Guilda
Guilda got his showbiz start as a makeup artist with the Ballets de Monte Carlo when he was just 17, later scoring a small role as a transvestite in director Yvan Noé’s 1946 film Une Femme coupée en morceaux
Guilda was the stage name of Jean Guida (June 21, 1924 – June 27, 2012), a French and Canadian drag queen who built a long and sustained career as a cabaret and variety entertainer who took his stage name from the 1946 Rita Hayworth film, Gilda.
In 1946, he had a small acting role in Yvan Noé’s film Une femme coupée en morceaux, and in 1951 toured internationally as a stage double for French cabaret performer Mistinguett.
Discovered by American theatre impresario Lou Walters, he moved to New York City for a time as a headliner of his own show, before moving to Montreal. In Montreal, Guilda became a star performer at the Chez Paree club, becoming renowned for celebrity impersonations of Hayworth, Mistinguett, Marlene Dietrich, Édith Piaf, Barbra Streisand and Marilyn Monroe, and performed regularly on Quebec television variety shows.
In 1965, he performed a sold-out show at Montreal’s Salle Wilfred-Pelletier. In 1967, he opened his own drag cabaret club, Chez Guilda. In the 1970s Guilda had a number of acting roles in the films of Denis Héroux, including The Awakening/L’amour humain, There’s Always a Way to Find a Way/Y’a toujours moyen de moyenner! and Don’t Push It/Pousse mais pousse égal.
He also launched the theatrical revue Guilda’s Follies, blending both musical and sketch comedy performances, in 1975, undertook a performance tour of the United States in 1977, and published his first autobiography Guilda, elle et moi in 1979.
In the 1980’s Guilda appeared in an episode of Télévision de Radio-Canada’s annual New Year’s Eve Special Bye Bye, portrayed the Chevalier d’Éon in an episode of RadioCanada’s dramatic anthology series Les Grands Esprits, and appeared in André Forcier’s 1988 film Kalamazoo.
In 1983 he launched the stage revue Viva Guilda. In 1985, he acted in a production of Sylvie Lemay’s stage play Qui a vendu la meche? He was the subject of the television documentary film Allez Guilda! in 1986 and in the same year, he also undertook a Canadian tour, performing most notably at Expo 86 in Vancouver.
Having largely retired from stage performing by the late 1980s, he also took up painting, and had a number of exhibitions of his artistic work in the early 2000s. In 2004, he mounted a return show at Montreal’s Théâtre National to mark both his 80th birthday and the 50th anniversary of his Montreal stage debut. In 2009, he published a second autobiography, Guilda: Il était une fois.
Over the course of his career, Guilda also recorded and released a number of albums of cabaret pop.