Iconic TV psychic Miss Cleo has died at age 53 after battling cancer

Some sad news for all of us who grew up mildly obsessed with her ads for the Psychic Readers Network, Miss Cleo died at the age of 53, after a battle with cancer, her rep confirmed to TMZ. Miss Cleo, known legally as Youree Dell Harris, pretty much took over our televisions back in the day, and her untimely death is definitely an upsetting one.

A rep for Harris told TMZ that she was originally diagnosed with colon cancer, but it had spread quickly to both her lungs and her liver. While speaking with a fake Jamaican patois in her iconic ads, Harris was actually born in Los Angeles. Serving solely as a spokesperson (and an incredible actress, if you think about it) she also lent her talent to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and appeared in a documentary called Hotline, which exposed how many people turn to popular phone chats to solve issues with loneliness, while showcasing the behind-the-scenes as to how these types of companies are run.

In an interview with Vice, Harris explained how she got into the business. “I come from a family of Obeah—which is another word for voodoo,” Harris said. “My teacher was Haitian, [a mambo] born in Port-au-Prince, and I studied under her for some 30 years and then became a mambo myself. So they refer to me as psychic—because the word voodoo scares just about everybody. So they told me, ‘No, no, no, we can’t use that word; we’re going to call you a psychic.’ I said, ‘But I’m not a psychic!’”

During this interview, Harris also explained that most people figured that she worked out of a big room, when in reality, she worked from home — that is, when she wasn’t on the road for promotional purposes.

“I was at Best Buy one day, and a gentleman said, ‘Miss Cleo, aren’t you supposed to be on the phone?’ I said, ‘Honey, do you really think that I do that while I’m traveling and doing press?’ I said, ‘You have a better chance of talking to me right here than you do if you called.’ I still remember my extension number, though. My extension was 16153.”

Her commercials were legendary, featuring the quotable quote of “Call Me Now!” and showing Miss Cleo in action. As the years went on, we saw Miss Cleo dabble with tarot cards, and even watched as she (kind of) performed a DNA test over the phone.

While the Psychic Readers Network pretty much fell apart in the early 2000’s, people still recognized Miss Cleo on the street — she was definitely an identifiable person, with or without the fake, pronounced accent.

It was so great that Harris managed to make the most of this gig while simultaneously showing the world how much talent she had. She’ll definitely be missed, and we wish the best for her friends and family.

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