Mr. Whipple

Celebrity Q&A
on March 28, 2004
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I can remember a commercial when I was a child about Mr. Whipple saying, “Please don’t squeeze the Charmin.” Did he ever do any other commercials or any other acting and what is he doing nowadays?

—Linda S., Kentucky

Dick Wilson, who played Mr. Whipple, is now 87 years old and retired, and still receives regular delivery of his lifetime supply of Charmin. Though he was a busy character actor for years, appearing on TV shows such as Bewitched and McHale’s Navy, and in the films World’s Greatest Athlete and The Shakiest Gun in the West, he’ll always be Mr. Whipple to the Baby Boom generation that grew up with him. Last year, in conjunction with the first TV Land Awards honoring classic TV, viewers of the nostalgia channel TV Land named the Mr. Whipple spots Best Retro TV Commercial. Wilson starred in those memorable commercials for more than 20 years, until 1985. “People say to me on the streets, ‘Hey, don’t squeeze the Charmin!'” Wilson told a reporter in 1995. “I tell them, ‘Hey, you can squeeze whatever you want.'” He came back for a series of new ads in 1999 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the squeezable toilet tissue.

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