Rolf Harris often used unusual instruments in his performances: he played the didgeridoo and the stylophone and is credited with the invention of the wobble board.
88 Facts About Rolf Harris
2.
In 2005, Rolf Harris painted an official portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.
3.
Rolf Harris lived in Bray, Berkshire, England, for more than six decades.
4.
In July 2014, at the age of 84, Rolf Harris was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison on twelve counts of indecent assault on four female victims during the 1970s and 1980s.
5.
Rolf Harris was released on licence in 2017 after serving nearly three years at HM Prison Stafford.
6.
One count, that Rolf Harris indecently assaulted an eight-year-old girl in Portsmouth, was overturned as unsafe in 2017.
7.
Rolf Harris applied for permission to appeal against his convictions concerning the three remaining girls, but permission was refused.
8.
Rolf Harris was born on 30 March 1930 in Bassendean, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, to Agnes Margaret and Cromwell Rolf Harris, who had both emigrated from Cardiff, Wales.
9.
Rolf Harris was named after Rolf Boldrewood, the pseudonym of an Australian writer whom his mother admired.
10.
Rolf Harris attended Bassendean State School and Perth Modern School in Subiaco, later gaining a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Australia and a Diploma of Education from Claremont Teachers' College.
11.
Rolf Harris painted a portrait of the then Lieutenant Governor of Western Australia, Sir James Mitchell, for the 1948 Archibald Prize.
12.
Rolf Harris won the 1949 Claude Hotchin prize for oil colours with his landscape "On a May Morning, Guildford".
13.
Rolf Harris was the Western Australian state champion over a variety of distances and strokes during the period from 1948 to 1952.
14.
Rolf Harris moved to England in 1952 and became an art student at City and Guilds of London Art School in South London, at the age of 22.
15.
Rolf Harris went on to illustrate Harbin's Paper Magic programme in 1956.
16.
In 1954, Rolf Harris was a regular on a BBC Television programme Whirligig, which featured a character called "Willoughby", who sprang to life on a drawing board, but was erased at the end of each episode.
17.
Rolf Harris then met his longtime hero, Australian impressionist painter Hayward Veal, who became his mentor, teaching him the rudiments of impressionism and showing him how it could help with his portrait painting.
18.
At the time that he was working with Veal, Rolf Harris was entertaining with his piano accordion every Thursday night at a club called the Down Under, frequented by Australians and New Zealanders.
19.
At the Down Under venue Rolf Harris honed his entertainment skills over several years, eventually writing what later became his theme song, "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport".
20.
Rolf Harris performed on the BBC with his own creation, Willoughby, a specially made board on which he drew Willoughby.
21.
Rolf Harris then illustrated the character's adventures with cartoons on huge sheets of card.
22.
On 1 March 1958, in London, Rolf Harris married Alwen Hughes, a Welsh sculptor and jeweller, while they were both art students.
23.
Rolf Harris returned to Perth in Australia when television was introduced there in 1959 after he was headhunted.
24.
Rolf Harris subsequently produced and starred in five episodes of a half-hour weekly children's show, as well as his own weekly evening variety show.
25.
In 2006, four decades after the song's release, Rolf Harris expressed his regret about the original lyric.
26.
Rolf Harris met and worked with the Beatles after they started recording with Martin, and he compered their 16-night season of Christmas shows at London's Finsbury Park Astoria Theatre in 1963.
27.
Rolf Harris sang "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport", with the Beatles singing backing vocals, for the first edition of the From Us to You BBC radio show in December 1963.
28.
Rolf Harris changed the original lyrics to create a version that was specially written for the Beatles.
29.
Rolf Harris was the commentator for the United Kingdom in the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest.
30.
Rolf Harris created one of his best known characters in the 1960s, Jake the Peg, but his biggest success in terms of record sales was in 1969, with his rendering of the American Civil War song "Two Little Boys", originally written in 1902.
31.
Rolf Harris later discovered a personal poignancy to the song, as the story bears such a resemblance to the World War I experiences of his father Crom, and Crom's beloved younger brother Carl, who died at the age of 19 after being wounded in battle in France two weeks before the Armistice of November 1918.
32.
Rolf Harris was the subject of This Is Your Life in December 1971, when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in New Bond Street in London, UK.
33.
In 1973, Rolf Harris performed the first concert in the Concert Hall of the newly completed Sydney Opera House.
34.
Rolf Harris played the didgeridoo on two albums by English pop singer Kate Bush, entitled The Dreaming and Aerial ; he contributed vocals to the songs "An Architect's Dream" and "The Painter's Link" on Aerial.
35.
Rolf Harris was again the subject of the UK version of This Is Your Life in September 1995, when Michael Aspel surprised him during a bagpipes parade in Edinburgh, Scotland.
36.
Rolf Harris appeared on the Australian version of the television programme on two occasions.
37.
Rolf Harris performed "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" in 2000 with the Australian children's group the Wiggles, he was digitally removed from DVD releases after his conviction.
38.
From 1994 to 2003, Rolf Harris was the host of the reality television programme Animal Hospital, a chronicle of a British veterinary practice.
39.
Rolf Harris presented 19 series of Animal Hospital for BBC One and the show won the Most Popular Factual Entertainment Show award at the National TV Awards on five occasions.
40.
Rolf Harris eventually announced that it was "time to move on" at the completion of the series, which broke "the hearts of thousands of fans across the country", according to the Radio Times.
41.
On 26 September 2004, Rolf Harris oversaw a project to recreate John Constable's The Hay Wain painting on a large scale, with 150 people each contributing a small section.
42.
In 2001, Rolf Harris had said he always imagined he would eventually become a portrait painter as his grandfather, George Frederick Rolf Harris, had been.
43.
Rolf Harris was commissioned to paint a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II for her 80th birthday.
44.
In September 2006, the Royal Australian Mint launched the first of the new 2007 Silver Kangaroo Collector's Coin series and Rolf Harris was commissioned to design the first coin of the series.
45.
In 2007 Rolf Harris participated in the BBC Wales programme Coming Home, in which he discussed his Welsh family history.
46.
Rolf Harris appeared with a wobble board in a Churchill Insurance advertisement in 2009, and hosted the satirical quiz show Have I Got News for You in May 2009.
47.
Rolf Harris was narrator of the 2010 Australian documentary series Penguin Island, a six-part natural history documentary about the life of the little penguin.
48.
Rolf Harris performed on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival on 25 June 2010, during the festival's 40th birthday, followed by an appearance at the Bestival Festival on the Isle of Wight in September 2010.
49.
On 5 August 2011, Rolf Harris played at Wickham Festival in Wickham, Hampshire, and appeared on the Wiggles' 2011 DVD release Ukulele Baby, singing and performing the song "Good Ship Fabulous Flea" with his wobble board.
50.
In 2011 Rolf Harris made a guest appearance on BBC One's The Magicians, hosted by Lenny Henry.
51.
Rolf Harris stated that he regrets missing so much of his daughter's childhood.
52.
On 2 May 2012, Rolf Harris appeared on The One Show, in which he described his artistic style as being "impressionistic".
53.
In October 2012, Harris started presenting a series on Channel 5, based at Liverpool University's Veterinary School, called Rolf's Animal Clinic.
54.
In May 2023, it was confirmed that Rolf Harris is suffering with neck cancer, unable to talk, and being fed via a tube.
55.
Rolf Harris has released 30 studio albums, two live albums and 48 singles.
56.
Rolf Harris is credited with inventing a simple homemade instrument called the wobble board.
57.
Rolf Harris recorded an Australian Christmas song called "Six White Boomers", about a joey kangaroo trying to find his mother during the Christmas period.
58.
In October 2008 Harris announced he would re-record his popular 1969 song "Two Little Boys", backed by North Wales' Froncysyllte Male Voice Choir, to mark the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I Proceeds from the release were donated to the Poppy Appeal.
59.
Rolf Harris was inspired to make the recording after participating in My Family at War, a short series of programs that aired during the BBC's "Remembrance" season, broadcast in November 2008.
60.
Rolf Harris discovered that the experiences of his father and uncle during the Great War mirrored the lyrics of the song.
61.
The allegations were not linked to those made against media personality Jimmy Savile, and Rolf Harris denied any wrongdoing.
62.
Rolf Harris was bailed without charge, did not comment publicly on the allegations, and was understood to have denied them strongly.
63.
Rolf Harris appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 23 September 2013, charged with nine counts of indecent assault and four counts of making indecent images of children.
64.
Rolf Harris's lawyer indicated that Harris would plead not guilty and he was bailed.
65.
At a further hearing at Southwark Crown Court on 14 January 2014, Rolf Harris pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
66.
The websites Rolf Harris had visited, according to the Internet Watch Foundation, are not known for illegal images of children.
67.
The trial of Rolf Harris began on 6 May 2014 at Southwark Crown Court.
68.
Rolf Harris denied that he had visited Cambridge until four years before the trial, but television archive material was produced in court showing that he had taken part in an episode of the ITV show Star Games, which had been filmed in Cambridge in 1978.
69.
Rolf Harris was told he must pay prosecution costs, though not compensation to the victims.
70.
On 1 August 2014, the Judicial Office said that Rolf Harris had applied to appeal against his conviction and that his lawyers had lodged papers at the Court of Appeal.
71.
In October 2014, Rolf Harris was refused permission to appeal, and could apply again before three judges.
72.
Rolf Harris did not lodge an appeal within the required 28 days, or ask for an extension.
73.
Rolf Harris was accused by Liz Dux, lawyer for the women who gave evidence, of victim blaming.
74.
Rolf Harris has caused those he abused great harm, and by writing this letter, he continues to cause them harm.
75.
Rolf Harris was released on 19 May 2017, after serving three years of his sentence of five years and nine months.
76.
Rolf Harris's trial began on 9 January 2017, with him appearing and watching by videolink from Stafford Prison.
77.
Rolf Harris did not have to attend in person because of his age and poor health.
78.
Unlike at the previous trial, Rolf Harris did not give any evidence.
79.
Rolf Harris's defence said that the jury in the first trial "got it wrong" and that the ensuing media frenzy "made him vulnerable to people making accusations against him".
80.
Rolf Harris received multiple awards and honours, but following his conviction many of these were rescinded.
81.
Rolf Harris was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1968; he was advanced to Officer in 1977, then to Commander in 2006, but these honours were revoked in March 2015.
82.
In 1986, Rolf Harris planted a Cathormion umbellatum tree at Kununurra's celebrity tree park.
83.
Rolf Harris had been among the original 100 Australians selected for the Medal in 1997.
84.
Rolf Harris received two honorary doctorates: from the University of East London in 2007 and Liverpool Hope University in 2010.
85.
In 2008, Rolf Harris was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
86.
Rolf Harris was joined onstage by the Seekers to perform "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" and his "Jake the Peg" routine.
87.
In 2011, Rolf Harris was awarded the title of "Best Selling Published Artist" by the Fine Art Trade Guild.
88.
Rolf Harris was made a Fellow of BAFTA the following year, but following his conviction, the academy announced that his fellowship would be annulled.