Chris Wiggins, Veteran Character Actor, Dies at 87

He played occult expert Jack Marshak in the 'Friday the 13th' horror TV series and voiced the original 'Babar,' 'Rocket Robin Hood' and 'Care Bears' cartoons.

Chris Wiggins, a veteran Canadian character and voice actor who appeared in such TV shows as ReGenesis, Redwall and Wojeck and voiced the original Babar, Care Bears and Spiderman cartoons, has died. He was 87.

Wiggins died Feb. 19 in Elora, Ontario, his family announced in the Toronto Star, after a struggle with Alzheimer's disease. He is best known for playing Jack Marshak in the Friday the 13th TV series, Friday's Curse, which ran for three seasons until 1990.

Wiggins also performed the role of Johann Robinson, the father on the 1976 TV series Swiss Family Robinson, and voiced the character Cornelius in the Babar animated series for the CBC in Canada and HBO stateside.

Born in Blackpool, England in 1931, Wiggins moved to Canada in 1952, where his early acting credits included the 1957 western Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans and the TV musical Folio, which ran for five seasons to 1959.

He was also a castmember at the Stratford Festival in 1960, where he appeared in roles for Romeo and Juliet, King John and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Wiggins won a Canadian Film Award in 1969 for best actor for his star turn in The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar, where he performed opposite Margot Kidder.

Wiggins provided voices for dozens of animated TV series and films, including Rocket Robin Hood, Star Wars: Droids, The Care Bears Family, The Busy World of Richard Scarry and Rupert. He was also a veteran Canadian radio actor, voicing roles in about 1,200 series episodes, especially for CBC Radio and programs like CBC Playhouse, Nightfall and Vanishing Point.

Wiggins' wife, Sandra Crysler-Wiggins, died in 2009.