Dick Wilson had a long and varied career in show business, but he will forever be remembered as cranky store manager Mr. Whipple with his catch phrase, “Please Don’t Squeeze the Charmin!” He was 91.

Wilson died a few weeks ago at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, announced Procter & Gamble Co., maker of Charmin tissue.

For over 20 years Wilson was Charmin bathroom tissue’s international spokesman. He use to joke that it was ironic that the commercial, which first aired in 1964, was filmed in Flushing, NY.

He has been ranked as the third-most recognized American throughout the world just behind former President Richard M. Nixon and the reverend Billy Graham.

In a statement, Dennis Legault, brand manager for Charmin, called the Mr. Whipple character “one of the most recognizable faces in the history of American advertising.”

Born in England, Wilson began his career on the vaudeville stage with his mother and father. Like most entertainers from that era of show business, he could do it all, act, sing, dance, do stand-up even before there was such a thing. Somehow he managed to find the time for a formal education and graduated from the Ontario College of Art & Design in Toronto, Canada. Eventually he moved over to the stage and began doing plays. During World War II, Wilson served in the Canadian Air Force and became a U.S. citizen in 1954. When TV came on the scene he was a natural fit for the new blossoming industry.

His dozens of television shows and movies, included stints on “Bewitched,” “Tabitha, “Fantasy Island” and “I Dream of Jeannie,” just to name a few. Wilson and fellow actor comedian Don Knotts were great friends and the two of them starred together in “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken” and “The Shakiest Gun in the West.”

In one of his final roles, Wilson played, of all things, a store manager in “The Incredible Shrinking Woman.”

He got his most famous role of Mr. Whipple 43 years ago. In 1985, during his retirement days, the Associated Press asked Wilson if he would ever do movies or TV again. His response was less than enthusiastic…”The kind of pictures they’re making today, I’ll stick with toilet paper.”

At 83 years of age Wilson did come out of retirement in 1999 to resurrect his famous Mr. Whipple for a new round of Charmin commericials that also did quite well for him and Proctor and Gamble.

Wilson is survived by his wife, Meg and two daughters, Melanie and Wendy and his son, Stuart.