Rolf Harris, a mainstay of family entertainment in Britain and Australia for more than 50 years before his career collapsed into disgrace with his conviction for indecently assaulting young girls, has died aged 93.
The Australian-born Harris, had been seriously ill with neck cancer and receiving 24-hour care, local media reported late last year. He died at his home in Bray, west of London, on May 10 of "metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of neck" and "frailty of old age", his death certificate, dated May 23, records.
An artist and musician who first earned fame in the 1950s with the top 10 hit novelty song “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport”, Harris went on to present prime-time TV shows mostly aimed at children.
He performed with the Beatles, painted Queen Elizabeth's portrait and presented himself as the affable inventor of the novelty musical instrument, the wobble board.
His song "Two Little Boys" spent six weeks at number one in Britain, the last chart-topper of the 1960s and the first of the 1970s. In 1993, his wobble board cover of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" also charted in Britain.
But as his star faded, the veteran entertainer became one of the highest-profile celebrities to be embroiled in a massive British police investigation which followed revelations that the late BBC TV host Jimmy Savile had been a prolific child abuser.
In 2014, Harris was found guilty of 12 counts of assaulting four girls, some as young as seven or eight, between 1968 and 1986 and jailed for nearly six years, although one conviction was later overturned on appeal.
He faced further charges in 2017 but the jury was unable to reach verdicts and he was released from jail that year.
During the 2014 trial, the prosecution portrayed the bearded, bespectacled entertainer as a predator who groomed and abused one woman for her entire teenage and young-adult life.
Harris denied all the charges and said the allegations against him were “laughable”. The sentencing judge said he had shown no remorse for the harm he had caused.
In 2015, Queen Elizabeth, whose portrait he once painted, stripped Harris of a royal honor she herself had awarded him. Australia also stripped him of numerous honors it had bestowed on Harris.
Born in Perth, Australia, in 1930, Harris was a prolific artist from childhood, given to silly noises and voices to mask shyness, a trait he said he learned from his father. He moved to London at 22 to attend art school with hopes of becoming a portrait painter like his grandfather.
A year later, he got a job sketching cartoons on children's television, work that continued through the 1950s while he performed nights, singing comedy songs with a piano accordion, in a club for Australian and New Zealander expatriates.
It was for that crowd in 1957 he wrote what would be his breakout hit, "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport", which he said was an attempt to localize Harry Belafonte's calypso classic "The Jack-Ass Song".
With his relentlessly cheery persona, Harris toured and performed on TV for decades with his unusual act of rapid, performative painting - his catchphrase was "can you tell what it is yet?" - and singing children's songs like "Jake the Peg".
It was his embrace by the British establishment that finally brought his downfall.
A woman who was assaulted by Harris decades earlier, when she was friends with his daughter, watched his televised 2012 performance at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert.
"That's when I decided I wasn't going to have any more of it" and would go to the police, she later testified.
© Thomson Reuters 2023.
20 Comments
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Jay
Emanating through the burning flames of hell, are the distinctive sounds of the wobble board...
Alfie Noakes
Murdoch's revenge claims another victim. Isn't it strange how all these paedophiles became such good friends with politicians and members of the British royal family. Anyone would think that the UK had no Special Branch or security services to vet who they were meeting....
Luddite
‘Disgraced’? He was a convicted paedophile who showed no remorse.
wallace
He was a convicted criminal who harmed young children like Jimmy Saville.
wallace
Harris was paid to paint a portrait of the queen.
englisc aspyrgend
Saville was always creepy, never liked him, but Harris hid it better and thus tainted a lot of what had been happy memories for me and a whole generation of children. He was good at what he did as an entertainer, unfortunately he was also unbeknown to us at the time a vile predatory pervert.
Capuchin
Indeed, another prolific pedophile with a list of royal awards. Shameful.
Mr Kipling
"Can you see what it is yet?" Was his catch phrase.
Yes, a Pedo.
PharaohChromium
Part of the rich pedo crew. Too many of them.
Harry_Gatto
You seem remarkably well-informed. Please tell us who else we should be closely watching out for.
wallace
Gary Glitter is another, back in jail.
u_s__reamer
Another "Lizard of Oz" whose toxic predatory nature was hidden, camouflaged as a multi-talented artist/entertainer with a "cheeky chappy" shtick. At 93 he no doubt agreed with his mate in hell, Jimmy Savile, "it was great while it lasted".
starpunk
Gary Glitter is a super-perv too. And he's back in prison.
When I was eating breakfast in the Ottawa Ramada in 2019, the CBC was reporting about a singer who was going to a courthouse in Toronto to face similar charges. I asked a waitress who that was, she said it was the singer for the now-defunct band Hedford. I have heard them before, they were popular in Canada and the USA. I said that we have an even bigger case in America right now, R Kelly. Everybody's heads turned. His track record spans light-years. His first wife was 15 years old! And his attitudes and actions showed even more in his music over the years.
As it is now, the Hedford singer is now serving around 20 years in the can. He whimpered 'I looooove you' to his wife (!) upon the sentencing. Uh-huh. R Kelly is now serving 35 years in the can for his crimes in NYC. He faces more charges in Chicago and Detroit as well as federal charges of kiddie porn.
There's a similar case with Marilyn Manson right now, his record label dropped him like a rock.
And then there's Bill Cosby. He greatly enriched my entire life, with his comedy and educational shows on TV. And he also pioneered in Black Americans having serious lead roles on TV. When he was convicted of rape in 2018 I was crushed. I mean I was completely SAD. And just recently he got convicted of raping a teenager in the 70s.
Is anything sacred?
MilesTeg
In both cases; Rolf Harris and Jimmy Saville, it could be argued that the British aristocracy, various governments, the Royal Family, and the BBC were complicit as many knew what these two predators were doing but turned a blind eye and let it continue because they were very popular and cash cows.
starpunk
You know, Rolf even wrote a song while in prison trashing and slandering one of his accusers. The nerve of that creep!
A disgrace to Australia. Good riddance to rotten pervert rubbish.
Mr Kipling
Jake the Peg with his extra leg? Two little boys? Tying kangaroos down?
The clues were there for all to see.
Ah_so
Agree 100%. Savillle was not a figure that children warmed to, but Rolf Harris was, and I think the sense of betrayal is greater.
falseflagsteve
Well, I must say that when he was found out to be a child predator, it’s was a huge shock to me, oh yeah.
When I was little I saw him live at Croydon Fairfield Hall, yes, three times with my younger brother and my cousin. He was so popular, especially with us kiddies,
To us be at then he seemEd so funny and clever. splash splash with some paint and a canvas and I a few minutes he had drawn a decent pic. He also did lots of songs and used his wobble board and his didgeridoo. He even performed on a Kate Bush song with his didgeridoo didnt he.
It defies belief that nobody knew anything, mind you he was obviously far less prolific than Mr Savile, who everyone thought was a creep, rummies when I was young was that he was into little boys. The truth turned out to be far far worse.
Well, Rolf is gone now and another chapter closes on a time and events best forgotten and never to be repeated.
桜川雪
Starpunk:
In reference to Bill Cosby, heard they punished all the actors and actresses from the Cosby show when they cancelled reruns. They no longer got royalties, etc because of one actor. Isn't that group punishment? Would it not be better to air and put a disclaimer in the beginning?
opheliajadefeldt
And just how many more pedo's like him are being shielded by the establishment? We will never know the true numbers.