Huell Howser died of prostate cancer, death certificate says

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Public television star Huell Howser died of metastatic prostate cancer, his death certificate filed in Riverside County states.

Howser, 67, died at his home Jan. 6, but a cause of death was never publicly revealed. He was best known as the star of the public TV series ‘California’s Gold,’ which focused on unique and familiar places in the state.

Fans held a public memorial Tuesday afternoon at Griffith Observatory. Many spoke affectionately of the TV celebrity.

PHOTOS: Remembering Huell Howser | Career in pictures

In November, Howser announced his retirement from the show he had launched in 1990. He was a private person who rarely talked about his personal life and didn’t speak publicly about his struggle with cancer.

For many, his cheerful demeanor will remain one of his greatest attributes.

‘No one said ‘Wow!’ like Huell Howser -- everything about California turned him into a kid on Christmas morning,’ Martin Kaplan, the Norman Lear chair in Entertainment, Media and Society at USC, told The Times. ‘He was about as far from irony as you can get. He made corny cool.’

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-- Phil Willon in Riverside and Nicole Santa Cruz in Los Angeles

Photo: Huell Howser at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve in 2005. Credit: AP Photo / KCET, Howser Production Company.