'He was really the gentlest, sweetest, most caring person I think I have ever met,' Hartmann said. He also immersed himself in innumerable craft projects, making everything from soap to stamps to stained glass in his home laboratory. Harper led a quiet life at home, favoring books on physics and jazz musicians and walking around Green Lake with Hartmann, his partner of 12 years. Harper loved to make from scratch.įor all his gregariousness on the radio, Mr. He and Hartmann even pulled a stint as Ballard restaurateurs, pulling espresso and selling the soup and bread that Mr. Harper had a busy career as an announcer on several Seattle radio stations, such as KMPS-FM, and was the voice for various radio commercials. Through all 158 episodes of the show, Mr.

'I never considered anybody else' to play the lead, French said. Right about that time, French sat down and wrote the first Adventure of Harry Nile, and Mr. He worked as a disc jockey at stations in Colorado, New Mexico and Oregon before moving to Seattle in 1974, snagging a job at KING-AM playing rock 'n' roll. When he returned to the United States, he found radio drama had all but disappeared. He always used to say he was born 10 years too late, said his partner, Eleanor Hartmann. He joined the Army in 1962 and was assigned to a radio station in Berlin, where he got his start as a disc jockey. Radio mysteries, detective shows, comedy and adventure dramas - to him, they all held a magic that television would never match.

Harper grew up listening to radio dramas such as 'Superman' and 'Bobby Benson' in his hometown of Flossmoor, Ill. He was supposed to be an Everyman and to me, that's what he was.' 'First of all, he was an excellent actor, so it never sounded like he was acting. 'There's an element to that to me is indescribable,' he said.

Harper was a talented actor and a gifted speaker who modestly denied his skills at both, said Jim French, writer and producer of the show. Just as Harry Nile's charm was his what-you-see-is-what-you-get Everyman quality, Mr. Harper died in his Ballard home on Monday from complications related to diabetes and heart disease. Harper's 'aw, c'mon, doll' drawl was a radio staple, broadcast on 'The Adventures of Harry Nile' to listeners all over the nation for 27 years. The thing about Phil Harper was, he would never cop to being a little bit famous.īut as the voice of world-weary private eye Harry Nile, Mr.

Adventures of harry nile