Career
She is perhaps most famous for her autobiographical role in Claude Jutra"s first feature, À tout prendre (1964). Mississippi 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 later became known in the fashion world as Johanne Harrelle.
Her first appearance on a fashion runway was at Montreal"s upscale Ritz Carleton Hotel in the 1950s, when black models were unheard of in Canada. She had two sons, Val Harrelle and Alain Cadieux.