Voice actor Christine Cavanaugh, who voiced characters including talking pig Babe and Chuckie in Nickelodeon’s cartoon ‘Rugrats’, has died aged 51.
Her death was confirmed by her sister Deionn Masock, who said Cavanaugh had passed away on December 22 at her home in Utah, adding that the cause of death was currently unknown.
The family said in their announcement in the Los Angeles Times: “She was able to do incredible and amazing things with her voice and bring lots of smiles and many laughs to many people. Her imagination, humour and intelligence were evident to anyone who had the pleasure of meeting her. Many know of her from the roles she played, but in each role there was a part of her showing through that the ones who truly knew her could see.”
As well as ‘Rugrats’, Cavanaugh provided the voices of dozens of cartoon characters in the 1990s such as Dexter in ‘Dexter’s Laboratory’, Gosalyn Mallard on ‘Darkwing Duck’, and in 1995, she voiced the title character in ‘Babe’, based on Dick King-Smith’s 1983 novel ‘The Sheep-Pig’. She also worked on ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’, ‘The Wild Thornberrys’ and ‘The Powerpuff Girls’, and appeared in ‘Cheers’, ‘The X-Files’ and 1996 film ‘Jerry Maguire’.
She retired from voice acting in 2001 and moved back to her native Utah to be closer to her family. A memorial service has already been held on Antelope Island, Utah.