Johanne Harrelle (January 29, 1930 â€" August 4, 1994) was a Canadian
actress, model, and writer, and the first black woman to rise to
prominence in Quebec and Canada's fashion world.She is perhaps most
famous for her autobiographical role in Claude Jutra's first feature,
À tout prendre (1964). Ms. Harrelle, who lived with Jutra for a time,
played the lover and companion to the film's other protagonist,
Claude, who was played by Jutra himself. Her role in the film, as
herself, is very telling as it describes the way in which she was
perceived as an exotic outsider in French Canada, and people often
assumed that she was Haitian, despite having been born in Montreal.
These assumptions are played with in the film, as when she performs a
song in patois, "Ti-zoizeau".Johanne was baptized Joan Harrell. She
was raised with her two brothers in an orphanage after their African
American father died and French Canadian mother fell ill when she was
only 3 years old. She later became known in the fashion world as
Johanne Harrelle. Her first appearance on a fashion runway was at
Montreal's upscale Ritz Carlton Hotel in the 1950s, when black models
were unheard of in Canada.Harrelle, who was married twice, lived for
15 years with her second husband, the renowned Parisian sociologist
Edgar Morin. She had two sons, Val Harrelle and Alain Cadieux.
actress, model, and writer, and the first black woman to rise to
prominence in Quebec and Canada's fashion world.She is perhaps most
famous for her autobiographical role in Claude Jutra's first feature,
À tout prendre (1964). Ms. Harrelle, who lived with Jutra for a time,
played the lover and companion to the film's other protagonist,
Claude, who was played by Jutra himself. Her role in the film, as
herself, is very telling as it describes the way in which she was
perceived as an exotic outsider in French Canada, and people often
assumed that she was Haitian, despite having been born in Montreal.
These assumptions are played with in the film, as when she performs a
song in patois, "Ti-zoizeau".Johanne was baptized Joan Harrell. She
was raised with her two brothers in an orphanage after their African
American father died and French Canadian mother fell ill when she was
only 3 years old. She later became known in the fashion world as
Johanne Harrelle. Her first appearance on a fashion runway was at
Montreal's upscale Ritz Carlton Hotel in the 1950s, when black models
were unheard of in Canada.Harrelle, who was married twice, lived for
15 years with her second husband, the renowned Parisian sociologist
Edgar Morin. She had two sons, Val Harrelle and Alain Cadieux.
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