It’s impossible to talk about the career of Marc Messier without talking about hockey.

The Québécois actor, who died Tuesday at age 78 after a brief illness, was a major figure in Quebec film, TV and theatre from the 1970s until now. With fellow actors Michel Côté and Marcel Gauthier, they created the comic play Broue, set in a Montreal tavern. The three would perform it 3,322 times over 38 years, making it into the Guinness World Records. He was also one of the key characters in the wacky TV series La Petite Vie, one of the biggest ratings successes in the history of local French-language television. He also starred in a slew of films and TV projects, notably the Denys Arcand film Jésus de Montréal and the series Grande Ourse and Toute la Vérité.

But there is no forgetting his two most famous roles, and both times he was portraying hockey players. The first was as the veteran player Marc Gagnon in the 1980s hockey drama Lance et Compte, which ran in English on CBC-TV under the title He Shoots, He Scores. The show, created by hockey journalist-turned-screenwriter Réjean Tremblay, revolutionized Quebec TV. It borrowed from prime-time American TV with its racy mix of hot sex, high-octane drama and........

© Montreal Gazette