----------- permission on file ---------In this 2009 photo provided by his manager Stuart Hersh, Frank Avruch, left, who played Bozo the Clown, poses with Hersh, center and Carroll Spinney, who played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street, at the Chiller Theatre Expo in Parsippany, N.J. Avruch died Tuesday, March 21, 2018 at his Boston home from heart disease. He was 89. (Stuart Hersh via AP)
----------- permission on file ---------In this 2009 photo provided by his manager Stuart Hersh, Frank Avruch, left, who played Bozo the Clown, poses with Hersh, center and Carroll Spinney, who played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street, at the Chiller Theatre Expo in Parsippany, N.J. Avruch died Tuesday, March 21, 2018 at his Boston home from heart disease. He was 89. (Stuart Hersh via AP) Credit: Stuart Hersh

A longtime Boston television personality and entertainer known for playing Bozo the Clown has died at age 89.

WCVB-TV reports Frank Avruch died Tuesday at his Boston home from heart disease.

Avruch played Bozo the Clown from 1959 to 1970, a clown character particularly popular in the U.S. in the 1960s because of widespread franchising in television.

Manager Stuart Hersh tells the Associated Press that Avruch โ€œtouched so many people with his portrayal.โ€

Avruch also was a contributor to WCVB-TV for more than 40 years as a host of Man About Town and The Great Entertainment.

He was an active philanthropist and a board member of UNICEFโ€™S New England chapter.

Avruch is survived by his wife Betty, two sons Matthew and Steven and several grandchildren.