Original 'Pingu' voice actor Carlo Bonomi dies aged 85
Carlo Bonomi, the original voice of the animated penguin Pingu, has died aged 85. A cause of death has not been revealed.
The Italian actor was the voice of Pingu from its creation in 1990 until 2000 when the rights to the stop-motion animated show were sold.
Bonomi voiced all of the characters on the show and is credited with coming up with penguin's famous "noot noot" noise.
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Bonomi based Pingu's noises on the Milanese dialect and was also known for voicing the Italian versions of Mickey Mouse and Fred Flintstone.
The Milan born voice actor also had a role as a commentator on the Eurovision Song Contest.
He retired in 2008 after providing various voices to the video game Spore.
Numerous Pingu fans paid tribute to Bonomi on social media.
One fan wrote: "That programme was cute and funny to me as a child, but considering we never understood a word being said, the empathy I would feel for those animated animals was remarkable and I have this gentleman to thank."
Another said: “Your Noot Noot shall not be forgotten.”
Pingu was premiered to the world by Otmar Gutmann and Erika Brueggeman at the 1987 Berlin Film Festival after the two had been working on the idea for three years.
The show originally ran from 1990 to 2000 before being resurrected in 2003 by a different creative team. The last episode of Pingu aired in 2006.
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Pingu has since been followed by the Japanese produced Pingu in the City which is also made with CGI as opposed to the original series' stop-motion animation.
The follow-up series ran from 2017 to 2019 and aired on ITVBe in the UK.
Watch below: Lonely penguin watches Pingu at Perth Zoo
