Paul Winchell(1922-2005)
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Born Paul Wilchinsky on December 21, 1922, the son of Sol and Clara Wilchinsky, Paul Winchell grew up to be the most beloved ventriloquist of American children. Ironically, as famous as Paul was, his dummy, Jerry Mahoney, was probably more famous. Not since Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy in the previous two decades had a ventriloquist and his dummy known equal celebrity.
Entering the spotlight on the Edward Bowes
"Original Amateur Hour" (1948), he began working soon after in a review
show in which Major Bowes would showcase the winners of his radio
program. He started his television career on the CBS program
The Bigelow Show (1948) in
1948;
The Paul Winchell Show (1950),
originally called "The Spiedel Show," in 1950; and, finally, the
best-known of his shows
Winchell-Mahoney Time (1965).
With a clubhouse premise, his dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead
Smiff--another of Paul's characters--as the clubhouse leaders, and the
music of the bandleader Milton Delugg. A
new innovation of Winchell's was to replace the dummy's hands with
those of puppeteers who were hidden behind the dummies in a crate.
Winch also played many serous dramatic roles on television without his
dummy sidekicks.
What may be even more famous is that he created the voice of Tigger for
the Walt Disney Company's "Winnie The Pooh" motion-picture series,
based on the famous books by A.A. Milne. He
played the role behind the scenes until 1999, when he was replaced by
Jim Cummings, who also voiced Pooh
from the time that Sterling Holloway
died. He was also the voice of many other world-famous cartoon
characters.
A little-known fact about Winchell is that he was one of the original
inventors of an artificial heart--years before the first successful
transplant with such of a device--an automobile that runs on battery
power, a method for breeding tilapia, and many other inventions that
are still around today.
Entering the spotlight on the Edward Bowes
"Original Amateur Hour" (1948), he began working soon after in a review
show in which Major Bowes would showcase the winners of his radio
program. He started his television career on the CBS program
The Bigelow Show (1948) in
1948;
The Paul Winchell Show (1950),
originally called "The Spiedel Show," in 1950; and, finally, the
best-known of his shows
Winchell-Mahoney Time (1965).
With a clubhouse premise, his dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead
Smiff--another of Paul's characters--as the clubhouse leaders, and the
music of the bandleader Milton Delugg. A
new innovation of Winchell's was to replace the dummy's hands with
those of puppeteers who were hidden behind the dummies in a crate.
Winch also played many serous dramatic roles on television without his
dummy sidekicks.
What may be even more famous is that he created the voice of Tigger for
the Walt Disney Company's "Winnie The Pooh" motion-picture series,
based on the famous books by A.A. Milne. He
played the role behind the scenes until 1999, when he was replaced by
Jim Cummings, who also voiced Pooh
from the time that Sterling Holloway
died. He was also the voice of many other world-famous cartoon
characters.
A little-known fact about Winchell is that he was one of the original
inventors of an artificial heart--years before the first successful
transplant with such of a device--an automobile that runs on battery
power, a method for breeding tilapia, and many other inventions that
are still around today.