John Fiedler (1925–2005)
John Fiedler, a stage and screen actor who grew up in Wisconsin and won fame as the voice of Piglet in Walt Disney's Winnie-the-Pooh films, died June 25 in New York from cancer, according to his brother, James Fiedler. He was 80.
The actor's stage credits included the part of Medvedenko in The Sea Gull starring Montgomery Clift and the Broadway productions of A Raisin in the Sun with Sidney Poitier and The Odd Couple starring Walter Matthau and Art Carney.
He landed character parts in movies, including True Grit with John Wayne and That Touch of Mink with Cary Grant. He also played parts on TV, including Mr. Peterson, the meek patient who was often a target for Jack Riley's sarcastic Mr. Carlin, on The Bob Newhart Show. But he became famous for the squeaky voice of the ever-worrying Piglet. Fiedler continued voicing Piglet, most recently this year in Pooh's Heffalump Movie. He also voiced Winnie-the-Pooh: Springtime with Roo and Piglet's Big Movie. "Walt Disney heard it on a program and said, 'That's Piglet,'" his brother James Fiedler told the Los Angeles Times.
Fiedler was born in Platteville in southwestern Wisconsin and grew up in the Milwaukee suburb of Shorewood, graduating from high school there before serving in the Navy in World War II, his brother said. After his military service, he went to New York.
—Associated Press
Ron Randell (1918–2005)
Australia-born actor Ron Randell, a veteran of film and television, died June 11 of complications from a stroke at a care facility in Mar Vista. He was 86.
Randell began his career in Australian radio at age 17 and later moved into theatre and movies. His starring turn in 1946's Smithy, which focused on famed Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingford-Smith, led to a film contract that brought the actor out to Hollywood. His U.S. film debut was 1947's It Had To Be You; his dozens of film credits also included Lorna Doone, The Loves of Carmen, and Kiss Me Kate, in which he played Cole Porter. The actor was also popular on the Broadway stage and starred in such productions as The World of Susie Wong, Sherlock Holmes, and Candida.
Additionally, Randell worked extensively in British television and starred in the series O.S.S. He was a frequent guest star in American TV, appearing on such shows as Gunsmoke and Bewitched. In lieu of flowers, donations to The Actors' Fund of America are suggested (729 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY, 10019).
—BSW Staff
Paul Winchell (1922–2005)
Paul Winchell—a ventriloquist, inventor, and children's TV show host best known for creating the lispy voice of Winnie the Pooh's animated friend Tigger—died June 24 in his sleep at his Moorpark home, Burt Du Brow, a television producer and close family friend, told the Los Angeles Times. He was 82.
Over six decades, Winchell was a master ventriloquist—bringing dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff to life on television—and an inventor who held 30 patents, including one for an early artificial heart he built in 1963. But he was perhaps best known for his work as the voice of the lovable tiger in animated versions of A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh—with his trademark "T-I-double grrrr-R."
Winchell first voiced Tigger in 1968 for Disney's Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, which won an Academy Award for best animated short film, and continued to do so through 1999's Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving.
"I first met Walt Disney 25 or 30 years ago," Winchell recalled in a 1988 interview with The Associated Press. "He said, 'We're both in the same business. I use cartoons, and you use dummies, and we both entertain children.' That was long before I started working here. Walt gave me a VIP tour of the studio. I remember people doing voices. I said, 'Gee, that must be fun.' And here I am." Winchell voiced memorable characters in many animated features over the years for Disney and Hanna Barbera. He was Gargamel in The Smurfs, and Boomer in The Fox and the Hound. Winchell said he always tried to look for characteristics and idiosyncrasies in the voices he created. For Tigger, he created a slight lisp and a laugh. He credited his wife, who is British, for giving him the inspiration for Tigger's signature phrase: "TTFN, ta-ta for now."
In 1974 he earned a Grammy for best children's recording with "The Most Wonderful Things About Tiggers" from the feature Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too.
At age 13, Winchell was a winner on radio's Amateur Hour for doing his imitation of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Ventriloquist Bergen was his childhood hero, and Winchell said one of the greatest thrills of his life was a joint appearance with Bergen on the game show Masquerade Party. Winchell made his television debut in 1947 with a smart-mouthed puppet he had invented in his early teens, and within a year Winchell was host of The Bigelow Show. He hosted a number of children's shows, including The Paul Winchell–Jerry Mahoney Show and Circus Time.
In 1950, Winchell created Knucklehead Smiff and introduced him on The Spiedel Show, which later became What's My Name? Winchell's dummies are now at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
He was born in New York City Dec. 21, 1922. He contracted polio at age 6 and overcame speech impediments as he learned to throw his own voice. He attended Columbia University and also studied and practiced acupuncture and hypnosis. He donated his early artificial heart to the University of Utah for research. Dr. Robert Jarvik and other researchers at the university subsequently built an artificial heart, dubbed the Jarvik-7, which was implanted into patients after 1982. Among Winchell's other patents: a disposable razor, a flameless cigarette lighter, and an invisible garter belt.
—AP