Côté taught introductory acting and improvisation at the Option Théâtre in Sainte-Thérèse until 1977. He subsequently cofounded a small theatre, Voyagements. In 1979, Côté began performing in the play
Broue at the theatre; the play was intended to have a one-month run, but ended up being staged in many cities across Canada, and Côté continued to perform in all of the more than 2,000 performances that had happened by 2008. Côté,
Marc Messier and
Marcel Gauthier performed
Broue for nearly 40 years, with Côté's last performance occurring in 2017. In order to reduce costs, the actors performed all the roles themselves. Côté played the lead role in the film
Cruising Bar, and was nominated for a
Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in 1990. He also played the lead role in the film
C.R.A.Z.Y., and won a Genie in the same category for this film in 2005. In 2008, he revived his
Cruising Bar characters in the sequel film
Cruising Bar 2, for which he received a
Jutra Award nomination for
Best Actor at the
11th Jutra Awards, In 2009, Côté played a lead role in the film
Father and Guns (De père en flic), which took in $10.5 million at the box office in Quebec. In 2010, he appeared as pilot
Robert Piché in the film
Piché: The Landing of a Man (Piché, entre ciel et terre), and in 2011 he starred as Roger Gendron in ''
A Sense of Humour (Le sens de l'humour)''. Côté was appointed
Officer of the Order of Canada (OC) in the
2023 Canadian honours, "for his distinguished career as one of Quebec's most prominent actors on stage, on television and in film." In 2025, the book
Michel Côté et nous was published by Éditions de l'Homme. This work, by Pierre Gince and Maxime le Flaguais, brings together about fifty testimonies from those close to Michel Côté. ==Personal life==