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TV's 'Mr. Dressup' Dies Following Stroke
Tuesday, September 18, 2001 12:26 PM EDT
Ernie Coombs, friend to generations of Canadian children as Mr. Dressup, has died, CBC said Tuesday.
Coombs, 73, died in a Toronto hospital following a stroke.
A quiet man with thinning grey hair and round, dark-rimmed glasses, Coombs was a fixture on CBC-TV for more than 30 years as the kindly man with the puppet sidekicks who kept the kids entertained with make-believe and simple crafts.
With Casey, a mop-haired 4 1/2-year-old boy, and his dog, Finnegan, both created by puppeteer Judith Lawrence, the American-born Coombs and the down-to-earth Mr. Dressup became a Canadian institution.
"I'm getting a lot of parents who tell me they used to watch me when they were children and now their kids are," Coombs said 20 years into his career in 1986.
"That feels good."
Coombs was never worried about looking silly.
Once, when he was pretending to be a lizard, a cameraman asked: "Don't you feel stupid doing that?" Coombs replied he was only doing what any father would do with his kids.
Children were invited to attempt the arts and crafts Coombs demonstrated, to sing along and to use their imaginations.
"I've had many parents tell me: 'Yours is the only program my child will sit and watch for a half hour,"' Coombs said. "It's a quiet time when the children can watch friends and not get overly stimulated."
He was never in a hurry.
"We don't feel children have to have everything cut up into little pieces and fired at them like guns," said Lawrence, who retired with Casey and Finnegan in 1992.
At the 1992 Gemini Awards, comic Mike Myers of Saturday Night Live and Wayne's World listed Mr. Dressup as one of the top five things he loves about Canada - above gun control, medicare and even Hockey Night in Canada.
Coombs, in his own right, went on to win the Earle Grey Award for excellence in TV from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television in 1994. He was awarded another Gemini in 1996 for best performance in a children's program.
Also in 1994, Coombs finally became a Canadian citizen. Coombs, who was born in Lewiston, Maine, in 1927, had arrived in Canada in 1963 to work with Fred Rogers, of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, on a CBC children's show.
"It was just going to be for one season, and when Fred went back, they offered me a part in a new show," Coombs said.
When Rogers retired in August, Coombs remembered his old friend fondly.
"I could probably safely say I owe it all to him," Coombs said. "He was definitely a mentor."
Mr. Dressup was just one of several characters on Butternut Square, but in 1967, he got his own show and went on to dominate the 10:30 morning spot for decades.
Coombs said he and his wife Marlene always intended to become citizens, but "never got around to it." The idea was put on the backburner by him when she was killed in a traffic accident in 1992.
When Coombs retired Mr. Dressup in 1996 after taping about 4,000 shows in all, Jim Byrd, then CBC-TV's vice-president of English TV networks said: "He is a cornerstone of Canadian children's television programming. He has touched the lives of countless Canadian children and his contribution to the medium is invaluable."
In 1996, Coombs was named a member of the Order of Canada. Also that year, a poll of two- to five-year-olds nominated Coombs for the first annual Children's Choice Award from the Alliance for Children and Television.
His other awards included a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Children's Broadcast Institute in 1989, an ACTRA Best Program Award in 1978 and he was twice nominated for a Juno Award for best children's album. He cut five musical albums and wrote, with co-author Shelley Tanaka, Mr. Dressup's Things to Make and Do; Mr. Dressup's 50 More Things to Make and Do; and, Mr. Dressup's Birthday Book.
After taping the final show, which spared the feelings of small children by making no mention of his retirement, Mr. Dressup continued seamlessly on TV in re-runs and Coombs hit the fundraising circuit for charities such as Save the Children Canada. Coombs was also a board member of Upper Canada Creative Child Care Centres.
After 1996, Coombs continued to make personal appearances and performed in Toronto in several Ross Petty productions for children - Peter Pan, Cinderella and Aladdin.
"After all the years of being beloved by people in this country for him to come and do my shows, it was a real honour for me," Petty said.
Coombs is survived by three children, Christopher, Kenneth and Catherine Minott.
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