Don Harron’s remembered by visit

Don Harron, who created the Canadian comedic icon Charlie Farquharson, died recently at his Toronto home. He was 90.

Harron has a connection to our community through film. In 1997 he was the Master of Ceremonies for the Golden Sheaf Awards at that year’s Yorkton Film Festival.

When Harron was in Yorkton for the Film Festival reporter Calvin Daniels had a chance to sit down with the actor. That story is reprinted here in its entirety, with some additions from a Festival preview from the same year, as a tribute to the man.

— YTW

 
Don Harron and his alter ego Charlie Farquharson, were in fine form as Master of Ceremonies of the Golden Sheaf Awards Saturday.

Harron, a veteran of the Canadian entertainment scene, said it’s still easy to get up for a show.

“I love to hear the laughter, not canned, but live,” he said.

“It’s therapy for me as well.”

That says a lot from an actor who has been in the business for 61 years, long before television arrived on the scene.

From the preview; “Harron, was a staple on the long-running television series Hee Haw. His down-home philosophizing and comic observations are carried on today by comedic personas such as Red Green or SCTV’s Bob and Doug MacKenzie.

“Harron is known to many Canadians as a former host of CBC Radio’s Morningside series. He has also appeared in such television series as The Outer Limits, Dr. Kildare and Walt Disney Presents.”

But the 72-year-old said he still loves to perform, doing about 50 shows like the one in Yorkton annually.

And this summer a three act performance launches where Harron plays himself for one act, Charlie for one and his female alter ego for a third.

While now into his sixth decade in the industry, Charlie Farquharson clearly remains Harron’s most recognizable creation.

It was not something Harron ever expected would happen.

At a festival Harron launched Charlie as a four minute skit and expected that would be it.

But CBC wanted the character as part of the revue show, and the character found a ready audience.

Asked why the speech-stumbling character that spews insights on life in fumbled words is so popular, Harron said it’s because everybody know a ‘Charlie’.

“Everybody knows somebody like that,” he said.

In fact the hat and sweater came from a gentleman Harron knew in Ontario.

Then, when he was in college in 1942, Harron said they were looking for men for the “big haircut in Saskatchewan.”

Heading west for the harvest he ended up at Chaplin, Sask., where he met a man just like Charlie.

“It made me think they were all over,” he smiled.

And through his years on HeeHaw, American viewers argued whether Charlie was a New England farmer or whether he came from the Midwest.

“They never thought I was Canadian,” he laughed.