Peppino Mazzullo, the Italian actor who provided the voice for the beloved puppet Topo Gigio, died Wednesday at the age of 100. He passed away at his home in Santo Stefano di Briga, a village near his birthplace of Messina, Italy, according to Il Messaggero.
Mazzullo’s voice brought the tiny mouse to life on television screens across America. Topo Gigio, created by Milan native Maria Perego, debuted on CBS’ The Ed Sullivan Show on December 9, 1962. He appeared frequently until the program ended on June 6, 1971. Mazzullo voiced the puppet during those years, giving him a distinctive Italian accent and personality that became instantly recognizable.
The character was about 10 inches tall, operated by Perego who controlled Topo Gigio’s legs with her fingers and used rods to open and close his mouth. Two other puppeteers managed his arms. Sullivan once said of the experience, “When he’s on my arm, I actually feel that he’s a living thing and that I’m talking to somebody.” Mazzullo’s voice was central to that illusion.
Top of mind for many viewers was how Mazzullo and Perego made the mouse more than just a prop. Topo Gigio often made Sullivan laugh and helped him relax on air. The puppet would end each appearance with the line, “Eddie, kiss me goodnight.” Joan Rivers, who wrote sketches for Topo Gigio early in her career, recalled her first paid job being creating material for the puppet. She described writing a sketch where Topo Gigio asked Sullivan to explain football, wearing a tiny jersey with a number ¼ on the back. Rivers said Topo Gigio paid her car payments for six months.
Giuseppe Mazzullo was born on June 6, 1926. He started acting as a child in Santo Stefano, later attending the Academy of Cinematographic Art in Rome and the Academy of Dramatic Art in Milan. He worked on radio shows with the RAI drama troupe and took on various acting assignments before he was cast as the voice of Topo Gigio.
Mazzullo said he first saw a puppet figure resembling Topo Gigio when he was two. He explained, “I suddenly woke up and at the foot of my bed and saw a little figure moving. I got scared, I shouted ‘Mom!’ but my voice wouldn’t come out. After a while, this ‘figure’ disappeared. My voice came back, my mom arrived, and I told her what I had seen. She reassured me: ‘Don’t worry, it’s a fuddittu, a little sprite, it will bring you luck.’”
In the early 1960s, Maria Perego and her husband Federico Caldura conceived a musical act with different characters. Mazzullo said he was struck by a puppet that looked like the little sprite he saw as a child. Caldura suggested giving it a voice, which led to Mazzullo creating Topo Gigio’s distinctive Italian accent and personality. He recalled that the puppet was initially “pretty ugly,” but he liked it.
Mazzullo’s voice work led to his appearance in the 1961 adventure film The Magic World of Topo Gigio. He continued voicing the puppet until 2006, when he retired from performing. After stepping back from the spotlight, he founded the Piccolissimo Teatro di Messina, where he also taught acting.
His work on Topo Gigio made him a fixture in Italian and American pop culture for more than four decades. His death leaves a void among those who remember the puppet as a symbol of innocence and humor.
Mazzullo’s funeral is scheduled for Thursday at the church of San Giovanni Battista in Santo Stefano di Briga. He was 100.
According to Hollywood Reporter.