‘Windmills of Your Mind’ singer Noel Harrison dies

This is a March 22, 1959 file photo of British actor and musician Noel Harrison and his bride, Sara Tufnell, at the register office after their wedding at Caxton Hall, Westminster, London. Noel Harrison, who sang the Academy Award-winning ballad “The Windmills of Your Mind,” has died at 79. Harrison’s current wife, Lori Chapman, said Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, that he suffered a heart attack after a performance on Saturday in Devon, southwest England, and died later in a hospital. AP Photo/PA

LONDON—British actor and singer Noel Harrison, who recorded the Oscar-winning song “The Windmills of Your Mind,” has died at the age of 79, his wife said on Tuesday.

Harrison suffered a heart attack at home in Devon, southwest England, after driving back from a gig at a village hall in the region on Saturday night, Lori Chapman said. He died several hours later in hospital.

“He will be loved and missed by more people than I ever knew,” she said.

Harrison sang “The Windmills of Your Mind” for the soundtrack of the 1968 heist film “The Thomas Crown Affair,” starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway.

The song won best original song at the Oscars the following year, but Harrison admitted: “It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time.”

On his website, he wrote: “I went to the studio one afternoon and sang it and pretty much forgot about it.

“I didn’t realize until later what a timeless, beautiful piece Michel LeGrand and the Bergmans (Alan and Marilyn Bergman) had written.”

Harrison was the son of the late actor Rex Harrison, who won an Oscar for his role in the 1964 film “My Fair Lady,” and was also a British ski champion in the 1950s.

Chapman is his third wife, and he also had five children and four grandchildren.

Originally posted at 2:29 p.m.