Jim Lewis, the voice of Benny the Bear on the Buckshot Show, passes away

Jim Lewis, the man who gave his voice to Benny the Bear on CTV Calgary's The Buckshot Show, has died.

For 30 years, Lewis and Ron Barge, better known as Buckshot, entertained generations of Calgary children and their parents.

At the time of its cancellation, in 1996, it was the longest-running children's television show in Canadian history.

Lewis died of cancer and leaves behind his three children, and one grandchild.

Bev Brand Lewis posted a farewell note on her Facebook page to make the announcement.

"Jim had a long battle with cancer and was clear for four years only for it to return with a vengeance over the last several months," she wrote. "He could no longer fight this brutal enemy and decided to let go and move on to his new experience in the spiritual world.

"I know he will find music there and will soar there as he did here. He was so missing his music but his health was not letting him do the thing he loved most."

Jim Lewis, the voice of Benny the Bear, receives applause from the audience following the Buckshot Show's farewell performance

CAN CON CREATION

Buckshot came about in the mid-1960s, when Barge, the studio director at Calgary's CFCN, pitched a kid's show to management, which was looking for ideas after the CRTC ordered stations to carry more Canadian content.

They said yes to a kid's show with Ron alone, but the show didn't really feel as if it was working as a solo endeavour.

“It was really not going very well,” said Ron, in a 2014 interview with CTV News. “Jim Lewis, who was one of the cameramen at that point, said ‘Why don't you do this and you could do this’ and I said, look I’ve got an idea, why don't you get behind the window and you hold the puppet and we'll talk.”

The new format was embraced by children. Jim Lewis says each partner was perfectly suited to his role.

“It was the perfect job for me because I was always a behind the scenes guy,” said Jim. “I was always a sidekick so I loved being behind the scenes.”

The duo ended up doing nearly 10,000 shows together. Among the children who appeared on The Buckshot Show was Laureen Harper, Stephen's wife.

"Thank you for loving a man that was a good guy, loved his family, and his music and was a “Live and let Live" man," Bev wrote on Facebook, after promising to post some of her favourite memories of Jim in the coming weeks.

"Rest in peace my Jim, I will join you in the spirit world one day down the road."

With files from Ryan White