Deadliest Catch Captain Dies

Affable captain Phil Harris of Discovery Channel's hit reality series Deadliest Catch has died at the age of 53. The man often called the toughest skipper in America suffered a stroke while offloading his catch from his boat the Cornelia Marie in Alaska last month and never fully recovered, AP reports.

"He was more than someone on our TV screen,” the network said in a statement. "Phil was a devoted father and loyal friend. We will miss his straightforward honesty, wicked sense of humor and enormous heart. We share our tremendous sadness over this loss with the millions of viewers who followed Phil’s every move.” (More Deadliest Catch stories.)