Profile: Paul Winchell (Last in a Series)

[tv star collector]

The most impressive aspect of Paul Winchell's career is not that he has become one of the country's most respected ventriloquists or one of the earliest television stars or the fact that he provided the voice for Winnie the Pooh's pal Tigger, Dick Dastardly, or Gargamel on THE SMURFS. These accomplishments pale in comparison to his efforts in the field of medicine as the co-creator of an early version of the artificial heart.

Born on Dec. 21, 1922, in Manhattan and raised in Coney Island, Winchell recounted his restrictive childhood in his 1982 book, GOD 2000. He had hoped to one day become a doctor, but knowing his Depression-era family had no money for medical school tuition, the 13-year-old turned his attention
to something far less expensive--ventriloquism.

He went on to win first prize on the radio show THE MAJOR BOWES AMATEUR HOUR and, eventually, appeared as a guest several times on Ed Sullivan's show and Milton Berle's TEXACO STAR THEATRE. He later starred, with his dummy Jerry Mahoney, on a number of children's TV shows.

Enjoying his newfound fame, Winchell had no idea that his amazingly good fortune would, just as quickly, turn into a long, unstoppable slide--which ended with him on the inside of an asylum. With the death of his [controlling and verbally abusive] mother, Winchell wrote that he became acutely aware of his own mortality. Though successful, he regretted that his academic education had been sorely neglected. At 35, he realized he now had the money to pursue his interest in medicine, so he enrolled in pre-med at Columbia University. There he went on rounds with interns and had the opportunity to watch all kinds of operations. Ever conscious of his mother's death due to heart failure, he watched open-heart surgery and was suddenly struck with the idea of the artificial heart.

When Winchell finally came out of the nightmare [of wrestling with his personal demons] with the help of years of therapy, he moved to California in 1962 to pick up the pieces and start all over again. He proved extremely resilient, doing guest spots on shows, including THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, and resuming his ventriloquism with dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead
Smiff, while success in commercial voice-overs established him as a reliable pitchman. Soon he found himself working for the legendary animation team of Hanna and Barbera, all the while continuing his medical research.

Finally, on July 16, 1963, he was granted U.S. patent #3,097,366 for an early version of the artificial heart.

By 1968, Winchell was heard as the voice of Dick Dastardly for the WACKY RACES (and its spin-off DASTARDLY & MUTTLEY IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES). But it was another assignment in 1968 which became his mainstay for 30 years, one of the most endearing characters of all time, and his personal favorite.

Disney introduced "Tigger" in the Academy Award-winning "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day." Although the character is not too far from his natural speaking voice, Winchell was very surprised to be chosen to play the lovable, bouncy tiger. At the audition, it seemed as if everybody in the business was vying for the role (Paul Frees, Shepard Menken, Daws Butler, Don Messick). But Disney liked Winch's reading, and he was on his way to becoming an animation icon.

The 1970s found Winchell's animation star on the rise with no sign of fading. An abundance of TV work for Hanna-Barbera included Fleegle on THE BANANA SPLITS, Bubi on HELP! IT'S THE HAIR BEAR BUNCH, and Goober of GOOBER AND THE GHOST CHASERS ... balanced nicely with his work on such Disney theatricals as "The Aristocats" (as the Chinese cat), "The Fox and the Hound" (as Boomer), and "Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, Too." He also found time to host a children' game show, RUNAROUND, and guest star as a hippie director of detergent commercials on THE BRADY BUNCH.

But the 1970s also found Winchell keeping up with his medical studies. In 1974
he graduated from Acupuncture Research Institute College. The following year, he received a D.S.C. degree from National Christian University. "I work on a lot of things," he said. "I'm a hypnotherapist and I work with paraplegics and quadriplegics, trying to get them motivated to begin some new techniques .."

Winchell has tried to use his position as voice-over artist to innovate cartoons as well. He even saw the ultimate in politically correct cartoons, THE SMURFS, as a possible forum for social concerns. [He wanted them to deal with racial issues by introducing a red Smurf. But Hanna-Barbera didn't like the idea.] Regardless, Winchell still saw THE SMURFS as an
educational show with "the same kind of appeal as 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.' He enjoyed giving voice to Gargamel, as he saw it as more of an acting challenge than just coming up with another voice. In developing the character, H-B wanted an evil, lascivious kind of guy, but not really frightening. He enjoyed doing Gargamel for nine years.

By the 1990s, Winchell's demons were behind him and his plans for the future seemed unstoppable, until fate took another turn. Despite preventive measures, including abstinence from smoking and weight-training with a low-cholesterol diet, Winchell was forced to undergo double by-pass surgery. Moreover, during the course of the surgery, Winchell suffered a stroke which left him with diminished vision.

Recovering and regaining his professional momentum, Winchell channeled his energy into a myriad of projects. In 2004, he published a brutally honest autobiography entitled WINCH, which details his bouts with mental illness and his struggles with personal demons.

[THE MAGIC BEHIND THE VOICES, by Tim Lawson & Alisa Persons (2004)]

Paul Winchell--ventriloquist, inventor and TV children's show host--died in 2005, at age 82 (ironically on the day before actor John Fiedler, the voice of Piglet, passed away).

For further reading, I recommend the 2003 book DUMMY DAYS: AMERICA'S FAVORITE VENTRILOQUISTS FROM RADIO AND EARLY TV, by Kelly Asbury.