Actor Dick Wilson, 91, longtime 'Mr. Whipple'

LOS ANGELES - Dick Wilson, 91, the actor and pitchman who played the uptight grocer begging customers, "Please, don't squeeze the Charmin," died yesterday.

The man famous as TV's "Mr. Whipple" died of natural causes at the Motion Picture & Television Fund Hospital in Woodland Hills, said his daughter Melanie Wilson, known for her role as a flight attendant on the ABC sitcom

Perfect Strangers

.

Over 21 years, he made more than 500 commercials as George Whipple, a man consumed with keeping bubbly homemakers from fondling the soft toilet paper. The punch line of most spots was that Whipple himself was a closet Charmin-squeezer.

The first of his Charmin commercials aired in 1964, and by the time the campaign ended in 1985, the tagline and Mr. Wilson were pop-culture touchstones.

"Everybody says, 'Where did they find you?' I say I was never lost," he told the San Francisco Examiner in 1985. "I've been an actor for 55 years."

He also appeared on several episodes of

Bewitched

and played various characters on

Hogan's Heroes

,

The Bob Newhart Show,

and Walt Disney productions.

Though Mr. Wilson said he initially resisted commercial work, he learned to appreciate its nuance.

"It's the hardest thing to do in the entire acting realm," he said. "You've got 24 seconds to introduce yourself, introduce the product, say something nice about it, and get off gracefully."

Dennis Legault, Procter & Gamble's Charmin brand manager, said Mr. Wilson deserved much of the credit for the product's success. He called the Mr. Whipple character "one of the most recognizable faces in the history of American advertising."

After he retired, he continued to do occasional guest appearances for the brand and to act on television. He declared himself not impressed with modern cinema.

"The kind of pictures they're making today," he told the Associated Press in 1985, "I'll stick with toilet paper."

Procter & Gamble eventually replaced the Whipple ads with cartoon bears but brought Mr. Wilson back for an encore in 1999. The ad showed Mr. Wilson "coming out of retirement" against the advice of his golfing and poker buddies for one more chance to sell Charmin.

"He is part of the culture," his daughter said. "He was still funny to the very end. That's his legacy."

Mr. Wilson was born in England in 1916, the son of a vaudeville entertainer and a singer. He moved to Canada as a child, serving in the Canadian Air Force during World War II, and became a U.S. citizen in 1954, he told the AP.

Mr. Wilson is also survived by his wife, Meg; a son, Stuart; and another daughter, Wendy.