Music: {allcanada} Don Harron aka Charlie Farquharson dead at 90

Saturday, January 17, 2015

{allcanada} Don Harron aka Charlie Farquharson dead at 90

he Canadian actor best known for creating Hee Haw's Charlie Farquharson has died.

Donald Harron was 90.

His career spanned 77 years and included radio, TV, stage, films and books.

Born in Toronto in 1924, he based Charlie Farquharson on his experiences working as a farm hand during the depression. He took the character from Canadian TV to international audiences with Hee Haw in the late 1960s and continued to perform as the character for the rest of his life.

Harron also published several books as Farquharson, a character he never really tired of.

"Hee Haw still sends me cheques," Harron told QMI Agency in 2013, while promoting his memoir My Double Life: Sexty Years of Farquharson Around with Don Harn.

"I'm still making money off myself."

But Farquharson wasn't Harron's only accomplishment.

He spent two years on stage in London's famed West End, was a featured performer in Stratford and hosted CBC's Morningside from 1977 to 1982.

His lifelong career started when he was 10 years old, co-hosting a radio show.

In 1965, he co-wrote the script for the TV musical version of Anne of Green Gables and later adapted the script to created a stage version. The theatrical version is still performed at the annual Charlottetown Festival.

Harron was given the Order of Canada in 1980 and also received a Gemini Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.

When asked by QMI Agency what he came away with after 77 years in showbiz, Harron slyly answered: "I came away with three daughters and four marriages."

Harron's eldest daughter, Martha, told the Canadian Press he died at home after refusing cancer treatments.