In this undated file photo, promoter and entertainer Larry Harmon portrays Bozo the Clown. Harmon, who appeared as Bozo the Clown for decades and licensed the name to other Bozos around the world, had died at age 83. He died Thursday, July 3, 2008, at his home of congestive heart failure,according to his longtime publicist, Jerry Digney.

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century, died Thursday of congestive heart failure. He was 83.



His publicist, Jerry Digney, told The Associated Press he died at his home.



Although not the original Bozo, the Toledo, Ohio-born Harmon portrayed the popular clown in countless appearances and, as an entrepreneur, he licensed the character to others, particularly dozens of television stations around the country. The stations in turn hired actors to be their local Bozos.



"You might say, in a way, I was cloning BTC (Bozo the Clown) before anybody else out there got around to cloning DNA," Harmon told the AP in a 1996 interview.



"Bozo is a combination of the wonderful wisdom of the adult and the childlike ways in all of us," Harmon said.