Actor, Children's Entertainer, Musician, Puppeteer, Canadian Treasure, and Canadian Cultural Icon. He will be best remembered as the host of "The Friendly Giant," a popular Canadian children's television program from the 1950s through the 1980s, which was broadcast on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation or CBC Television and had well over 3000 episodes. On the show, The Friendly Giant would welcome his guests to his castle by putting a tiny rocking chair or two beside the tiny fireplace, you would then see a big boot, he would then say, "Look Up, Waaaaay Up!" and then the camera would pan up to show his "giant" face and he would bring out his friends Jerome the giraffe and Rusty the rooster. He was born one of two children as Robert Mandt Homme to Norwegian parents, Raymond Blaine Homme (1892-1973), and his wife Roselyn Hanson Homme (1894-1976), in Stoughton, Wisconsin, on March 8, 1919. His siblings included his sister Helen R. Homme (1917-1960). His parents were also high school woodworking teachers. He was educated locally attending elementary school at West Side School in Stoughton, Wisconsin, before attending Stoughton High School in Stoughton, Wisconsin, where he graduated from in 1937. He then enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, and graduated with a major in Economics. He worked at a bank before joining the Air National Guard during World War I. His unit was activated in June 1941, prior to the Japanaese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. He was soon promoted to Staff Sergeant, a rank he held for the duration of the war. One of his military assignments was to study psychology at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He was later sent to study again at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin. He finished the war processing and classifying discharging servicemen. Among the notable people he discharged was the actor and director, Captain John Huston (1906-1987). He married to Esther Eleanor Anderson Homme (1922-2017), in Stoughton, Wisconsin, on May 25, 1947, and they would have four children together, Richard, Ann, Ruth, and Peter. Following his graduation, he took a job with the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, at the State Radio Station or WHA. While working at the State Radio Station or WHA, he would regularly drive from Madison, Wisconsin, to Chicago, Illinois, to watch rehearsals of a pioneering network television variety show called, "The Dave Garroway Show." From these trips, he had developed an interest in programming. In 1953 as he was driving back from Chicago, Illinois, to Madison, Wisconsin, he imagined creating a children's program. He recognized that giants were usually portrayed as frightening. It was his wife, Esther, who came up with the idea of a "friendly giant." He recognized that taking what is usually associated as a scary character and making it nice makes it doubly nice. "Casper the Friendly Ghost," is all the more friendly because that is not how ghosts are imagined. A friendly giant therefore becomes an even more friendly giant when compared to the Jack and the Beanstalk variety giant. He approached the program director of the State Radio Station or WHA. The University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, was six months away from having their television license. While continuing to work full-time on the radio, he began developing the new children's television show. "The Friendly Giant," began on an educational television station at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin, on May 8, 1954. National Educational Television carried it in the United States from 1955 to 1968. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation of CBC Television produced it and telecast it from September 30, 1958 to March 1985. It was later run in syndication on Canada's YTV. The show was outlined but never scripted. His dramatic style as host is minimalist. He recognized that television was a "hot medium" so that it was easy to exaggerate any actions or dialogue. Consistent with his personality, he tended to underplay his performances. This was in contrast to other high-energy early television programs such as "Howdy Doody." He and his puppeteer partner originally the late Ken Ohst (1922-1987), in Wisconsin and then the late Rod Coneybeare (1930-2019), in Canada used the comfortable repartee of old radio programs he had enjoyed like, Vic and Sade, Burns and Allen, Bob and Ray, and the Easy Aces. One of his television production innovations was to change the perspective of the camera. Instead of the normal camera angles, raise the miniatures to camera height and place the human being as the unusual shot above the set. Suddenly, the person became the giant. Using a tight cover-shot and a loose close-up seemed to violate the newly established rules of television but it worked perfectly in creating the sense of a large giant. This countered the Godzilla effect where viewers watched a full-size monster walk around a miniature set. He always kept the giant character somewhere in the shot to emotionally reassure his preschool audience and to minimize any jarring effect. Growing up in a musical family, they enjoyed singing together and performing for the extended family each other on a Saturday night. Young Homme and his father had a little vaudeville act that was available when needed in the community. He later joined the school band at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin. While he is best known for playing the recorder, his first instruments were the clarinet and the saxophone. He first purchased a recorder while stationed in New York City, New York, during his military service to give him an inexpensive and portable instrument during his travels. The recorder would become his signature instrument. On each episode of the show, he played three different recorders to match the pitch of each to the desired tone at that stage of the show. He was the model in a number of paintings by his friend and Canadian artist, James Lumbers. Lumbers' "Moments in Time" paintings often featured images from the present together with a faded image of a person and things from the past at the same location. His likeness was used in the images of grandfather types in these paintings such as "Lucky Strike" and "Gone Fishing." The Springer spaniel in "Old Friends" was the Homme's family dog, Molly. In one painting of a honky-tonk piano player called "Billy Nine Fingers," He and his wife are one of the couples sitting at a table in the foreground. He became a citizen of Canada in the early 1990s, holding both American and Canadian citizenships, and was invested into the Order of Canada as a Member on November 2, 1998, in Grafton, Ontario, Canada. As he was too ill to travel, the Governor General Roméo LeBlanc (1927-2009), came to him instead of making him come to Rideau Hall in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, where the award is usually bestowed. He and his wife retired to a rural property near Grafton, Ontario, Canada. In retirement, he joined the Cobourg Rotary Club in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada, and was active as a member. He and fellow Rotarian, Wally Reid formed a group, "Time Share." Together, they regularly performed music in area retirement and nursing homes. He passed away following a battle with prostate cancer in Grafton, Ontario, Canada, on May 2, 2000, at the age of 81. Following his death, he was buried under a simple headstone in Fairview Cemetery in Grafton, Ontario, Canada. His son Richard was a Toronto, Ontario, Canada-based jazz bassist who died on May 6, 2011, at the age of 71. His wife Esther passed away in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada, on July 8, 2017, at the age of 94, and she was buried beside her husband in Fairview Cemetery in Grafton, Ontario, Canada. The singer and voice actress Emilie-Claire Barlow is his step-granddaughter.