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Dick Wilson - R.I.P.

Not exactly a household name but try this: Please don't squeeze the Charmin. That Dick Wilson. Passed away today at age 91. Fox News has the story:

'Mr. Whipple' of Charmin Fame Dies at 91
Dick Wilson, the actor and pitchman who played the uptight grocer begging customers "Please, don't squeeze the Charmin," died Monday. He was 91.

The man famous as TV's "Mr. Whipple" died of natural causes at the Motion Picture & Television Fund Hospital in Woodland Hills, said his daughter Melanie Wilson, who is known for her role as a flight attendant on the ABC sitcom "Perfect Strangers."

Over 21 years, Wilson made more than 500 commercials as Mr. George Whipple, a man consumed with keeping bubbly housewives from fondling the soft toilet paper. The punch line of most spots was that Whipple himself was a closeted Charmin-squeezer.

He also acted a lot of television shows but never was attracted to the cinema. His comment:

"The kind of pictures they're making today, I'll stick with toilet paper," he told The Associated Press in 1985.

A bit of history:

He was born in England in 1916, the son of a vaudeville entertainer and a singer. He moved to Canada as a child, serving in the Canadian Air Force during World War II, and became a U.S. citizen in 1954, he told the AP.

Posted by DaveH at November 19, 2007 10:39 PM