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Keith Harris, famous for creating the characters Orville The Duck and Cuddles The Monkey, has died aged 67.
The father-of-three passed away at Blackpool Victoria Hospital this morning after suffering from cancer.
Keith Harris is best-known for his vent act with puppet Orville the Duck, but he enjoyed a showbiz career which ran for over fifty years.
His agent Robert C Kelly said Harris, whom he described as a “thoroughly decent man”, was first diagnosed with cancer in 2013 and became ill again in January.
He said: “I spoke to Keith most days, whether we had business to do or not. I think I laughed every single time we spoke.
“Keith was not only a technically great ventriloquist, he was also a gifted mimic and an extraordinarily funny man both on stage and off.
“Perhaps even rarer than that in showbiz, he was a thoroughly decent man, a great friend and a wonderful father and husband,” he added.
At his professional peak between 1982 and 1990, Harris had his own BBC 1 Saturday night programme The Keith Harris Show, and he sold over 400,000 copies of his Orville song ‘I wish I could fly’.
Harris then became a popular act on television variety shows, was the host of the Black and White Minstrel Show, and was given his own show called Cuddles and Company, but these were later axed and brought the star close to bankruptcy.
In recent years, he has appeared as a guest star in a number of TV shows including Harry Hill, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Trisha, Banzai, and The Weakest Link.
In April of last year, at a show he was giving in Prestatyn, Harris announced that he had been secretly battling cancer, and that he had beaten it, despite being told by doctors he only had “months’ to live”.
Harris, who lived near Blackpool, was married four times. His fourth wife, Sarah, is a former international model and the couple have two teenage children, Kitty, 15, and Shenton, 13.
He also leaves behind his daughter Skye , 27, from his first marriage to singer Jacqui Scott.
Agencies/Canadajournal
