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, has died. 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.
Harron introduced his Farquharson character — a country bumpkin from rural Ontario — on a CBC television revue in 1952. He went on to perform as Farquharson on the U.S. TV variety show “Hee Haw” from 1969-82.
Harron helped create a musical version of “Anne” for a CBC TV production in 1955, which was adapted nine years later into an on-stage version.