Australian entertainer Rolf Harris, who achieved fame in the 1950s through his work in television, music, and art, has passed away at the age of 93, as confirmed by a registrar at Maidenhead Town Hall. Harris’s career took a controversial turn in 2013 when he was arrested as part of the Operation Yewtree investigation, which aimed to address sexual abuse following the Jimmy Savile scandal.
In 2014, Harris was convicted of 12 indecent assaults, including offenses against minors such as an eight-year-old autograph hunter and teenage girls, as well as a series of abuses against his daughter’s friend spanning over 16 years. However, in May 2017, four unrelated historical sex offense convictions were overturned by the Court of Appeal. After serving approximately three years of his sentence, Harris was released from prison later that month.
Originally hailing from Australia, where he initially worked as a swimming teacher, Harris moved to the UK at the age of 21 and gained popularity on BBC and ITV with shows like The Rolf Harris Show, Rolf’s Cartoon Club, Rolf on Saturday, OK?, and Animal Hospital. The latter program, which ran from 1994 to 2004, followed the treatment of animals at various RSPCA hospitals.
Harris was initially honored with an MBE and OBE before being awarded a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2006. However, in 2015, following his conviction for assaulting young girls, he was stripped of these honors. Buckingham Palace issued a statement stating that the Queen had ordered the cancellation and annulment of Harris’s appointment as a Commander of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
His case marked the second high-profile conviction resulting from the national inquiry established in the aftermath of the Jimmy Savile abuse allegations.