In Remembrance: Paul Winchell

     Paul Winchell, the voice actor most famous for his role as the spring-tailed Tigger in Walt Disney Studio’s “Winnie The Pooh” series of animated films, has passed away on Friday, June 24, 2005 in Moorpark, CA. He was 82.

     Born Paul Wilchin on December 21, 1922 in New York City, Winchell was a shy child who grew into an entertainer considered by many to be a master ventriloquist. At age 13, he appeared on the Major Bowes’ Original Amateur Hour radio show, performing an imitation of ventriloguist Edgar Bergen and his dummy, Charlie McCarthy. In 1950, Winchell had his own television show featuring his dummy sidekicks Jerry Mahoney and the dimwitted Knucklehead Smiff.

     Winchell supplied the voices for numerous television cartoon series over a span of more than two decades, starting with The Jetsons and continuing through such shows as The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop, Dr. Seuss On The Loose, Wheelie And The Chopper Bunch, Clue Club, The Smurfs, Heathcliffe and The Gummi Bears.

     In 1968, Winchell was cast by the Disney Studios as the voice of Tigger in the animated short Winnie The Pooh And The Blustery Day. He credited his wife for coming up with Tigger’s signature line “Ta-ta for now!” He also voiced the character in the animated shorts Winnie The Pooh And Tigger Too! (1974) and Winnie The Pooh And A Day For Eyore (1983) and the feature length The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh (1977) as well as numerous television and direct-to-home video projects. He also contributed voices to the Disney animated films The Aristocats (1970) and The Fox And The Hound (1981).

     Outside of early television appearances with dummies Mahoney and Smiff, Winchell appeared only sporadically on-camera, most notably in a small role in Jerry Lewis’s Which Way To The Front? (1970) and in The Man From Clover Grove (1975).

     Winchell retired from voice work in 1999.