Duane C. Rice took a shine to art and circuses as a boy, and he pursued those interests through adulthood with a career in advertising and a sideline as a clown known as “Hot Stuff.”

Mr. Rice, 83, died of complications form Parkinson’s disease Sunday, Jan. 18, in the Presbyterian Home in Evanston, where he had lived for the last three years, said his son Lindsay.

Mr. Rice came to Chicago from Battle Creek, Mich., after high school to study at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts under Ruth Van Sickle Ford.

He then worked for a couple of local ad agencies before starting his own firm, Duane Rice Advertising, in the early 1960s. Among his clients was the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., for which he did a weekly “Fun Facts” feature that appeared in Sunday comics sections, his son said.

A resident of Wilmette for many years, Mr. Rice also worked on the successful 1966 U.S. Senate bid of fellow North Shore resident Charles Percy.

While advertising provided his living, Mr. Rice also practiced art as a hobby. He was a watercolorist and proficient in pen and ink sketches. He traveled widely through Europe, always with his art supplies, and would set up his easel on streets and public squares.

Among his traveling companions was Clarence Schawk, chairman of Schawk Inc., where Mr. Rice freelanced after closing his own shop in the late 1970s.

“He’d sit on the dock when we got off the boat and start sketching right away,” Schawk said, recalling trips down the Danube and other European waterways. “Then he’d use them on Christmas cards.”

As a boy, Mr. Rice was fascinated by the circus, recalling years later how he would sit on his grandmother’s porch to watch the parade of acts when the Big Top came to Battle Creek, his son said. With other boys from town, he found work at the circus, cleaning up and doing other odd jobs.

In 1969, he joined Shriners International and became part of the organization’s clown unit. His persona was “Hot Stuff,” a chef who wore an oversized toque on his head and a large heart outside his chest. He would walk up to children, press a button and the heart would beat rapidly, much to the children’s glee.

“At our company picnics, he’d put on his clown outfit and give the kids a treat,” Schawk said.

“Hot Stuff” was voted Clown of the Year for the Chicago area Shriner’s clown unit in 1973, said Norm Maske, who performed with Mr. Rice under the name “Stormy.”

The clowns would perform at up to 30 parades a year and make numerous visits to Shriner’s hospitals, Maske said. They also entertained the crowds at the Shriner’s annual circus at the old Medinah Temple.

“He was a natural,” his son said. “As long as he could remember, he had two goals: to be an artist and a clown.”

Mr. Rice’s wife, Margaret, and two of his children, Gregory and Claudia, preceded him in death.

In addition to his son, he is survived by three grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Feb. 7 in Elliott Chapel at the Presbyterian Home, 3131 Simpson St., Evanston.