In Memoriam: Christine Cavanaugh

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Recently, I have been catching up on Rugrats, as it was one of my favorite cartoons growing up and it has been a long time since the last time I watched it (Currently, I am nearly finished with watching the first four seasons).

However, I have made the tragic discovery that Christine Cavanaugh, the original voice of Chuckie Finster, passed away December 22, 2014. The excitement and joy of Christmas prevented me from finding out until 23 days after her death.

Christine Cavanaugh was born Christine Josephine Sandberg on August 16, 1963 in Layton, Utah. Most of us know her as Cavanaugh because she was once married to some guy named Kevin Cavanaugh (They wed in 1985, but divorced in 1998).

Christine Cavanaugh was one of many voice actors I grew up with, and not just from Rugrats. I also fondly remember her as the original voice for Dexter in Dexter's Laboratory, Oblina from Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, and playing the McDonald's mascot Birdie the Early Bird in those direct-to-video animated films they used to release in the late 90's.

I've also had the fortune of watching other roles she played after I grew up, including Jay Sherman's son Marty Sherman from The Critic, Bunnie Rabbot from Sonic SatAM, and Gosalyn Mallard from Darkwing Duck.

In 2001, Christine Cavanaugh retired from voice acting and got into a custody battle with her ex-husband over her children. She died on December 22, 2014 of unknown causes in Cedar City, Utah.

To honor her memory, I decided to draw this picture of several characters I know her for playing, even though some of them are only there on a technicality.

Since I already mentioned them earlier, it would be a given that Dexter, Chuckie, Bunnie, Oblina, Marty, Birdie, and Gosalyn would be attending the funeral, but we also have Babe, the pig from the movie of the same name, because I have a very vague memory of watching that film when I was young. I'm not entirely sure because I have watched a LOT of movies when I was a kid.

I have both Chuckie Finster's toddler self and his preteen self from the Rugrats spinoff All Grown Up because I'm actually one of the few fans who liked All Grown Up, and while that show premiered around the same time Christine retired from voice acting, she did reprise her role in the show's premiere. I also couldn't agree with myself on whether baby Chuckie or tweenage Chucky should be there, so I reached a compromise and had both attending the funeral.

Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, the Powerpuff Girls, were added at the last minute because I did a review of Christine Cavanaugh's known roles on her Wikipedia article and discovered that she played Bunny from that one episode where the three girls tried to make a fourth Powerpuff Girl, only they used inferior substitutes for sugar, spice, and everything nice, so the Chemical X created a hulking brute that had a tenuous grasp on the difference between right and wrong and ended up dying at the end of the episode. I did not cry when I first saw that episode, but remembering it now, especially in light of Christine Cavanaugh's demise, does make me feel very sad.

Take this as a wake-up call that even if at least some of the actors from the cartoons you grew up with are still alive, sooner or later they all will be pushing up daisies.

It's nice that Alan Young will always reprise his role as Scrooge McDuck when he can, but he's now in his 90's, so it's certain that he might kick the bucket eventually. What's really sad is that death itself is very unpredictable. Lots of people are known to have died when we least expected them to.

None of us expected Phil Hartman to be shot by his wife, and I'm certain none of us even thought that Robin Williams would have committed suicide after he discovered he had Parkinson's Disease. I dread the day when Frank Welker, Maurice LaMarche, Rob Paulsen, Tara Strong, Cree Summer, and all the other actors I grew up with have a run-in with the Grim Reaper, for I know that cartoons won't be the same without them.

My point is short and simple: Enjoy your favorite actors' work while they still live, for you never know when they might die.

Rugrats and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters (c) Nickelodeon

Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Laboratory (c) Cartoon Network

Sonic the Hedgehog (c) Sega

Birdie (c) McDonald's

Darkwing Duck (c) Disney

I have no idea who owns the rights to Babe or The Critic.