B: July 30, 1916 in Preston, Lancaster, England
D: November 19, 2007 in Woodland Hills, California
Dick Wilson began life as Riccardo DiGuglielmo in Preston, Lancashire, England. His father, Aldo DiGuglielmo, performed in vaudeville and his mother, Victoria Wilson was a singer. In late 1916, when Riccardo was only a few months old, the DiGuglielmo family moved to Hamilton, Ontario. Wilson got his start in show business when he was 15 at the local radio station, CHML. Riccardo became Richard and he adopted his mother’s maiden name as his stage name. He later went to and graduated from the Ontario College of Art & Design in Toronto, going on to be a comic dancer in vaudeville. At the outbreak of World War II he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force and served as a fighter pilot during the Battle of Britain in 1940. After the war, he moved to the United States and worked as a dancer in New York before heading to Los Angeles to work in television and film. He became an American citizen in 1954 and is best known for his work as Mr. Whipple for more than 25 years and in more than 500 commercials for Charmin. Wilson died at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. |
Features & TV Movies: The Tattered Dress (1957) Diary of a Madman (1963) Getting Away from It All (TV-1972) The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981)
TV series – Cast: Presenting Susan Anton (1979)
TV series – Guest appearances: Maverick (1960) The Partridge Family (1971) Quincy M.E. (1980) |
