The actress Youree Dell Harris, best known for her role as Miss Cleo in popular TV infomercials and commercials, has passed away at the age of 53. She died of cancer on Tuesday in Palm Beach, as confirmed by her lawyer, William J. Cone Jr.
Youree Dell Harris, born in Los Angeles, was a struggling actress before she was hired by the Psychic Readers Network in the late 1990s to portray Miss Cleo.
She embraced her family’s Jamaican heritage for the role, which involved encouraging viewers to call for supposedly free psychic readings.
One memorable commercial featured her consulting tarot cards and making personal revelations, ending with the iconic tagline, “Call me now!”
The Federal Trade Commission reported that despite the promise of a free reading, calls to the Psychic Readers Network’s toll-free number were redirected to a 900 number that charged $4.99 per minute.
This scheme led to about $1 billion in charges for consumers, with nearly 6 million people paying an average of $60 each.
In a 2002 settlement, the Psychic Readers Network’s parent company forgave $500 million in customer charges.
After this, Youree Dell Harris largely disappeared from the public eye for over a decade, though she did voice a character in the video game “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City” and became an advocate for gay rights after coming out as a lesbian.
She re-emerged in 2014 with a feature in the documentary “Hotline”, which explored the lives 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.”
“She was smart as a whip and very intuitive,” Shaff said.
“There was so much negativity surrounding psychic hotlines that she wanted to tell her personal story.”
He said she understood that some consumers felt they were swindled, “but she was being paid to do a job.”
Youree Dell Harris, while claiming to have paranormal abilities, preferred not to be labeled as a psychic or tarot reader, believing her powers were more extensive.
Last year, she briefly reprised the Miss Cleo character in online ads for General Mills’ French Toast Crunch cereal.
However, the ads were pulled after the Psychic Readers Network sued, asserting ownership of the Miss Cleo character.
