What a Character

I heard something on the radio today that made me sad. Of course, while the news we typically hear everyday is enough to give me a wide range of emotions, rarely is sadness one of them. I feel empathy for the soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the major news outlets report casualties as numbers, which has the effect of numbing its affect on me.

No, the sadness I felt was on a personal level. The news that brought this on? Someone I have known for almost all my life has died. He had never heard of me of course, why would he? Most of you have probably never heard his name or even knew of his existence, but if you grew up in the 60s, you knew his voice. His name was John Fielder. He was a character actor during most of his career in Hollywood, co-starring with some of the all-time greats, but usually in the background.

Some of the movies you may have heard of include; Sharky’s Machine and The Cannonball Run with Burt Reynolds, True Grit with John Wayne, The Odd Couple, A Raisin in the Sun, 12 Angry Men with Henry Fonda, and many others.

His TV appearances include guest spots in some of the most notable shows from the 1950s up. Some of these include: Cosby, L.A. Law, The Golden Girls, Cheers, Quincy, Fantasy Island, The Rockford Files, Three’s Company, Alice, The Odd Couple, The Streets of San Francisco, Gunsmoke, Bewitched, Get Smart, I Spy, Death Valley Days, Perry Mason, The Munsters, The Fugitive, Dr. Kildare, The Twilight Zone, Dobie Gillis, and Peter Gunn among others. It’s worth noting that he appeared on many of these shows more than once, sometimes playing different characters. He was also the physical embodiment of Jack the Ripper in what was one of the weirder episodes of Star Trek called, ‘Wolf in the Fold’.

He played all these characters over his career, but was probably best known for his voice work in a Disney animated series. He did a lot of work for Disney over the years and provided the voice of many different cartoon characters. The life of a character actor (even one as busy as he was) is one typically spent in relative anonymity. He never made the cover of People Magazine and was rarely mentioned in most popular entertainment media outlets of any type. But I knew who he was and I thank him for all the good works and smiles that he has given my children and me for over 40 years. Oddly enough, fellow character actor and comedian Paul Winchell that John Fiedler worked with for many years in the same cartoon, died the previous day.

Oh Da-da-da-da dear, dear! Goodbye Piglet. I’ll really miss you.