First we lose Jack Wild and now Lennie Weinrib the vioce Pufnstuf himself.
Weinrib died Wednesday at a hospital in Santiago, Chile, after suffering a stroke, said his daughter Linda Weinrib. He had retired from show business in the early '90s and moved to Chile, the native country of his second wife, Sonia.
By the mid-1960s, he was considered one of the top 10 voice-over talents working in commercials — supplying voices for everything from Ford and Avis to Pepsodent toothpaste and Hunt's tomato sauce.
He also provided voices for numerous TV cartoon series, including "The Flintstones," "The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show," "The New Tom & Jerry Show," "Garfield and Friends," and "Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo" (on which he did the original voice of Scrappy-Doo).
"Made a quarter of a million every year for years," Weinrib said in a 1995 interview with The Times. "Spent it on Rolls-Royces, boats, first editions, guns, knives. Never thought about money. Did about 100 cartoons, Olympia beer, McDonald's commercials. I was Mr. Pringle of Pringle's potato chips."
On the Sid and Marty Krofft-produced "H.R. Pufnstuf," which was set on "Living Island," Weinrib provided the voice for Pufnstuf, the island's dragon mayor, as well as many other characters.
A movie version of "H.R. Pufnstuf" is in development, and Weinrib would have done the voice of Pufnstuf and probably other characters, Krofft said.
"Nobody ever captured H.R. Pufnstuf like this guy."
By Dennis McLellan, LA Times
Thanks to MJ who emailed me this story early this morning.
2 comments:
I LOVED H.R. Pufnstuf. I remember waking up early on Saturdays and watching it with my sister. Those were the days! Every so often, you can still find the show on really early on Saturdays and/or Sundays. I guess they put it on early because they don't want to scare the kids with those wide collars and bell bottoms!
Ha Ha.
You can now pick up the whole series on one dvd set. A must have.
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