Beloved children's entertainer or feared icon striking terror into the hearts of those clever enough to realise that clowns are created from pure, distilled evil – however you look at him the news is the same: Bozo the clown has passed on.

 Larry Harmon, credited not with the creation of the Bozo character but with the popularisation of an existing clown and in the process the creation of a legend, died of congestive heart failure on Thursday, aged 83. It is unconfirmed whether he was in full costume at the time, though we hope he was – just so the man could get one last smile from the world.