Animal Actors: Celebrity Quadrupeds Part 2

Welcome back to the Petbucket blog’s official examination of famous Hollywood pets, animal actors, and celebrity mammals of all sorts! We capped things off last time with a fascinating look into the elder statesman of feline film: That Darn Cat. Today, we’ll be venturing off of the silver screen and away from the furrier aspects of animal actors. Two of today’s animal actors are television stars and only one has to shed a winter coat. So without further ado, let’s talk about some of the world’s most famous on screen animals!

Flipper

Did you just hear the iconic dolphin noise from the world famous TV and film series in your head? Guess what? That’s not a dolphin. They doctored up a kookaburra’s call and dubbed it over Flipper’s own majestic call. Nothing is sacred in Hollywood.

Regardless, Flipper is still a world famous water enthusiast in his own right. Well, in her own right. Flipper was actually played by 5 different dolphins, all of whom were female, but most often the two star thespians were named Suzie and Kathy.  The show ran three seasons during the 1960’s and ended up with 88 episodes of crime stopping, wildlife preserving, tricky dolphin action.

While the show itself was anything but controversial, the former head trainer/stunt double from the show, Ric O’Berry became a dolphin activist and was featured in the award winning documentary The Cove. Mr. Bigglesworth

Played by a sphinx cat named Ted Nude-gent, Mr. Bigglesworth appeared in the Austin Powers film series. Ted is a sphinx cat that was brought in as a gag during the first film. After the traditional Bond-style Persian cat is cryogenically frozen, it loses all of its hair, and so a Sphinx-y star was born.

Sphinx cats are super friendly animals that are able to perform in films because of their trainability. They are often compared to dogs for their propensity to please humans. Ted fell in love with Mike Myers, who would often delay the beginning of filming to make sure that the cat was comfortable. And more than a few scenes in the movie were extended because The Nude-ge had already started snoozing in the comedic star’s lap.

Wishbone

Getting back to the canine side of things, it’s time to revisit a 90's television classic. Wishbone, the title character of the show, was played by a Jack Russell Terrier names Soccer. Soccer was one of 100 dogs who auditioned for the role of Wishbone.

The beloved 90’s television series featured a dog daydreaming about playing the lead role in different stories from classic literature.  He would compare the storylines to whatever was happening in the lives of his family, and would offer literarily inspired advice to an unhearing human populace, and usually complained about the fact that no one would listen.

This show ran only three seasons, but in that time managed to make a significant impact on children all over the world. And it’s still being rebroadcast by certain PBS affiliates.

That concludes our examination of famous pets! Check back for more interesting discussions on our favorite furry companions!