June 27, 2005
OH, MY (via AWW):
Pooh Mourns Tigger, Piglet (Josh Grossberg, Jun 28, 2005, CNN)
'Twas a sad weekend in Hundred Acre Wood.Paul Winchell, the early TV pioneer best remembered for creating a string of cartoon voices, most famously Winnie the Pooh's pal Tigger, died Friday. A day later, John Fiedler, the veteran stage and screen actor who voiced Piglet, passed away.
Supposedly, Winchell's last words were: "Piglet still survives..." Posted by Orrin Judd at June 27, 2005 4:22 PM
Well, since Disney people unceremoniously canned Paul Winchell as the voice of Tigger about three years ago -- dumping him in favor of younger (and cheaper) voice artist Jim Cummings -- his last words may have been some sort of epethet against Michael Eisner (who at least doesn't have very long to survive as the boss at the Mouse Factory).
Posted by: John at June 27, 2005 4:51 PMEither that or his last words may have been "Stop that pigeon!", since he was also the voice of Hanna-Barbera's Dick Dastardly (and Gargamel from the Smurfs, who essentially had the same voice as Dastardly's).
Posted by: John Barrett Jr. at June 27, 2005 4:56 PMAny relation to Walter?
Posted by: obc at June 27, 2005 5:55 PMWas he the ventriloquist with a dummy called Jerry Mahoney? I'm feeling old.
Posted by: jdkelly at June 27, 2005 5:56 PMHe was the voice of Jerry Mahoney.
He also had a bunch of patents, including one for an artificial heart, a patent he donated to Paul Jarvik at the University of Utah.
His daughter April Winchell has a blog. She's on the radio in LA, and is both hilarious and a great voice actress in her own right.
Posted by: H.D. Miller at June 27, 2005 7:02 PMH.D. Thanks, The 50's were a while back. I wasn't sure my memory was accurate.
Posted by: jdkelly at June 27, 2005 7:57 PMThe voice of Tony the Tigerr dies recently. Now the voice of Tigger.
These things come in threes. Who's next?
Trigger?
Posted by: oj at June 27, 2005 9:29 PMTrigger? Naaaaaay!
Posted by: obc at June 27, 2005 10:11 PMApril Winchell's blog shows a side of her dad that the public evidently didn't. I fondly remember the old B&W images of Paul Winchell & Jery Mahoney on early TV.
The picture painted by April is very sad.
Posted by: John J. Coupal at June 28, 2005 12:21 AMHe was a true genius in many different fields and should be remembered that way. Ms. Winchell's story is a sad one, but there are lots of similar ones out there.
Posted by: bart at June 28, 2005 7:08 AM