Yaroshevskaya, Kim

Russian-born actor who has played in many of Canada's major venues as well as being a star of French-language children's television, starring in series such as Fanfreluche and Passe-Partout in the 1970s.

Kim Yaroshevskaya was born in 1923 to Russian revolutionaries (her name - KIM - is actually the acronym of the International Communist Youth organization) and suffered a difficult childhood, emigrating to Canada after her parents' deaths (her mother from suicide, her father in a political prisoners' camp - she, herself, spent time in a "children's home"). When she was ten years old she moved in with an aunt in Montreal. She subsequently spent two years in a sanitarium for tuberculosis. She was soon using theatre, she has said, as her own form of revolution.

Mme Yaroshevskaya acted in The Seagull (Montreal Theatre Lab, 1978, directed by Alexandre Hausvater), Le chemin de la Mecque/The Road to Mecca (Café de la Place des Arts, 1990), Six personnages en quête d'auteur/Six Characters in Search of an Author (directed by André Brassard, Théâtre du Nouveau Monde/TNM, 1993), Fin de partie/Endgame (Café de la Place des Arts. She also appeared in the Montreal premiere of Fin de partie in 1960 at Théâtre de l'Égrégore) and Le Malentendu (TNM, 1994). More recently, she appeared in the Théâtre du Rideau Vert production of Venecia (March, 2001).

Mme Yaroshevskaya had an enormous stage presence and a magnificent voice with a rich, Slavic accent which she used in story-telling presentations in Montreal. She also appeared on TV, and had a starring role in the English Canadian drama series Home Fires.

She was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 1991, and Compagne des arts et des lettres de Québec in May 2017. Her autobiography, Mon Voyage en Amérique was published by Boréal in 2017.

Profile by Gaetan Charlebois

Last updated 2019-10-17

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