Most famous ever Quebecer worldwide?

[Fradi]

I am pretty sure McGill does not allow you to have a degree if you can't speak French and McGill is not allowed to do business in Montreal if their graduates cannot speak French. It is part of their deal with Quebec authorities. Therefore I am pretty sure Shatner speaks King Louis's French. If you put him on the French Jeopardy with some of the natives on this board he would probably kick some ass.

Of course if you lived in Quebec /Montreal and had kids or friends who don’t speak French and graduated from McGill or knew anything about graduating from McGill you wouldn’t be making these statements.
Doctors engineers etc… may have French proficiency requirements by Quebec law if they wish to practice in Quebec but this has nothing to do with McGill. There are many students from all over the world, US included who don’t speak any French and graduate from McGill.
Yes Shatner is famous not bad for a very average tv actor who really had only one good show which turned into a cult following.
I liked Shatner in Star Trek as Captain Kirk but he was never a good actor or one that ever made it on the big screen.
It is sad that someone like him would be considered to be the most famous Quebecor, I think people will still be listening to Celine Dion and Leonard Cohen songs way after nobody will even know Shatner existed.
Btw I bet even my French is way better than Shatner‘s and mine isn’t great, I doubt he speaks at all.

When Shatner graduated language laws were not as strict as today and English was much more dominant in Downtown Montreal than now.

 

[gallantca]

Btw I bet even my French is way better than Shatner‘s and mine isn’t great, I doubt he speaks at all.

In an interview he said his parents both spoke it and that he learned it on the street. Not hard to imagine.
Based on the very few words he spoke and the broken accent, I suspect he can at least survive with a little Franglais.
Anyone brought up in the city, not Baie D'Urfe, you'd expect to know a minimum of French. No ?

 

[EagerBeaver]

Fradi,

Were you aware that Shatner won two Emmy Awards for his acting in The Practice and Boston Legal? Both of those shows were extremely well reviewed. He has been in a number of successful TV shows also including TJ Hooker. His Emmy Awards were won playing the same attorney character in the 2 shows, which were a very far cry from Captain Kirk, the role he is best known for playing.

 

[EagerBeaver]

In an interview he said his parents both spoke it and that he learned it on the street. Not hard to imagine.
Based on the very few words he spoke and the broken accent, I suspect he can at least survive with a little Franglais.

Gallantca,

In that video, Shatner explains how he learned French on the streets of Montreal.

I bet one week of my salary against one week of yours that Shatner not only speaks better French than Fradi, but also better than some of the Francophones on the board. If you created a French version Jeopardy game show he would probably defeat the vast majority of the French speakers on the board. This of course would only serve to spike his popularity even further.

 

[Fradi]

Fradi,

Were you aware that Shatner won two Emmy Awards for his acting in The Practice and Boston Legal? Both of those shows were extremely well reviewed. He has been in a number of successful TV shows also including TJ Hooker. His Emmy Awards were won playing the same attorney character in the 2 shows, which were a very far cry from Captain Kirk, the role he is best known for playing.

Yes I was aware, and I watched a few episodes of both, didn’t like either show, I still say he was not a very good actor.
As far as his French maybe it is better than mine slightly lol which is not difficult, but he doesn’t live here, doesn’t practice it and I doubt it is anywhere near as good as you claim but that is not part of the topic.
He was never a great actor and most likely most people in the US and everywhere else think he is American hell I would venture to say 50% of Americans don’t even know Quebec exists or where it is so how does that make him the most famous Quebecor
Everybody knows Celine Dione is French Canadian.

 

[Julia Sky]

EB, you sound like you're dying to suck the man's dick.

"Better than francophones"

William Shatner Answers the Web's Most Searched Questions

William Shatner takes the WIRED Autocomplete Interview and answers the internet's most searched questions about himself. Does William Shatner play guitar? Does William Shatner speak another language? Does he know Klingon? What's his favorite Star Trek episode? William answers all these questions...

www.wired.com

Laisse-moi rire.

 

[gallantca]

EB, you sound like you're dying to suck the man's dick.

As Kirk would say, "To go where no man has gone before"

 

[gallantca]

I bet one week of my salary against one week of yours that Shatner not only speaks better French than Fradi, but also better than some of the Francophones on the board.

I've stopped taking bets with merbites. Some can't admit when they have obviously wrong but weasel out.

Better than some Francophones ?....tempting bet. Not sure how we'd prove it since he admits he doesn't remember how to speak French.

 

[EagerBeaver]

EB, you sound like you're dying to suck the man's

I would not go that far LOL, but I have long admired Shatner's career and felt it necessary to go to bat for him due to repeated posts in this thread which completely denigrate him and his true status as a Quebecer, actor, and cultural icon.

I was a big fan of Star Trek as a kid. I watched every episode of the original TV show. I thought it was great and I thought he brought something to that show that made space travel cool. Ever since then, movies like Star Wars and TV shows all tried to make space travel cool, but he was the first to do it and did it well. He inspired many people with what he did on that show. Also many of his statements on Star Trek have since become part of the fabric of our language and society, such as, "Beam me up, Scotty."

 

[Fradi]

EB,

I was also a big fan of Star Trek and I liked Shatner and Captain Kirk, but that doesn’t cloud my judgement as to how good of an actor he is or that he is the most famous Quebecer and I would certainly not compare his mediocre or any French to a local French Canadian.
You have raised a lot of ridiculous arguments including that he was not liked because he was Jewish, Spock ( Leonard Nimoy) was also Jewish, if you remember the most popular Western series Bonanza 3 of the 4 lead characters were also. There have been many famous and great Jewish actors and singers and Holywood for many years was dominated by Jewish ownership of the major studios.

Star Trek being the fabric of our language and society wow now you are going way overboard with your idolizations of the good Captain.
I liked Julia’s view and simple assessment of the facts lol. This lady has a great sense of humour amongst other qualities.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Star Trek being the fabric of our language and society wow now you are going way overboard with your idolizations of the good Captain.

Are you aware of who Nicki Minaj is? She did a song called Beam Me Up Scotty. That is what I was talking about, you are wrong and living under a stone if you don't recognize impacts the jargon in Star Trek had on a modern pop and a pop star who might well be more popular than anyone you discussed. Now I am not necessarily a fan of Minaj but I do know she is a huge modern star moreso than Celine Dion by the way as far as contemporary music. This is just one example of the impact of the Star Trek on the language and our pop culture:

 

[Fradi]

So next you are going to say Nicki Minaj is an icon also.
She does have a great ass though, big deal she did a song about beam me up Scotty.
Live long and prosper EB. as they say in Vulcan

 

[EagerBeaver]

Live long and prosper EB.

 

[Amanda Vosch]

Kamala Harris.

'How Canadian is she?' Probably more than you think, say Kamala Harris' one-time Montreal classmates

Kamala Harris may not say she has fond memories of Canada—but the more important question could be how much she learned about it while living here as a teenager.

montreal.ctvnews.ca

 

[Triassi]

Vito Rizzuto for sure.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Vito Rizzuto for sure.

Was propelled to worldwide fame by the Netflix series "Bad Blood", although not sure how popular that show was outside Quebec. I enjoyed it.

 

[dkevin51]

Was propelled to worldwide fame by the Netflix series "Bad Blood", although not sure how popular that show was outside Quebec. I enjoyed it.

Loved that show! Strange, though, how the 1st season is based on reality, and then following seasons are fictional.

Vito would be nowhere close to being the most famous Quebecer.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

Here is Shatner's convocation address at McGill- sure sounds like his French is pretty good at the beginning of his speech:

Um, I have this horrible feeling that you're actually serious here, Beav.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Um, I have this horrible feeling that you're actually serious here, Beav.

Not really, but his French did sound pretty good to my ears, which of course really do not know good French from suck-ass French. But I go by the music test: if it sounds good, then it must be good.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

Not really, but his French did sound pretty good to my ears, which of course really do not know good French from suck-ass French. But I go by the music test: if it sounds good, then it must be good.

His French was like 6 words and he sounded like some guy from NDG who had been practicing those six words for several weeks.