Rudolph Perz, RIP

The creator of a well-loved animated character moves on.

Rudolph Perz, an advertising executive who pondered a soulless, squishy, cylindrical mixture of flour and water on his kitchen table 50 years ago and conjured up the genial Pillsbury Doughboy, died on Thursday in a suburban Chicago hospital. He was 89. ...

Mr. Perz was the creative director of the Leo Burnett agency in Chicago when he imagined a blue-eyed Poppin’ Fresh springing from a tube of dough, like a fast-forward version of evolution from primordial ingredients.

To distinguish him from a plumper incarnation of Casper the Friendly Ghost in cartoon illustrations, the Doughboy became a three-dimensional clay figure designed by Milt Schaffer, an animator. “We made two Doughboys,” Mr. Perz said in an interview with a colleague at Leo Burnett in 1972. “One was a rubber Doughboy with an armature inside, and you could move his arms a little bit at a time. And the other was a hard Doughboy.” ...

The Doughboy’s voice — “Hi! I’m Poppin’ Fresh, the Pillsbury Doughboy,” he announced, giggling “Hee-Hee” (later “Hoo-Hoo”) when poked in his soft belly — was originally supplied by Paul Frees. A busy voice actor, he also voiced the Disney duck Professor Ludwig Von Drake and Admiral Yamamoto in the 1976 movie “Midway.” ...

Cartoonists often create characters that resonate through decades. Happens less often for the creative director of an ad firm, but Rudolph Perz deserves bragging rights here, along with Milt Shaffer.

And remember, this guy ...



... is a close cousin of Mr. Fresh.