Johanne Harrelle (January 29, 1930 – August 4, 1994) was a Canadian actress, model, and writer, and the first black woman to rise to prominence in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

's fashion world. She is perhaps most famous for her autobiographical role in

Claude Jutra Claude Jutra (; March 11, 1930 – November 5, 1986) was a Canadian actor, film director, and screenwriter.

's first feature, ''

À tout prendre ''À tout prendre'' (released as ''All Things Considered'' in English Canada and as ''Take It All'' in the United States) is a Canadian drama film, directed by Claude Jutra and released in 1963.Pierre Véronneau"Claude Jutra" ''The Canadian Encyclo ...

'' (1964). Ms. Harrelle, who was romantically involved 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 African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

father died and

French Canadian French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fren ...

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 Edgar Morin (; ; born Edgar Nahoum; 8 July 1921) is a French philosopher and sociologist of the theory of information who has been recognized for his work on complexity and "complex thought" ( pensée complexe), and for his scholarly contributio ...

. She had two sons, Val Harrelle and Alain Cadieux. She died from cancer on August 4, 1994.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrelle, Johanne 1930 births 1994 deaths Actresses from Montreal Black Canadian actresses Canadian film actresses Canadian people of African-American descent Female models from Quebec Models from Montreal 20th-century Canadian actresses 20th-century Haitian people