Alan Young, the star of Mister Ed, the television program about a talking
horse, has died. The British-born actor starred as Wilbur Post, an architect
with a talking horse. Mister Ed would only talk to Wilbur.
There were six seasons of Mister Ed from 1961-1966. Connie Hines starred as
Wilbur’s wife Carol, and Allan Lane provided the voice of Mister Ed. The show
included many guest stars, such as Clint Eastwood, Mae West, and baseballer
Sandy Koufax.
Mister Ed was real - he was played by the intelligent horse Bamboo Harvester (1949-1970). Mister Ed
learned to move his lips on cue when his trainer touched his hoof, but later
learned to ‘speak’ whenever Wilbur stopped talking. He was a golden Palomino.
The show was loosely based on the movie Francis the Talking Mule – a series
of seven movies from 1950-1956 starring Donald O’Connor (1925-2003). The film
ws based on the book Francis by United States army captain David Stern (1909-2003).
Chill Wills was the voice of Francis, the military mule.
Alan Young (1919-2016) was born in England (his birth name was Angus Young)
and moved to Canada with his family when he was six years old, and began entertaining
when he was 13. He worked in radio before moving to America where he became an
American citizen. He had his own comedy show, The Alan Young Show, from
1950-1953, and starred in films, such as The Time Machine (1960) with
Australian actor Rod Taylor, and the re-make of the movie in 2002 in a small
role. Young also provided the voice of Disney’s Scrooge McDuck and characters
in The Smurfs and Scooby-Doo movies.
He was married twice: to Mary Anne Grimes from 1941-1947 (they had a son
and daughter) and to singer Virginia McCurdy in 1948 (they had a son and
daughter). Virginia died in 2011. Young died on 19 May, surrounded by his
children, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in
Los Angeles, where he had been living for the past four years. He was buried at
sea.
MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:- The
Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012),
Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse
(2009).
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