MUCH-loved ventriloquist Keith Harris has died following a battle with cancer, aged 67.

The popular stage and small screen star, who lived in Bournemouth for several years, was famed for his work with puppet Orville and made many appearances in pantomimes across the country.

Harris was born into a showbiz family in Lyndhurst in September 1947.

His mother was a dancer, his father a singer/comedian, and he grew up in dressing rooms as they travelled the country for their careers. His first performances were as a sidekick to his father on the working men's club circuit - mock-heckling from the audience and learning the ventriloquist's trade with his own dummy, Charlie Chat.

The father-of-three, who married four times, made his stage debut at Southampton Guildhall and his mother ran a dance school in the city before the family moved north a few years later.

He got engaged to a woman, Susan Smith, he met after one of his shows in Bournemouth in 1973, although she told him his act was "lousy" at the time.

That relationship ended, but Harris bought a flat in Westbourne, and played in a charity cricket game against Hampshire at Dean Park in 1979.

Appearing as part of the Black and White Minstrel Show, alongside a young Lenny Henry, he appeared many times at Bournemouth Pavilion, and was a regular at shop openings and other community events in Bournemouth during the 1970s and early 80s.

In February 1980 he married local girl Shari Wright at St Ambrose's Church, his first wife. Orville was not invited to the ceremony. The pair were divorced three years later, his wife blaming his new found fame.

Harris became well-known in living rooms across the country with his BBC Saturday night programme The Keith Harris Show, which began in 1982 and ran for eight years.

That same year he recorded a comedy pop song, Orville's Song also known as I Wish I Could Fly, with his endearing bright green and nappy-clad puppet, which reached the Top 10 of the charts and sold more than 400,000 copies.

At the height of his fame he put on private performances at birthday parties for Prince William and his brother Harry, performed at five Royal Command performances, and wrote and directed 17 pantomimes.

Later in life, facing struggles with alcoholism and depression, Harris began to work at Butlins holiday camps with a new adult-orientated version of his Orville act.

While he never returned to the screen with his own show, as he had hoped, he took part in several panel shows, reality shows and documentaries in the 2000s, including the Louis Theroux documentary When Louis Met Keith Harris and Orville in Panto in 2002, which helped to bring him back into the public eye.

He was described by his agent, Robert Kelly, as "a thoroughly decent man, a great friend and a wonderful father and husband", and many celebrities and fans took to Twitter to pay tribute.

Harris was diagnosed with cancer in 2013 and underwent treatment, returning to work the following year. However his illness returned and he died in Blackpool on April 28.