Noel Harrison | Singer-actor, 79

Noel Harrison, 79, a British singer-actor best known for his recording of the Oscar-winning "The Windmills of Your Mind" and as secret agent Mark Slate in NBC's 1960s TV series

The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.

, died Saturday of a heart attack at his home in Ashburton, Devon, England.

His wife, Lori Chapman, told the Press Association: "He will be loved and missed by more people than I ever knew."

The son of actor Rex Harrison and his first wife, Collette Thomas, Mr. Harrison was a member of the British ski team and competed in the 1952 and 1956 Winter Olympics. But he soon left the slopes and began playing guitar and singing at nightclubs and bars around Europe before coming to America in 1965.

In 1966, he was cast opposite Stefanie Powers in the spy spoof The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., which lasted one season.

His recording of "The Windmills of Your Mind," which was used as the theme music from the 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair, was a top 10 hit in England.

He moved to Canada in the early 1970s, toured the United States in his father's big stage hits My Fair Lady and Blithe Spirit, and returned in the late 1990s to England, where he continued to perform and record.

- Los Angeles Times