The voice of Tigger dies

PAUL Winchell, a ventriloquist, inventor and children’s TV show host best known for creating the lispy voice of Winnie the Pooh’s animated friend Tigger, has died. He was 82.

Mr Winchell died on Friday morning in his sleep at his Moorpark home, Burt Du Brow.

Over six decades, Mr Winchell was a master ventriloquist - bringing dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff to life on television - and an inventor who held 30 patents, including one for an early artificial heart he built in 1963.