Orville ventriolquist was 67

Comic ventriloquist Keith Harris, best known for performances with his puppet Orville, has died at the age of 67, his agent has said.

The news comes a year after Harris announced during a gig at Prestatyn that he had cancer. He said then that he had beaten it, despite being told by doctors he only had 'months' to live.

Harris first felt ill during a holiday at the family villa in Portugal in the summer of 2013, and when he returned home he was admitted to hospital, where doctors found his spleen dangerously enlarged. He had a five-hour operation that October to remove the tumour, followed by four months of chemotherapy.

His career spanned more than 50 years, and was a fixture of BBC One's Saturday night schedules from 1982 to 1990 with The Keith Harris Show. And he had a No 4 hit with Orville’s Song in 1982.

Agent Robert C Kelly confirmed that Harris died this morning at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.. He said: ‘It is with great sadness I announce the death of my friend and client Keith Harris whom I have known for well over 20 years and managed for the past 15 years.

‘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 onstage and off. Perhaps even rarer than that in showbiz, he was a thoroughly decent man, a great friend and a wonderful father and husband. The family have asked for privacy at this time.’

Harris's first act was at the age of three, as a dummy for his late ventriloquist father, Norman, before he branched out on his own. He learned his craft in the holiday resorts before becoming a regular on TV variety shows, including The Good Old Days, Seaside Special and The Black and White Minstrel Show. In later years he made guest appearances in Harry Hill’s TV series, Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, and 8 Out Of 10 Cats. He was subject of a 2002 Louis Theroux documentary, and won the 2005 Channel 5 reality show, The Farm.

During the Theroux film, Harris revealed that he had a complex relationship with the duck that made him famous. ‘You can’t resent him. He made me a household name after 20 years of being in the business,’ he said. ‘ But I obviously created a monster… that it’s very hard to get away from that. Everybody knows Orville, not everybody knows Keith Harris. I can’t say he’s been a burden, but he put me into a pigeon-hole.’

After his BBC One series ended, Harris came close to bankruptcy. But his guest star appearances, panto and an advert for Surf enabled him to become solvent again.

Last year, he said: ‘‘I’ve made about £7 million throughout my career, but I’ve lost it all too. It’s all down to the dyslexia. I can’t read or write. Reading contracts? I didn’t, I just signed them. I got into trouble many times. I signed myself away for 14 years to someone once – 25 per cent I was paying. I had no idea.’

In 2007, Harris refused to appear in Ricky Gervais’s Extras., saying: ‘[Gervais] wanted me to be a racist bigot … I read the script and thought, this isn’t clever writing, it’s pure filth. I turned it down. I’m not desperate.’ Gervais later said Harris simply ‘didn’t get it’

Harris is survived by his fourth wife Sarah and his three children Skye, 27, Kitty, 15, and Shenton, 13.

Published: 28 Apr 2015