One of the original actors to play Bozo the Clown, Larry Harmon, is dead at age 83 – he passed away at his home Thursday of congestive heart failure.

Bozo the Clown is one of the most identifiable clown entertainers in history – and Larry Harmon’s portrayal of Bozo made the clown such an icon that he licensed the character to others. Bozo the Clown was portrayed by a number of actors on dozens of TV stations around the country.

Larry Harmon commented on the Bozo the Clown phenomenon in 1996, saying, “You might say, in a way, I was cloning BTC (Bozo the Clown) before anybody else out there got around to cloning DNA. Bozo is a combination of the wonderful wisdom of the adult and the childlike ways in all of us.”