Rolf Harris

Rolf Harris (born 30 March 1930) is an Australian entertainer whose career has encompassed work as a musician, singer-songwriter, composer, comedian, actor, painter and television personality. He often used unusual instruments in his performances: he played the didgeridoo; is credited with the invention of the wobble board; and is associated with the stylophone. Harris was convicted in 2014 of the sexual assault of four underage girls, which effectively ended his career.

As a teenager, Harris was a champion swimmer. He began his career in television, music, and art in the 1950s, releasing several songs including "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" (a Top 10 hit in Australia, the UK, and the US), "Jake the Peg", and his recording of "Two Little Boys" (which reached number 1 in the UK). During the 1960s and 1970s, Harris became a successful television personality in the UK, later presenting shows such as ''Rolf's Cartoon Club'' and ''Animal Hospital''. In 1985, he hosted the short educational film ''Kids Can Say No!'', which warned children between ages five and eight how to avoid situations where they might be sexually abused, how to escape such situations, and how to get help if they are abused. In 2005, Harris painted an official portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. He lived in Bray, Berkshire, England, for more than six decades.

After the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal broke in late 2012, Harris was arrested as part of the Operation Yewtree police investigation. He was questioned in May 2013 regarding historical allegations of sexual offences. Harris denied any wrongdoing, and was bailed without charge. In August 2013, Harris was again arrested by Operation Yewtree officers and charged with nine counts of indecent assault dating to the 1980s, involving two girls between 14 and 16 years old, and four counts alleging production of indecent child images in 2012.

In July 2014, at the age of 84, 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. He was released on licence in 2017 after serving nearly three years at HM Prison Stafford. Following his conviction, Harris was stripped of many of the honours that he had been awarded during his career, and reruns of television programs featuring Harris were pulled from syndication. One count, that Harris indecently assaulted an eight-year-old girl in Portsmouth, was overturned as unsafe in 2017. Harris applied for permission to appeal against his convictions concerning the three remaining girls, but permission was refused.

Early life

Harris was born on 30 March 1930 in Bassendean, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, to Agnes Margaret (''née'' Robbins) and Cromwell ("Crom") Harris, who had both emigrated from Cardiff, Wales. He grew up in Wembley, Perth. He was named after Rolf Boldrewood, the pseudonym of an Australian writer whom his mother admired. After his later fame, Harris was often referred to as "the boy from Bassendean" within Australia. As a child he owned a dog called Buster Fleabags, about whom he later wrote a book (for the UK Quick Reads Initiative).

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 (now Edith Cowan University).Hill, Amelia. (1 January 2006).
Wizard of Oz
. ''The Observer''; retrieved 19 April 2013. While he was just 16, and still a student at Perth Modern School, his self-portrait in oils was one of the 80 works (out of 200 submitted) accepted to be hung in the Art Gallery of New South Wales as an entry in the 1947 Archibald Prize. He painted a portrait of the then Lieutenant Governor of Western Australia, Sir James Mitchell, for the 1948 Archibald Prize. He won the 1949 Claude Hotchin prize for oil colours with his landscape "On a May Morning, Guildford".

As an adolescent and young adult Harris was a champion swimmer. In 1946, he was the Australian Junior Backstroke Champion. He was also the Western Australian state champion over a variety of distances and strokes during the period from 1948 to 1952.

Career in television, music, and art

1950s

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. In 1953 he found work in television, at the BBC
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