Ben & Shae Cecka's family in Gilbert, AZ

John Fiedler (Pigglet)

Paul Winchell (Tigger)

John Donald Fiedler

Typical of busy character actors, John Fielder has made his face–and voice–recognizable to millions. Many would know the bald-pated Fiedler as therapy patient Mr. Peterson on TV’s “The Bob Newhart Show” (1972); others might first recognize him for the 1968 movie and spin-off TV series “The Odd Couple” (1970) (or perhaps even from the Broadway play that preceded them). Even kids would know that helium-high voice from animated Disney features like Robin Hood (1973), The Fox and the Hound (1981) and the “Winnie the Pooh” stories in which he voices Piglet. The son of an Irish-German beer salesman, Fiedler knew he wanted to be an actor from the childhood days when he had a full head of reddish-yellow hair. He made his first professional appearances on stage, branched out into live TV in New York and, then, during the 20 years he lived in Hollywood (1960-80), turned up in many films and an ever greater number of popular TV series. He now resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Paul Wilchen (Winch )

Born Paul Wilchin, on December 21, 1922, the son of Sol and Clara Wilchin, Paul Winchell grew up to be the most beloved ventriloquist of the children of the USA. Ironically, as famous as Paul is, his dummy, Jerry Mahoney, may be even 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; _”What’s My Name?” (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 Paul Winchell 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, a role he played behind the scenes until 1999, when he was replaced by Jim Cummings, who also played Pooh from the time that Sterling Holloway died. He was also the voice of many other cartoon characters that are famous all over the world.

A little know fact about Winchell is he is 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 fish, and many other inventions that are still around today.