Edmonton’s voice of Jiminy Cricket dies in Los Angeles

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Edmonton’s voice of Jiminy Cricket dies in Los Angeles
By Elizabeth Withey, edmontonjoiurnal.com
April 9, 2010 1:14 PM

EDMONTON — As a little boy, Eddie Eleniak wished upon a star, and his dreams came true.

The child was infatuated with crickets while growing up in Edmonton in the 30s and 40s. And more than anything he longed to meet Jiminy Cricket, the classic Disney character from Pinocchio.

A talented singer and actor, Eddie headed for Hollywood after graduating from St. Joe’s high school. Under the stage name of Eddie Carroll, he met the cartoon cricket and then some, landing the voice role for Jiminy Cricket in 1973. He replaced the original voice actor Cliff Edward, who died two years earlier.

For nearly four decades, Carroll was the voice of Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney productions. On Tuesday, he died of brain cancer in Los Angeles at the age of 76.

“He didn’t come to Hollywood looking to be Jiminy Cricket,” said Bob Elen, Carroll’s younger brother. “But when he got a whistle recall and it turned out that it was to audition for Jiminy Cricket, he was kinda nervous, it was kind of odd. It was more than a coincidence. Something very special had happened.”

Carroll’s voice can be heard in Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983), Jiminy Cricket’s Christmas (1986) and several Disney Sing-Along Songs in the late 80s and early 90s, among other performances.

The cartoon cricket and Disney’s When You Wish upon a Star theme tune from Pinocchio became symbolic for Carroll of “do what you want to do, chase your dream,” Elen said.

Born in Smoky Lake on Sept. 5, 1933, Carroll was the eldest of four boys who all grew up in Edmonton. He got his Hollywood start in the 1950s doing voice-overs and on-camera spots in commercials. His many television credits include roles in Gomer Pyle, The Andy Griffith Show, All In The Family, Alice and The Don Knotts Show, among others. He performed alongside Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Milton Berle and Jack Benny. Carroll was so inspired by Benny, who he’d listened to on the radio as a boy, he wrote a one-man show in the legendary comedian’s honour and became famous as his impersonator.

His popular Jack Benny gig, which brought him to Festival Place in Sherwood Park in 2005, earned Carroll the title of honorary mayor in Waukegan, Illinois, Benny’s hometown.

“I’ll think of Eddie every time I see or hear Jiminy, and Jack Benny,” Elen said.

Carroll is survived by his wife, Carolyn and two children, Leland and Tina, who live in L.A., as does Elen and another of their brothers. The family still has relatives in the Edmonton area.

Senator Tommie Banks formed a lifelong friendship with Carroll after the two were involved in Dasha Goody’s Orion Musical Theatre in Edmonton. The two travelled to Los Angeles together for the first time in the early 1950s as tourists. Carroll fell in love with the city right away.

“He immediately said, ‘This is where I’m coming,” Banks recalled Friday.

Banks described the late actor as “terrific, funny and enormously talented, obviously. You don’t succeed in that business if you’re not enormously talented.”

ewithey@thejournal.canwest.com

Listen to Eddie Carroll play the voice of Jiminy Cricket:

In Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983): http://bit.ly/cC22eq

In Jiminy Cricket’s Christmas (1986): http://bit.ly/auWboe

In a Disney Sing-Along Song (1993): http://bit.ly/aJUvlj