Life and career

Bujold was born in Montreal, Quebec, the daughter of Laurette (née Cavanagh) and Joseph Firmin Bujold, a bus driver. She is of mostly French Canadian descent, with more distant Irish ancestry. Bujold received a strict convent education for 12 years before entering the Montreal Conservatory of Dramatic Art, where she was trained in the classics of French theatre. She made her stage debut as Rosine in Le Barbier de Séville in 1962.

She got her first major break in 1965, while on tour with the company of the Théâtre du Rideau Vert in Paris, when French director Alain Resnais selected her for a role opposite Yves Montand in his film The War Is Over. She stayed in France to make two more films: Philippe de Broca's Le Roi de cœur, opposite Alan Bates, and Louis Malle's Le Voleur, opposite Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Upon her return to Canada, she married film director Paul Almond in 1967, and starred in three of his films: Isabel (1968), The Act of the Heart (1970) and Journey (1972), winning the Canadian Film Award for best actress for the first two. The couple divorced in 1973, but worked together again in Final Assignment (1980) and The Dance Goes On (1991), the latter featuring their son, Matthew Almond (born in 1968).

She also appeared in Michel Brault's film Entre la mer et l'eau douce (1967) and Claude Jutra's film Kamouraska (1973), based on a novel by Anne Hébert, for which she won her third Canadian Film Award for Best Actress.

Bujold appeared in a variety of roles for Canadian and U.S. television, notably for NBC's Hallmark Hall of Fame in George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan in 1967, which earned her an Emmy Award nomination, and Caesar and Cleopatra in 1976, opposite Sir Alec Guinness. She also appeared in Jean Anouilh's Antigone for PBS's Great Performances in 1974.

International recognition came in 1969, when she starred as Anne Boleyn in Charles Jarrott's film Anne of the Thousand Days, opposite Richard Burton. For her performance, she won a Golden Globe Award as Best Actress in a Leading Role, and earned an Academy Award nomination in the same category. The following year, she played the role of the visionary Cassandra in Michael Cacoyannis's film version of The Trojan Women, opposite Katharine Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave, and Irene Papas.

Bujold was touted to become a star, but she walked away from her contract with Universal Studios. The resulting lawsuit was settled when she agreed to appear in the 1974 disaster film Earthquake, opposite Charlton Heston, and the 1976 adventure film Swashbuckler, opposite Robert Shaw. In the ensuing years, she appeared in Obsession, opposite Cliff Robertson (1976); Another Man, Another Chance, opposite James Caan (1977); Coma, opposite Michael Douglas (1978); Monsignor, opposite Christopher Reeve (1982); and Tightrope, opposite Clint Eastwood (1984).

She formed a professional friendship with director Alan Rudolph, and appeared in three of his films: Choose Me (1984), Trouble in Mind (1985), and The Moderns (1988). She also appeared in David Cronenberg's psychological horror film Dead Ringers (1988), opposite Jeremy Irons. After a long absence from Quebec, she returned to appear in two films directed by Michel Brault; Les Noces de papier (1989) and Mon amie Max (1994). A few years later she was back to Quebec once again to play the role of Madame Lasalle in La Turbulence des fluides (2002), directed by Manon Briand.

In 1994 Bujold was chosen to play Captain Elizabeth Janeway (subsequently renamed to Captain Kathryn Janeway), lead character in the ensemble cast of the American television series Star Trek: Voyager. However, she dropped out after filming just a few scenes of the first episode, citing the lengthy work schedule for a TV series and her unwillingness to do news interviews. The producers subsequently hired TV veteran Kate Mulgrew for the role.

Bujold continues to work, primarily in small-budget films with independent production companies.

Awards

• 1967: Prix Suzanne Bianchetti for most promising young actress in Le voleur
• 1968: Canadian Film Award for Best Actress in Isabel
• 1969: Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in Anne of the Thousand Days
• 1970: Canadian Film Award for Best Actress in The Act of the Heart
• 1973: Canadian Film Award for Best Actress in Kamouraska
• 1979: Genie Award for Best Supporting Actress in Murder by Decree
• 1988: Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress in Dead Ringers and The Moderns
• 1990: Prix Gémeaux for Best Actress in Les Noces de papier

Filmography

• 1956: Les Belles Histoires des pays d'en haut
• 1963: Ti-Jean caribou
• 1963: Amanita Pestilens as Sophie Martin
• 1964: La fleur de l'âge, ou Les adolescentes
• 1964: La terre à boire
• 1964: La fin des étés
• 1965: Geneviève
• 1966: The War Is Over
• 1966: King of Hearts
• 1967: Le voleur
• 1967: Entre la mer et l'eau douce
• 1968: Isabel as Isabel
• 1969: Anne of the Thousand Days as Anne Boleyn
• 1970: The Act of the Heart
• 1971: The Trojan Women
• 1972: Journey
• 1973: Kamouraska
• 1974: Earthquake
• 1975: L'incorrigible
• 1976: Swashbuckler
• 1976: Obsession
• 1976: Alex & the Gypsy
• 1977: Un autre homme, une autre chance
• 1978: Coma
• 1979: Murder by Decree
• 1980: The Last Flight of Noah's Ark
• 1980: Final Assignment
• 1981: Mistress of Paradise
• 1982: Monsignor
• 1984: Tightrope
• 1984: Choose Me
• 1985: Trouble in Mind
• 1988: The Moderns
• 1988: Dead Ringers
• 1989: Red Earth, White Earth
• 1989: Les Noces de papier as Claire
• 1990: False Identity
• 1991: Rue du Bac
• 1992: The Dance Goes On
• 1992: Oh, What a Night
• 1993: An Ambush of Ghosts
• 1994: Mon amie Max
• 1996: The Adventures of Pinocchio
• 1996: Dead Innocent
• 1997: The House of Yes
• 1998: Last Night
• 1999: Eye of the Beholder as Dr. Jeanne Brault
• 2001: Alex in Wonder
• 2002: La Turbulence des fluides
• 2003: Jericho Mansions
• 2003: Finding Home
• 2005: Mon petit doigt m'a dit...
• 2006: Disappearances
• 2007: Downtown: A Street Tale as Aimee
• 2009: The Trotsky
• 2012: Still Mine as Irene Morrison
• 2013: Northern Borders as Abiah Kittredge
• 2013: The Legend of Sarila
• 2015: Chorus

[ Source: Wikipedia ]