Yvan Ducharme

Yvan Ducharme began his career in radio, starting in Abitibi, then briefly in Ontario and then landing a slot with Montreal’s CJMS in 1963. Highly popular – he was named Radio personality of the Year in 1968 – he had already done some acting when he was offered the leading role of the father on the TV series Les Bergers in 1970. It turned out to be a huge rating success for the next six years in Québec and in 1972 Ducharme was named “Mr. Television.” But in 1976 he was diagnosed with lung cancer and told the story of his journey with the disease in the 1979 book, Vivre Face Au Cancer. He turned to painting and writing full-time, creating his own abstract style which he named “impulsionnism.” He died of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.