Miss Cleo, famous '90s infomercial psychic, dead at 53

(Image credit: YouTube/screenshot)

last updated 10 August 2016

Youree Dell Harris, best known for portraying the Jamaican psychic Miss Cleo in late-1990s infomercials, died in Palm Beach, Florida, of cancer. She was 53.

Born in Los Angeles, Harris was hired by the Psychic Readers Network in the late 1990s to play Miss Cleo. The infomercials featured her catchphrase "Call me now!" and claimed the readings were free. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission said, the toll-free number clients called was actually a 900 number, and they were charged $4.99 a minute; nearly six million people were charged on average $60 per call. The parent company of the Psychic Readers Network reached a settlement with customers in 2002, and with the Miss Cleo character retired, Harris went on to provide the voice for a character in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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