Quebec children's show actor and author Kim Yaroshevskaya, dead at 101
Her last book was published in 2017
Children's entertainer Kim Yaroshevskaya, known for her roles in Fanfreluche, Passe-Partout and the CBC drama Home Fires, has died. She was 101.
Yaroshevskaya spent her life delighting the hearts of children and adults through storytelling; her life story being, perhaps, the most moving of them all.
She published her last work, Mon voyage en Amérique, in December 2017. The book recounts her childhood as a Russian refugee and orphan who flees the Soviet Union by joining her American grandparents in New York City.
Born in Moscow in 1923 to activist parents, Yaroshevskaya learned from an early age that her imagination could be freeing.
In an attempt to instill strength in Yaroshevskaya, her mother would give her toy guns for her birthday instead of the dolls she wanted.
That prompted the young Yaroshevskaya to wrap up household items and play with them as dolls.
It was maybe those experiences that planted the seeds for Fanfreluche — the role that introduced Yaroshevskaya to Quebecers.
Fanfreluche first appeared in the children's show Fafouin in 1954. The character would later join the television series La boîte à surprise from 1956 to 1967.
In 1968, Yaroshevskaya got her own show, for which she wrote and performed all the scripts. It ran until 1971.
In each episode, Fanfreluche literally enters a large book to change the course of history. The rosy-cheeked doll is curious, reckless and compelled by justice.
The 50 episodes were broadcast many times by popular demand, and Fanfreluche became an idol for small children.
Yaroshevskaya maintained her strong bond with children in her role as the grandmother in the series Passe-Partout, from 1977 to 1987.
In addition to her television career, the actress performed on stage, interpreting the works of Tennessee Williams, Ionesco, Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, Camus and Réjean Ducharme.
She appeared in about 50 plays and in several films, including those of Canadian-Swiss filmmaker Léa Pool.
Yaroshevskaya was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 1991 and a Compagne de l'Ordre des arts et des lettres du Québec in 2017.
Based on reporting by Radio-Canada