TORONTO — Don Harron, who entertained TV audiences in Canada and the U.S. with his comic alter ego Charlie Farquharson and helped bring the Canadian classic novel “Anne of Green Gables” to the stage, died Saturday. He was 90.
Harron’s eldest daughter Martha said her father died Saturday morning surrounded by family at his Toronto home after choosing not to seek treatment for cancer.
The wit and humor that landed him roles on CBC radio and television programs continued to define her father to the very end, Martha Harron said.
“He was still sharp. He was still capable of being funny even though his voice was barely above a whisper,” she said. “It’s horribly sad, but it’s beautiful too.”
Harron introduced his Farquharson character — a country bumpkin from rural Ontario dressed in a frayed grey cardigan sweater who poked fun at almost anything Canadian– on a CBC television revue in 1952, drawing inspiration from a stint working on an Ontario farm. He went on to perform as Farquharson on the long-running U.S. TV variety show “Hee Haw.” He also wrote many books under the name of Charlie Farquharson.