John Fiedler, a stage and screen actor who grew up in Wisconsin and won fame as the voice of Piglet in Walt Disney’s Winnie-the-Pooh films, died from cancer, according to his brother, James Fiedler. He was 80.
Fiedler died on Saturday in New York, a day after the death of Paul Winchell (82) who created the lispy voice of Winnie the Pooh’s animated friend Tigger in the Disney films.
John Fiedler’s stage credits included the part of Medvedenko in The Sea Gull starring Montgomery Clift and the Broadway productions of A Raisin in the Sun with Sidney Poitier and The Odd Couple starring Walter Matthau and Art Carney.
He landed character parts in movies, including True Grit with John Wayne and A Touch of Mink with Cary Grant. He also played parts on TV, including Star Trek,/i> and The Bob Newhart Show.
But he became famous for the squeaky voice of the ever-worrying Piglet.
Fiedler continued voicing Piglet, most recently this year in Pooh’s Heffalump Movie. Last year, he did Winnie-the-Pooh: Springtime with Roo, and in 2003, Piglet’s Big Movie.
Fiedler was born in Platteville in southwestern Wisconsin and grew up in the Milwaukee suburb of Shorewood, graduating from high school there before serving in the navy in World War II, his brother said. After his military service, he went to New York. – Sapa-AP