Paul Winchell, 82; the Voice of Tigger Gained Fame as Ventriloquist
LA Times
Paul Winchell, the voice of Tigger in “Winnie the Pooh” features for more than three decades and a versatile ventriloquist who became a fixture in early children’s television along with his dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff, has died. He was 82.
Winchell died early Friday in his sleep at his home in Moorpark, Burt Du Brow, a television producer and close family friend, said Saturday.
Although he was a legendary ventriloquist and built a career attracting legions of followers of that dwindling art, Winchell’s most durable legacy may be his rich voice as Tigger and other animated characters on television and in motion pictures.
He became the lovable Tigger in 1968 for Disney’s “Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day,” which earned an Academy Award for best animated short film. Winchell continued to voice A.A. Milne’s imaginative little tiger on television and the big screen through “Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving” in 1999. In recent years, Jim Cummings has voiced Tigger as well as Pooh.
