Keith Harris dead: Tributes pour in for Orville the Duck ventriloquist

Culture Secretary Sajid Javid, Keith Chegwin, Les Dennis and Aled Jones were among those paying tributes

Orville and Keith Harris. He covered up his condition by getting people to read out scripts to him

Fans, fellow entertainers and politicians paid tribute to Keith Harris, the ventriloquist famous for his act with a radioactive-green duck called Orville, following his death.

Harris, 67, who had been diagnosed with liver cancer, entertained generations of children with Orville, the nappy-wearing orphaned duck, and a monkey called Cuddles.

At the height of his fame, Harris was a regular on Saturday night television and put on private performances at birthday parties for Prince William and his brother Harry.

His sentimental 1982 single with the mournful Orville, I Wish I Could Fly, was a top five hit and sold more than 400,000 copies.

But Harris claimed to have lost £7m because he couldn’t read contracts properly due to severe dyslexia and he continued to work up until his death. He was due to appear in a pantomime in Crewe later this year.

Robert C Kelly, Harris’s agent, said the entertainer was first diagnosed with cancer in 2013 and became ill again in January.

Mr Kelly said: “Keith was not only a technically great ventriloquist, he was also a gifted mimic and an extraordinarily funny man both on stage and off.

“Perhaps even rarer than that in showbiz, he was a thoroughly decent man, a great friend and a wonderful father and husband.”

Mr Kelly said Orville would now be retired. “There are no plans for Orville. That’s the end.”

Sajid Javid, Culture Secretary, said: “Very sad to hear that Keith Harris has died after a battle with cancer. Brought joy to my childhood.”

With fellow entertainers including Keith Chegwin, Les Dennis and Aled Jones tweeting their sadness, “Keith Harris” became the number one trending topic in the UK.

Chegwin wrote: “So sad. A great entertainer and all round nice man Keith Harris has passed away. Best wishes to his family at this sad time. RIP x.”

Harris, who began his career playing summer seasons at holiday resorts, found fame through appearances on television variety shows.

He sank into depression when his 80s fame subsided but later re-connected with his audience, touring student unions with an adult-themed show, Duck Off.

He won the reality show The Farm in 2005 but turned down the chance to appear on the sitcom Extras, claiming that Ricky Gervais’s script was “pure filth”. The role ended up going to Chegwin.

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A metal plate was inserted into Harris’s arm due to the weight of holding Orville over 40 years. However with television executives turning down his proposals for a new series with the duck, he became a regular at Butlin’s to make ends meet.

He wept on stage during a gig in Great Yarmouth last year when he told the crowd he was battling cancer and had to have a bone marrow transplant.

Mr Kelly said Harris, who died in hospital in Blackpool, spent his last months “at his second home in Portugal, taking walks along the Blackpool seafront and sitting in the park eating ice cream and watching the world go by”.