Beloved British Star Dies

By Stephen M. Silverman

09/03/1997 at 12:00 AM EDT

British entertainer Sir Harry Secombe, 79, an alumnus of the BBC's "The Goon Show" (something of a '50s precursor to "Monty Python's Flying Circus"), died of prostate cancer Wednesday afternoon in London, the BBC announced. "The Goon Show" helped launch the star of the late, great Peter Sellers. Secombe also played Mr. Bumble in the Oscar-winning 1968 best picture, the musical "Oliver!" He was the orphanage bureaucrat who yelled at poor little Oliver Twist for wanting more.