Returning to Montréal in 1947, she divided her time between stage and radio, taking part in the most popular serial shows of the period including Jeunesse dorée and Rue Principale. In the fifties, she increasingly performed major roles at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde and the Théâtre du Rideau Vert, both leading establishments in contemporary Québéc theatre.

A tireless worker in classical as well as summer theatre productions, she pursued her career for over half a century and assumed more than 150 roles. In 1968, Janine Sutto took part in the premier of Michel Tremblay's Les Belles-soeurs, a definitive work in modern Québécois theatre, playing Lisette de Courval. She made her directing debut at the Théatre Le Trident in 1992, in a new production of Marcel Dubé's Florence. As were most actors of her generation, she was also active in television throughout her career, involved in approximately 70 TV dramas including the adaptation of Bernanos' Journal d'un curé de campagne and Marivaux's l'Epreuve. In the seventies, with Gilles Latulippe and Jean-Louis Millette, she became an audience favourite in the television series Symphorien, on TVA. Janine Sutto is the mother of actor Mireille Deyglun.