Biography
Robert Charlebois (born June 25, 1944) is a Québécois author, composer, musician, performer, and actor.
Born in Montreal, Quebec, Charlebois is best known for songs such as Lindberg (notably the duet with Louise Forestier), Ordinaire, Les Ailes d'un Ange, and Je reviendrai à Montréal. His lyrics, often written in joual, are humorous and rely heavily on wordplay. He won the Sopot International Song Festival in 1970.
In 1970, he performed the Italian song La solitudine alongside Italian singer Patty Pravo. That same year, he took part in the Festival Express train tour across Canada, though he did not appear in its documentary film.
Charlebois acted in Jean Pierre Lefebvre's 1968 film Straight to the Heart (Jusqu'au cœur). He also played Steamengine Bill in the 1975 western Un genio, due compari, un pollo (A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe), alongside Terence Hill, Miou-Miou, and Patrick McGoohan. Decades later, in 2012, he made a cameo as Jean-Seb Bigstone, a French-Canadian Broadway producer, in the film Happiness Never Comes Alone starring Gad Elmaleh and Sophie Marceau.
Charlebois was once a partial owner of the Quebec-based microbrewery Unibroue until it was acquired by Sleeman Breweries in 2004, which itself was purchased by Japanese brewing giant Sapporo in 2006.
