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Rolf Harris, MBE (1968), OBE (1977), CBE (2006), AM (1989) (born 30 March 1930), is an Australian musician, composer, painter, and television host. Named after Rolf Boldrewood, an Australian writer his mother admired, he was born in Bassendean, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, Australia, to Cromwell ("Crom") Harris and Agnes Margaret Harris (née Robbins) who had emigrated from Wales. He is the nephew of Australian artist Pixie O'Harris, (1903-1991); i.e., Rhona Olive Pratt, née Harris. Harris attended Perth Modern School in Subiaco, and the University of Western Australia. As an adolescent and young adult Harris was a champion swimmer being the Australian Junior 110 yards Backstroke Champion in 1946 and Western Australian state champion over a variety of distances and strokes during the period 1948 - 1952. He met his wife, the Welsh sculptress and jeweller Alwen Hughes, while they were both art students, and they married on 1 March 1958. They have one daughter, Bindi Harris (born 10 March 1964), who studied art at Bristol Polytechnic and is now a painter.
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