TV's favorite toilet paper pitchman has reached the end of the roll.
Dick Wilson, aka Mr. Whipple of "Please don't squeeze the Charmin" fame, died Monday at the Motion Picture & Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, his daughter announced. He was 91.
Wilson's showbiz career spanned eight decades and included roles in radio, television, film and theater, but he was undoubtedly best known for his portrayal of a grocer obsessed with keeping housewives from fondling his displays of toilet tissue.
From 1964 to 1981, Wilson appeared in more than 500 Charmin spots, before he was eventually replaced by the cartoon bears of today. (View one of his classic commercials via youtube.com.)
Parent company Proctor & Gamble brought him back for an encore in 1999, which featured Whipple coming "out of retirement" against the advice of his cronies for one more chance to hawk the supersoft toilet paper.
"It is not an exaggeration to say that the Mr. Whipple character, which Dick Wilson portrayed for so many years, is one of the most recognizable faces in the history of American advertising," Charmin brand manager Dennis Legault said in a statement.
"He is a part of the Charmin family, and he will be missed."
Though Wilson initially resisted commercial work, he told the San Francisco Examiner in 1985 that it grew on him over the years.
"It's the hardest thing to do in the entire acting realm. You've got 24 seconds to introduce yourself, introduce the product, say something nice about it and get off gracefully," he said.
In addition to his advertising career, Wilson's TV credits included appearances on shows such as Hogan's Heroes, Maude, The Partridge Family and Bewitched, while his film credits included roles World's Greatest Athlete, Strongest Man in the World and Planet of the Apes, among many others.
Born in England in 1916, Wilson moved to Canada as a child and later became a U.S. citizen in 1954. He is survived by his wife, Meg, a son and two daughters.