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Quebec singer and host Pierre Lalonde died Tuesday at 75, according to his agent Ginette Achim. He suffered from Parkinson’s disease.
In French Quebec, Lalonde is best known as a popular singer and the host of several popular programs, including the popular teenage show Jeunesse d’aujourd’hui, in the late 1960s.
He’s been a superstar in French Quebec for decades, but anglophones might know him best as the host of a locally-produced game show called The Mad Dash, which aired on CFCF-TV (now CTV Montreal) from 1979 to 1981.
In the 1980s, he also hosted another CFCF program, The Pierre Lalonde Show, and served as host of the Miss Teen Canada Pageant, The Telethon of Stars, and the French-language game show Action Réaction.
Lalonde was the son of another popular Quebec singer, Jean Lalonde, who has success in the 1930s and 40s. The younger Lalonde spent his teenage years on Long Island, New York before returning to Quebec in 1960.
Lalonde returned to the U.S. in 1967 to host a short-lived program on New York’s WPIX-TV called The Peter Martin Show — and also recorded an album under the name Peter Martin.
In 2010, Lalonde revealed he was suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
Agencies/Canadajournal
