Sad news for Cindy !

[Ron G.]

Paul Winchell, Voice of Tigger Dies

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Paul Winchell, a famed ventriloquist best remembered as the voice of the irrepressible Tigger in the Winnie the Pooh series, has died, an associate said on Sunday. He was 82.

Winchell died on Friday in the Los Angeles area, according associate Johnny Blue Star and a Web site operated by Winchell's daughter, the actress April Winchell.

Winchell was a fixture in American children's television in the 1950s and 1960s in a string of shows featuring him giving voice to the sidekicks he created and made famous, the dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff.

But it was his voice work on a wide range of cartoons and animated features that captivated a later generation of viewers, including turns as Gargamel of "The Smurfs," Dick Dastardly of "Wacky Races" and Fleegle on "The Banana Splits Adventure Hour."

Winchell was most famous for his voicing to the hyperkinetic Tigger in a series of appearances in Walt Disney Co. Winnie the Pooh productions for over three decades beginning in 1968.

He won a Grammy in 1974 for "Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too," including the movie's signature song "The Wonderful Thing about Tiggers."

On the award-winning soundtrack, Winchell gives a throaty, bouncy rendition to the memorable lyric: "The wonderful thing about tiggers, is tiggers are wonderful things! Their tops are made out of rubber, their bottoms are made out of springs!"

Jerry Mahoney, who began with an appearance in a 1936 radio audition, was inspired by ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his sidekick, Charlie McCarthy, Winchell said.

In 1986, Winchell won a nearly $18 million verdict against Metromedia Inc., which he claimed destroyed the only surviving tapes of his "Winchell Mahoney Time" children's show from the mid-1960s after a dispute over ownership rights.

Born in New York City in 1922, Winchell devoted energy in his later years to pursuits like publishing on Christian theology and promoting fish farming in Africa, said Johnny Blue Star, who collaborated in a screenplay based on the autobiography "Winch."

Winchell was also an inventor with a patent for a prototype artificial heart he built in the 1960s in the same workshop in which he created his ventriloquist dummies, Blue Star said. He also created an "invisible" garter belt, a flameless cigarette lighter and an early version of the disposable razor.

"He was more or less a self-taught renaissance man," he said.

(Reporting by Paritosh Bansal in Los Angeles)

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.

[Cindy!]

G'bye Paul...thanks for the tiggeriffic times!

[shazdancer]

I remember the "Winchell Mahoney Time" TV series, which I watched as a kid. Paul Winchell had the ability to see the silly side of life, and put it into his characters. He could be in-your-face loud, but harmless at the same time. The quintessential punster.

To quote Shel Silverstein, he "put something silly in the world that ain't been there before."

Shaz

[OnionEater]

"Knuckle Head Smith" was my favorite charactor as child.

[Raf]

I loved Gargamel.

Any hater of Smurfs is a friend of mine! :)-->

[outandabout]

My sympathies to you, Cindy, at this time of great sorrow

[smurfette]

Raf,

I will take that comment personally..... :P-->

Of course things would not have been the same without Gargamel.

I loved Tigger too--its a sad day :(-->

[TheSongRemainsTheSame]

Tigger: You can't bounce the bounce if you can't even pronounce the bounce.

Roo: What is this doo-hickey?

Tigger: Why, that's no doo-hickey. It's a thing-a-ma-bob.

Tigger: The wonderful thing about tiggers / Is tiggers are wonderful things / Their tops are made out of rubber / Their bottoms are made out of springs / They're bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy fun, fun, fun, fun, fun / But the most wonderful thing about tiggers is I'm the only one / Tiggers are cuddly fellas / Tiggers are awfully sweet / Everyone el-es is jealous / That's why I repeat and repeat / The wonderful thing about tiggers / Is tiggers are marvellous chaps / They're loaded with vim and with vigor / They love to leap in your laps / They're jumpy, bumpy, clumpy, pumpy fun, fun, fun, fun, fun / But the most wonderful thing about tiggers is I'm the only one / I'm the only...

Tigger crashes into Winnie the Pooh

[Belle]

Uh-oh! I knew that was coming!!

Beware the wrath of Smurfette!!

[LG]

It was a bad weekend for Pooh characters. Paul Winchell died on Friday and John Fiedler, the voice of Piglet, died on Saturday.

[Raf]

quote:

Originally posted by smurfette:

Raf,

I will take that comment personally..... :P-->

Of course things would not have been the same without Gargamel.

I loved Tigger too--its a sad day :(-->

Well, I don't know about you, but where I come from, one woman living alone in a village with 100 guys would have been a serial single mom.