Paul Winchell, RIP

[CoasterMatt]

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Paul Winchell, ventriloquist, children's TV show host and long-time voice behind Tigger in animated versions of "Winnie the Pooh," has died. He was 82.

Burt Du Brow, a television producer and close family friend, tells the Los Angeles Times that Winchell died early Friday morning in his sleep at his home in Moorpark, California.

Winchell parlayed his talent for creating countless voices over six decades.

But he was perhaps best known for his work as the voice of the lovable animated tiger created by A-A Milne.

Before he began working on cartoons, Winchell started his career as a ventriloquist. He eventually brought dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smith to life on television.

Winchell was also an inventor who held 30 patents, including one for an early artificial heart he built in 1963.

Another classic voice, silenced...