Actress who played TV psychic Miss Cleo dies of cancer at 53

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The actress who became famous playing the Jamaican psychic Miss Cleo, claiming to know callers' futures in ubiquitous TV infomercials and commercials 15 years ago, has died of cancer.

Youree Dell Harris, 53, died Tuesday in Palm Beach, her lawyer, William J. Cone Jr. said.

The Los Angeles-born Harris was a struggling actress when the Psychic Readers Network hired her in the late 1990s to play Miss Cleo. She adopted her family's Jamaican heritage for the role, persuading viewers to call for allegedly free psychic readings.

In one commercial, she is seen pouring over tarot cards before telling a caller that the father of her baby is the "one who is very unpleasant and had another girlfriend while he was sleeping with you ... but you knew that." The commercials ended with the tagline, "Call me now!"

The federal government said those "free" calls cost consumers about $1 billion. The Federal Trade Commission said the psychic service promised a free reading, but consumers calling a toll-free number were directed to a 900 number charging $4.99 per minute. The agency said nearly 6 million people made such calls and were charged an average of about $60 apiece.

The Psychic Readers Network's parent company forgave $500 million in customer charges in a 2002 settlement.

After the settlement, Harris mostly faded from view for over a decade. She voiced a character in the "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" video game and was an advocate for gay rights after coming out as a lesbian.

Harris returned to the public eye in 2014 when she appeared in the documentary Hotline, which looked at the world of telephone psychics, phone sex workers and suicide prevention specialists.

Tony Shaff, the film's producer, said he found her to be "warm and welcoming and bigger than life."

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