Actor, writer. Born Eddie Eleniak, an NBC scholarship brought him to California in the 1950s. From 1973 on he provided the voice of Jiminy Cricket for the Walt Disney Company and in his later years toured the United States in a one man show paying tribute to the comedian Jack Benny.∼Eddie Carroll, an actor who for decades gave voice to Jimmy Cricket in Disney projects and impersonated Jack Benny in a noted one man stage show, died April 6th from a brain tumor at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Hospital in Los Angeles. He was 76.
"He was so proud to do both roles," his wife, Carolyn Carroll, said. "He just admired the whole fantasy of Jimmy Cricket, and he loved the man - Jack Benny.
In 1973, Carroll became the second actor to voice the cricket, who was the title character's conscience in the 1940 animated film "Pinocchio". Before auditioning, Carroll studied Jimmy's signature song, "When You Wish Upon a Star," sung by Cliff Edwards. The Canadian born Carroll realized that he needed to adopt a midwestern accent.
His agent did "back flips" when Carroll got the part, he told the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News in 2008.
"He knew the role was a cottage industry," Carroll said. "There's something practically every month, a singalong film, computer game, recording as spokesman for Disney on Ice, a show at Disneyland or Disney World."
No one else voiced a Disney character for as long as long as Carroll did, said Rick Dempsey, senior vice president of Disney's Character Voices division.
"He totally was Jimmy Cricket," Dempsey said. "He really took what the character was into his own heart and in a sense lived that in his own life. He also was one of the best Jack Benny impersonators on the planet."
When a crew member on a 1982 film set ruined a scene by dropping a prop, Carroll broke the tension by bursting out with a trademark Benny line, "Oh, for heaven's sake, Rochester!" and "everybody laughed," Carroll later recalled.
It led to him being cast in the one man show "A Small Eternity With Jack Benny," which opened in 1983 in Santa Monica, California.
After touring in that show for a year, he wrote a tribute, "Jack Benny: Laughter in Bloom," and continued appearing as the comedian, who died in 1974, until late last year. He often toured six months a year.
Los Angeles magazine's reaction to the show in the 1990s was typical: "Before our eyes, he truly becomes the legendary condition."
Laura Leff, president of the International Jack Benny Fan Club, told the Los Angeles Times: "Jack's humor is based so much around character, and Eddie was able to recreate that in a very authentic way. It was the next thing to having Jack himself there."
Eddie Eleniak was born September 5, 1933, in Edmonton, Canada and acted in high school alongside another student, Robert Goulet. A bout with polio was not far behind him when Carroll came to Los Angeles in the mid-1950's with Goulet as part of an NBC talent program.
Soon after moving to the U.S., Carroll served in the Army. For two years, he wrote and produced shows for Armed Forces Radio and Television.
When his mother suggested he needed a simpler last name, he adopted "Carroll" for a favorite aunt.
In an acting class after the war, he met Jamie Farr, who would appear in the TV series "M.A.S.H." They formed a production company in the 1960's that developed a number of projects for networks and studios.
"We were like brothers, and we still are," Carroll said in 2005 in the Toledo (Ohio) Blade.
Carroll had appeared in more than 200 commericals, according to his website, and was a regular on the early 1970's variety program "The Don Knotts Show."
To portray Benny, Carroll taught himself to play violin and joked with a Times reporter in 1999: "Thank goodness Benny wasn't a great violinist or I'd be in trouble."
After walking onstage as Benny, he would put the violin down and drolly say, "Don't look so relieved; I play it later."
Above taken from April 13, 2010, issue of Tulsa World newspaper and drawn from wire reports.
"He was so proud to do both roles," his wife, Carolyn Carroll, said. "He just admired the whole fantasy of Jimmy Cricket, and he loved the man - Jack Benny.
In 1973, Carroll became the second actor to voice the cricket, who was the title character's conscience in the 1940 animated film "Pinocchio". Before auditioning, Carroll studied Jimmy's signature song, "When You Wish Upon a Star," sung by Cliff Edwards. The Canadian born Carroll realized that he needed to adopt a midwestern accent.
His agent did "back flips" when Carroll got the part, he told the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News in 2008.
"He knew the role was a cottage industry," Carroll said. "There's something practically every month, a singalong film, computer game, recording as spokesman for Disney on Ice, a show at Disneyland or Disney World."
No one else voiced a Disney character for as long as long as Carroll did, said Rick Dempsey, senior vice president of Disney's Character Voices division.
"He totally was Jimmy Cricket," Dempsey said. "He really took what the character was into his own heart and in a sense lived that in his own life. He also was one of the best Jack Benny impersonators on the planet."
When a crew member on a 1982 film set ruined a scene by dropping a prop, Carroll broke the tension by bursting out with a trademark Benny line, "Oh, for heaven's sake, Rochester!" and "everybody laughed," Carroll later recalled.
It led to him being cast in the one man show "A Small Eternity With Jack Benny," which opened in 1983 in Santa Monica, California.
After touring in that show for a year, he wrote a tribute, "Jack Benny: Laughter in Bloom," and continued appearing as the comedian, who died in 1974, until late last year. He often toured six months a year.
Los Angeles magazine's reaction to the show in the 1990s was typical: "Before our eyes, he truly becomes the legendary condition."
Laura Leff, president of the International Jack Benny Fan Club, told the Los Angeles Times: "Jack's humor is based so much around character, and Eddie was able to recreate that in a very authentic way. It was the next thing to having Jack himself there."
Eddie Eleniak was born September 5, 1933, in Edmonton, Canada and acted in high school alongside another student, Robert Goulet. A bout with polio was not far behind him when Carroll came to Los Angeles in the mid-1950's with Goulet as part of an NBC talent program.
Soon after moving to the U.S., Carroll served in the Army. For two years, he wrote and produced shows for Armed Forces Radio and Television.
When his mother suggested he needed a simpler last name, he adopted "Carroll" for a favorite aunt.
In an acting class after the war, he met Jamie Farr, who would appear in the TV series "M.A.S.H." They formed a production company in the 1960's that developed a number of projects for networks and studios.
"We were like brothers, and we still are," Carroll said in 2005 in the Toledo (Ohio) Blade.
Carroll had appeared in more than 200 commericals, according to his website, and was a regular on the early 1970's variety program "The Don Knotts Show."
To portray Benny, Carroll taught himself to play violin and joked with a Times reporter in 1999: "Thank goodness Benny wasn't a great violinist or I'd be in trouble."
After walking onstage as Benny, he would put the violin down and drolly say, "Don't look so relieved; I play it later."
Above taken from April 13, 2010, issue of Tulsa World newspaper and drawn from wire reports.
Actor, writer. Born Eddie Eleniak, an NBC scholarship brought him to California in the 1950s. From 1973 on he provided the voice of Jiminy Cricket for the Walt Disney Company and in his later years toured the United States in a one man show paying tribute to the comedian Jack Benny.∼Eddie Carroll, an actor who for decades gave voice to Jimmy Cricket in Disney projects and impersonated Jack Benny in a noted one man stage show, died April 6th from a brain tumor at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Hospital in Los Angeles. He was 76.
"He was so proud to do both roles," his wife, Carolyn Carroll, said. "He just admired the whole fantasy of Jimmy Cricket, and he loved the man - Jack Benny.
In 1973, Carroll became the second actor to voice the cricket, who was the title character's conscience in the 1940 animated film "Pinocchio". Before auditioning, Carroll studied Jimmy's signature song, "When You Wish Upon a Star," sung by Cliff Edwards. The Canadian born Carroll realized that he needed to adopt a midwestern accent.
His agent did "back flips" when Carroll got the part, he told the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News in 2008.
"He knew the role was a cottage industry," Carroll said. "There's something practically every month, a singalong film, computer game, recording as spokesman for Disney on Ice, a show at Disneyland or Disney World."
No one else voiced a Disney character for as long as long as Carroll did, said Rick Dempsey, senior vice president of Disney's Character Voices division.
"He totally was Jimmy Cricket," Dempsey said. "He really took what the character was into his own heart and in a sense lived that in his own life. He also was one of the best Jack Benny impersonators on the planet."
When a crew member on a 1982 film set ruined a scene by dropping a prop, Carroll broke the tension by bursting out with a trademark Benny line, "Oh, for heaven's sake, Rochester!" and "everybody laughed," Carroll later recalled.
It led to him being cast in the one man show "A Small Eternity With Jack Benny," which opened in 1983 in Santa Monica, California.
After touring in that show for a year, he wrote a tribute, "Jack Benny: Laughter in Bloom," and continued appearing as the comedian, who died in 1974, until late last year. He often toured six months a year.
Los Angeles magazine's reaction to the show in the 1990s was typical: "Before our eyes, he truly becomes the legendary condition."
Laura Leff, president of the International Jack Benny Fan Club, told the Los Angeles Times: "Jack's humor is based so much around character, and Eddie was able to recreate that in a very authentic way. It was the next thing to having Jack himself there."
Eddie Eleniak was born September 5, 1933, in Edmonton, Canada and acted in high school alongside another student, Robert Goulet. A bout with polio was not far behind him when Carroll came to Los Angeles in the mid-1950's with Goulet as part of an NBC talent program.
Soon after moving to the U.S., Carroll served in the Army. For two years, he wrote and produced shows for Armed Forces Radio and Television.
When his mother suggested he needed a simpler last name, he adopted "Carroll" for a favorite aunt.
In an acting class after the war, he met Jamie Farr, who would appear in the TV series "M.A.S.H." They formed a production company in the 1960's that developed a number of projects for networks and studios.
"We were like brothers, and we still are," Carroll said in 2005 in the Toledo (Ohio) Blade.
Carroll had appeared in more than 200 commericals, according to his website, and was a regular on the early 1970's variety program "The Don Knotts Show."
To portray Benny, Carroll taught himself to play violin and joked with a Times reporter in 1999: "Thank goodness Benny wasn't a great violinist or I'd be in trouble."
After walking onstage as Benny, he would put the violin down and drolly say, "Don't look so relieved; I play it later."
Above taken from April 13, 2010, issue of Tulsa World newspaper and drawn from wire reports.
"He was so proud to do both roles," his wife, Carolyn Carroll, said. "He just admired the whole fantasy of Jimmy Cricket, and he loved the man - Jack Benny.
In 1973, Carroll became the second actor to voice the cricket, who was the title character's conscience in the 1940 animated film "Pinocchio". Before auditioning, Carroll studied Jimmy's signature song, "When You Wish Upon a Star," sung by Cliff Edwards. The Canadian born Carroll realized that he needed to adopt a midwestern accent.
His agent did "back flips" when Carroll got the part, he told the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News in 2008.
"He knew the role was a cottage industry," Carroll said. "There's something practically every month, a singalong film, computer game, recording as spokesman for Disney on Ice, a show at Disneyland or Disney World."
No one else voiced a Disney character for as long as long as Carroll did, said Rick Dempsey, senior vice president of Disney's Character Voices division.
"He totally was Jimmy Cricket," Dempsey said. "He really took what the character was into his own heart and in a sense lived that in his own life. He also was one of the best Jack Benny impersonators on the planet."
When a crew member on a 1982 film set ruined a scene by dropping a prop, Carroll broke the tension by bursting out with a trademark Benny line, "Oh, for heaven's sake, Rochester!" and "everybody laughed," Carroll later recalled.
It led to him being cast in the one man show "A Small Eternity With Jack Benny," which opened in 1983 in Santa Monica, California.
After touring in that show for a year, he wrote a tribute, "Jack Benny: Laughter in Bloom," and continued appearing as the comedian, who died in 1974, until late last year. He often toured six months a year.
Los Angeles magazine's reaction to the show in the 1990s was typical: "Before our eyes, he truly becomes the legendary condition."
Laura Leff, president of the International Jack Benny Fan Club, told the Los Angeles Times: "Jack's humor is based so much around character, and Eddie was able to recreate that in a very authentic way. It was the next thing to having Jack himself there."
Eddie Eleniak was born September 5, 1933, in Edmonton, Canada and acted in high school alongside another student, Robert Goulet. A bout with polio was not far behind him when Carroll came to Los Angeles in the mid-1950's with Goulet as part of an NBC talent program.
Soon after moving to the U.S., Carroll served in the Army. For two years, he wrote and produced shows for Armed Forces Radio and Television.
When his mother suggested he needed a simpler last name, he adopted "Carroll" for a favorite aunt.
In an acting class after the war, he met Jamie Farr, who would appear in the TV series "M.A.S.H." They formed a production company in the 1960's that developed a number of projects for networks and studios.
"We were like brothers, and we still are," Carroll said in 2005 in the Toledo (Ohio) Blade.
Carroll had appeared in more than 200 commericals, according to his website, and was a regular on the early 1970's variety program "The Don Knotts Show."
To portray Benny, Carroll taught himself to play violin and joked with a Times reporter in 1999: "Thank goodness Benny wasn't a great violinist or I'd be in trouble."
After walking onstage as Benny, he would put the violin down and drolly say, "Don't look so relieved; I play it later."
Above taken from April 13, 2010, issue of Tulsa World newspaper and drawn from wire reports.
