Dick Wilson

Dick Wilson, a British-born character actor who won American television fame as Mr. Whipple, the comically fussy star of two decades of Charmin toilet paper commercials, died on Monday at the Motion Picture & Television Fund Hospital in Woodland Hills, Calif. He was 91 and had lived at the organization’s residence in Woodland Hills since 2002.

Mr. Wilson was in his late 40s and a veteran actor on American television when he was hired by Procter & Gamble to play a curmudgeonly grocer who nervously reprimanded customers with the line, “Please, don’t squeeze the Charmin.” In hundreds of maligned but effective television commercials, running from 1964 to 1985, the punch line was that Mr. Whipple himself secretly squeezed the product, seduced by what was billed as its squeezable softness.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that the Mr. Whipple character, which Dick Wilson portrayed for so many years, is one of the most recognizable faces in the history of American advertising,” Dennis Legault, Procter & Gamble’s brand manager for Charmin, said in a statement yesterday. He credited Mr. Wilson with much of the brand’s success.

Born in Preston, England, on July 30, 1916, Mr. Wilson grew up in Ontario, the son of a vaudeville entertainer and a singer. He soon followed his parents into show business. He worked for a local radio station as a teenager; was part of the Whiz Bang Revue, a local group that did shows for servicemen; and went on to work in both film and theater. During World War II he served in the Canadian Air Force.

In the 1950s and ’60s, he appeared on numerous American television series, including “Wagon Train,” “The Untouchables,” “My Favorite Martian” and “Hogan’s Heroes.” He had something of a recurring cameo on the sitcom “Bewitched,” appearing in about 18 episodes as a drunk man who sees the main character, played by Elizabeth Montgomery, perform some feat of witchcraft, and then immediately swears off alcohol.

Mr. Wilson is survived by his wife, Meg; a son, Stuart; two daughters, Wendy and Melanie, a television actress; and five grandchildren, all of the Los Angeles area.

Like many actors who find fame through commercials, Mr. Wilson became too closely identified with his character to do much of any other kind of acting. But he rarely complained. In 1995 he told USA Today that during his Charmin period he worked perhaps 16 days a year.

“It was like a paid vacation,” he said. “I had a great run.”