Voters in Yahoo! TV’s poll for have picked the late Phil Harris of Discovery’s “Deadliest Catch” as the “Greatest Reality TV Personality of All Time,” and I happen to agree.
The captain of the F/V Cornelia Marie was a larger-than-life legend of the Bering Sea crab fleet, with a swashbuckling style and a soft spot for his boys, Jake (at left above) and Josh (right). An absent father for most of their lives, he bonded with them at sea, becoming more pal than parent.
Now that Jake has vanished for the time being into the haze of drug abuse, you can argue Harris’ skills as a dad, but there’s no doubt he loved his boys. Fans took the family to their hearts, and when Phil suffered blood clots in his lungs in 2008, they hoped the hard-drinking, hard-smoking seaman, who also suffered from high blood pressure, would clean up his act.
Well, I had lunch with Harris and his sons in Beverly Hills after his return to the show, and between sliders and cigarette breaks, it seemed that Harris was going to live life on his own terms, no matter the consequences.
He was a rough character who led a wild life, but who also made birdhouses as a hobby. Every time I spoke to him, or saw him interacting with fans, he was kind-hearted and quick with a joke and an autograph.
In early 2010, the 53-year-old suffered a stroke aboard his boat, at dock in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Although he rallied at first, in the end, he lost the battle. His fellow captains and fishermen mourned him, along with people around the world.
I was at my computer, on the phone to my late mother, when the news came in. At first I said, “Oh, my God, Phil Harris died!,” followed by the journalist’s response, “Mom, I gotta go, I gotta write about this.”
This post was the result, finished off with a poem it took me a while to locate, but which seemed perfect:
Fisherman’s Prayer
God grant that I may live to fish,
until my dying day,
And when it comes to my last cast,
I then most humbly pray,
When in the Lord’s safe landing net,
I’m peacefully asleep,
That in his mercy I be judged,
As big enough to keep.Author Unknown
Urged on by his desire to fulfill his father’s legacy — with a fair amount of pressure from “Deadliest” fans — older son Josh (who has since become a father himself) managed to get ownership of the Cornelia Marie. (Story continues on the next page)
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