Three words. Two names. One legendary jingle.

Cal Worthington forever will be synonymous with the most enduring car commercials in the history of Southern California television.

Worthington, who owned a car dealership in Long Beach as well others throughout the country, died Sunday.

He was 92.

Commercials for his car dealerships included his “dog” Spot, with animals ranging from tigers to elephants, and his sing-along slogan “Go see Cal.”

“Everybody knew him and remembers him because his branding was different and it worked,” said Ira Kalb, a marketing professor at USC Marshall School of Business. “That’s what branding is about. You’re trying to do something different to stand out from the crowd.”

Worthington, who owned Cal Worthington Ford at 2950 Bellflower Blvd. in Long Beach, died of natural causes at about 3:30 p.m. Sunday at his Big W Ranch between Orland and Artois of natural causes.

Dave Karalis, the dealeship’s general manager, said he last talked with Worthington on Friday.

“It was a business conversation,” Karalis said.

The last time they saw each other was Labor Day weekend. They went on a fishing trip to Alaska, about 90 miles outside of Dillingham.

“He was very upbeat,” Karalis said. “The family has succession plans to keep the dealership here. The business will go on as usual.”

Calvin Coolidge Worthington was born Nov. 27, 1920, in Bly, Okla., and named after the 30th U.S. president — his father, Benjamin Franklin Worthington, was a staunch Republican. His mother, Vidella, already had six children, and she would add two others.

Worthington outlined his life in a book, “My Dog Spot, The Cal Worthington Story,” by Bob Cox.

He grew up poor in a family of Dust Bowl wanderers searching for work as they lived in shacks, not unlike the Joad family in John Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath.”

When moving to Kilgore, Texas, to look for work, the family loaded their belongings on a Model-T. Eventually they found a house in “the sticks,” as Worthington described it in his biography, for $5 a month in rent, near oil wells.

The family filled the house’s floor cracks with newspapers to keep out the wind and dust, according to the book, which described his mother as the rock of the family and his father as a hard worker.

Under the New Deal, Worthington, a 13-year-old ninth-grade dropout, went to work on a road gang as a waterboy, earning 15 cents an hour. He eventually joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, earning $30 a month, of which $25 was sent home.

Worthington’s boyhood dream was to fly planes. He passed a college equivalency exam and enlisted in the Army Air Force, with his salary jumping to $325 a month after passing pilot training.

As a rookie pilot in World War II, Worthington led the first daytime flight over Berlin in a B-17 Flying Fortress, which was badly damaged by an 88-millimeter cannon shell. A United Press International wire-service photographer snapped a picture of the battered bomber, an image picked up by newspapers across the country.

He flew 29 missions as a bomber pilot during World War II over Europe serving as lead pilot over some of the first American attacks on Berlin. He was awarded five Air Medals and the Distinguished Flying Cross, according to his attorney, Larry Miles.

After the war, Worthington attempted to be an airline pilot, but there was no place for a pilot without a college degree.

Back in Corpus Christi, Texas, he bought a gas station after selling his 1936 Hudson Terraplane. The location was bad, so he sold it to a Navy lieutenant awaiting a discharge.

He bought another Hudson, quickly selling it and several other cars in front of a post office, where he’d pitch them to pedestrians. He rented a vacant lot for $25 a month, his first successful business, but there was no office for the deals. On a rainy day, they were sealed in the cars.

At one point, Worthington owned more than 23 dealerships in five states, according to Miles.

“He changed the way cars are sold in California,” Miles said. “He pioneered, through the use of advertising, the iconic phrases, including ‘Go See Cal.’ For a guy who didn’t finish high school and one of nine kids who grew up in the Dust Bowl, the impacts he made in business are really astounding.”

The businessman gained fame and fortune throughout his career that dated back to the 1950s.

Worthington moved to his ranch 37 years ago where cattle, olive and almonds are grown. For the past six years he has been involved in the Splendor in the Valley fundraiser, including hosting the event at his home. A highlight was the auction of a fishing trip in Alaska, where Worthington accompanied the auction winners in his private jet.

His four marriages ended in divorce.

Worthington is survived by his children Rod Worthington, Barbara Worthington, Calvin Worthington, Courtney Worthington Shepherd, Susan Skellenger and Coldren Worthington as well as nine grandchildren.