BEIJING, July 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Larry Harmon, better known as Bozo the Clown by delighted children for more than a half-centry, 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, 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."

    Pinto Colvig, who also provided the voice for Walt Disney's Goofy, was the first Bozo the Clown, a character created by writer-producer Alan W. Livingston for a series of children's records in 1946. Livingston said he came up with the name Bozo after polling several people at Capitol Records.

    Harmon would later meet his alter ego while answering a casting call to make personal appearances as a clown to promote the records.

    He got that job and eventually bought the rights to Bozo. Along the way, he embellished Bozo's distinctive look: the orange-tufted hair, the bulbous nose, the outlandish red, white and blue costume.

    "I felt if I could plant my size 83AAA shoes on this planet, (people) would never be able to forget those footprints," he said. "Bozo is a star, an entertainer, bigger than life. People see him as Mr. Bozo, somebody you can relate to, touch and laugh with."

    (Agencies)