The international Simpsons family just lost its Montreal matriarch.
On Tuesday, the family of distinguished movie, theater and television actress Béatrice Picard announced that the Member of the Order of Canada, Officer of the National Order of Quebec and recipient of multiple Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medals at the age of 96. Picard’s career as an actress spanned over six decades with numerous high-profile performances, but her longest-running and arguably most recognizable role was as Marge Simpson in the French-Canadian dub of The Simpsons.
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According to the dubbing database, Picard played the role of Marge for the first 33 seasons of the Simpsons’ Quebecois localization, as well as in the Quebec cut of the Simpsons movie. Now, long-time fans from across French Canada are offering the Picard family their sincères condoléances.
While many American Simpsons fans misread the tweets about Picard’s passing and mistakenly mourned Julie Kavner, in the Quebec subreddit, French-Canadian fans of the series paid tribute to the distinguished Québécoise who created so many childhood memories across La Belle Province in a thread titled, “Béatrice Picard est décédée à 96 ans,” or “Béatrice Picard has died at the age of 96” for non-French Canadian fans.
“RIP Marge Simpson. Merci pour tout (thank you for everything)!” the top commenter wrote,
“Marge et Homer sont de nouveau réunis (Marge and Homer are reunited again),” another fan added mournfully, referencing the passing of voice actor Hubert Gagnon in 2020.
One more added, “Toujours en fin d’année qu’on perd les meilleurs (It’s always at the end of the year that we lose the best people).”
The passing of Picard may surprise some American fans of The Simpsons who didn’t realize that the series had an entire dub just for the Canadian dialect of the French language. Needless to say, The Simpsons is a worldwide phenomenon, and the popularity of the series across numerous cultures and languages necessitates an absolutely massive dubbing operation – there have been over 30 different region-specific voice casts for the series over its 36-year run.
As such, French-speaking Canadians needed their own dub that was distinct from the European French version of the series, as the subtle yet important differences in pronunciation and word choice could have alienated any Montreal children who knew their “tu” from their “vous.” From the clips of Les Simpson that we could find, it’s pretty clear that, out of all the main cast, Picard is one of the most true-to-the-original voice actors on the show, and our condolences go out to any Simpsons fans in Quebec who grew up quoting classic lines like, “Oregano? Que diable?”