John Donald Fiedler (February 3, 1925 – June 25, 2005) was an American voice actor and character actor in stage, film, television and radio. Slight, balding, and bespectacled, with a piping voice his career stretched forty years but he is perhaps best remembered for two roles: the voice of Piglet in Disney's many Winnie the Pooh productions and the role of Mr. Peterson, nervous patient on The Bob Newhart Show.
Born in Platteville, Wisconsin, Fiedler moved with his family to Shorewood, Wisconsin at the age of 5, where he attended Shorewood High School.
He began his career in New York City, working on the radio comedy The Aldrich Family as sidekick Homer Brown, and making his film debut in 12 Angry Men (1957), as the nervous Juror #2. Most of his subsequent roles were as gentle or nervous types, though occasionally he broke out of the mold, notably in the original Star Trek episode "Wolf in the Fold," as an official possessed by Jack the Ripper.
On Broadway, Fiedler was in the original casts of A Raisin in the Sun (as housing committee representative Lindner, a part he would recreate in both the 1961 film version and the 1988 TV version) and The Odd Couple (as poker player Vinnie), reprising both roles for the film versions. Other on-camera work included roles in the films True Grit and The Cannonball Run, plus many guest spots on TV series, from Bewitched and Get Smart to The Rockford Files and The Twilight Zone. He had a recurring guest role on Kolchak: The Night Stalker as morgue attendant Gordy "The Ghoul" Spangler. He also played Mr. Peterson, one of Bob's regular patients, on the TV seriesThe Bob Newhart Show.
He was heard in the Disney features The Rescuers, The Fox and the Hound, Robin Hood, The Emperor's New Groove, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Tigger Movie, Piglet's Big Movie, Pooh's Heffalump Movie, and his last film Kronk's New Groove.
Fiedler died of cancer on June 25, 2005 in Englewood, New Jersey at the Lillian Booth Actors' Home, a residence for retired entertainers sponsored by the Actors' Fund. Fiedler was never married, and was survived by a sister and a brother.
Coincidentally, Paul Winchell, the voice of Tigger in some Winnie-the-Pooh projects from 1968 to 1998, died June 24, 2005, the day before Fiedler's death.
