Presenter, actress and author Renée Hudon died on Wednesday afternoon in Quebec City at the age of 81. Because she suffered from a degenerative disease, she received medical help as she died. She will be remembered for her remarkable forty-year career in the media and for her contribution to the vitality of the French language.
Quebec native Renée Hudon studied education at the University of Laval and earned a diploma in interpreting from the Conservatoire d’art Dramatique de Québec before launching a successful career as a radio and television presenter in the early 1960s.
After a brief stint at Télé-4, she continued her career at Radio-Canada, where she remained on the air for 25 years as an interviewer, news anchor and host of cultural and public affairs programs.
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Renée Hudon in 1962 (archive)
Photo: Other image databases / Renée Hudon
At the same time, she also worked in education, first at the College of Radio and Television Animators, then at the School of Diction and Oral Communication and at Richard Thibault Communications, before obtaining a teaching position in oral communication at Laval University.
She also offers training through Renée Hudon Parole Publique, the company she founded in 2004 with her daughter Valérie Auger-Hudon.
Theater, cinema and literature
In the theater, Renée Hudon starred in Les Belles-sœurs by Michel Tremblay, Dialogue des carmalités by Georges Bernanos, Topaze by Marcel Pagnol and Histoires de femmes by Robert Harling. She also wrote the play Jeanne Forever, performed at the Théâtre du Trident in 2004.
We saw her on the big screen in “I Confess” by Alfred Hitchcock and “Le Confessional” by Robert Lepage.
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Alfred Hitchcock gives his instructions to his two young actresses from Quebec, Renée Hudon (left) and Carmen Gingras, on the set of “The Law of Silence.” (Archive)
Photo: Courtesy of Renée Hudon
Renée Hudon wrote the autobiographical novel Whose Little Girl? published by Éditions de l’Homme and the educational work Communicating in Public Without Anxiety, which he wrote together with his daughter and published by Éditions MultiMondes.
Renée Hudon worked, among other things, as a speaker and master of ceremonies and took part in numerous juries for the awarding of prizes in the cultural and social areas.
She has served on several boards, including the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, the Quebec Opera and the youth theater Les Gros Becs. She also chaired the board of the Salon international du livre de Québec from 1998 to 2008.
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Renée Hudon and her friend Carmen Gingras in 2021 (archive)
Photo: Radio-Canada
Distinctions
Renée Hudon has received numerous awards throughout her illustrious career. In 2002, she received the YMCA Woman of Distinction in Communications Award.
In 2007 she was appointed Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic and Knight of the Order of the Pléiade of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Francophonie.
In 2010, she was awarded the Knighthood of the National Order of Quebec, and in 2012, the Quebec Chamber of Commerce and Industry awarded her the title of Grande Québécoise in the cultural sector.
In 2019, she started a podcast about her adoption story and her search for the identity of her birth parents.
She leaves to mourn her husband Henri Dorion and her three children from her first marriage, Éric, Valérie and Sébastien.