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Horse sitcom star Alan Young dies at 96 | Horse sitcom star Alan Young dies at 96 |
(35 minutes later) | |
Actor and comedian Alan Young - who starred alongside a talking horse in the popular sitcom Mr Ed in the 1960s - has died in Los Angeles, aged 96. | Actor and comedian Alan Young - who starred alongside a talking horse in the popular sitcom Mr Ed in the 1960s - has died in Los Angeles, aged 96. |
He died of natural causes on Thursday at a film and TV retirement facility in the city, his manager said. | |
Young played the amiable architect Wilbur Post, with Mr Ed - a talkative palomino - stabled in his barn. | |
Young, who was born in the UK, educated in Canada and later became a US citizen, was buried at sea. | Young, who was born in the UK, educated in Canada and later became a US citizen, was buried at sea. |
Mr Ed ran for six seasons from 1960-1966. | |
Young reputedly got the part when the comedian George Burns, whose TV production company was launching the series, said: "Get Alan Young. He looks like the kind of guy a horse would talk to." | |
His four-legged co-star was Bamboo Harvester, who communicated with Wilbur in a deep, rolling voice provided by the cowboy star Allan "Rocky'' Lane. | |
Young was frequently asked how they made the horse's lips move. | |
The production team didn't want to give their secret away, so Young said they put peanut butter in the horse's mouth. | |
"I made up the peanut butter story, and everyone bought it," he recalled in a 2009 interview. | |
In fact, a piece of nylon thread was used to manipulate Mr Ed's lips in the early episodes. | |
"But Ed actually learned to move his lips on cue when the trainer touched his hoof," said Young. | |
"In fact, he soon learned to do it when I stopped talking during a scene. Ed was very smart." | |
During his carrier, Young also appeared in several films, including The Time Machine. | |
In 1951, he won a Primetime Emmy award as best actor in The Alan Young Show. | In 1951, he won a Primetime Emmy award as best actor in The Alan Young Show. |
In later years, Young wrote for cartoons and voiced some of the characters. | |
He was the voice of Scrooge McDuck in Disney's TV series Duck Tales. | He was the voice of Scrooge McDuck in Disney's TV series Duck Tales. |
"He was an honest, decent man, a pleasure to work with and never a problem," his manager of more 30 years, Gene Yusem, told the Reuters news agency. |