Dick Wilson, born Riccardo DiGuglielmo (July 30, 1916 – November 19, 2007), was a British-born American character actor who played the role of finicky grocery store manager Mr. (George) Whipple in over 500 Charmin toilet paper television commercials (1965–1989, 1999).
Dick Wilson was born in Preston, Lancashire, England to an Italian father, Aldo DiGuglielmo, and an English mother, Victoria Wilson. His father performed in vaudeville; his mother was a singer. In late 1916, his father moved the family to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada where he spent his childhood in the Corktown neighbourhood and on the Mountain, attending Queen Victoria and Sacred Heart Schools. He had a Hamilton Spectator newspaper route and got his start in show business with a part-time job at CHML radio in Hamilton at age fifteen. Not wanting to be typecast as Italian, DiGuglielmo Anglicized his first name and took his mother's maiden name as a surname when performing. .
Wilson graduated from the Ontario College of Art & Design and then became a comic dancer in vaudeville. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force early in World War II and served as a fighter pilot against the German Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain in 1940. After the War, he moved to the United States, becoming an American citizen in 1954. After the War he worked as an acrobatic dancer in New York City before heading to California in 1954 for movie and TV work.
Wilson made numerous appearances as several characters on the television sitcom Bewitched (usually as the drunk) and McHale's Navy, sometimes a neighbor or other stock character, various episodes between numbers 33 and 247. He played a similar character in Disney's The World's Greatest Athlete in 1973. Also Wilson appeared on Hogan's Heroes and The Bob Newhart Show.
Wilson was quoted as saying, "I've done thirty-eight pictures and nobody remembers any of them, but they all remember me selling toilet paper." Wilson made more than 504 commercials as Mr. Whipple, earning U.S. $300,000 annually and working only twelve days a year.
In an interview with ABC News on 22 April 1983, he mentioned that the first series of commercials for Charmin toilet paper he appeared in were filmed in, appropriately enough, Flushing, New York.
He described acting in commercials as "the hardest thing to do in the entire acting realm. You've got 24 seconds to introduce yourself, introduce the product, say something nice about it and get off gracefully."
Wilson also created the theme song for the MLB team Minnesota Twins, entitled We're Gonna Win, Twins in 1961.
In appreciation for his performance of the recognizable character, Procter & Gamble famously provided Wilson with a free lifetime supply of Charmin.
Wilson died at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, United States, on November 19, 2007.He was 91 years old. Wilson is survived by his wife, Meg, and daughters, Wendy and actress Melanie Wilson, and five grandchildren. He was buried at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles.
