TVSquad

Each year in our "Top TV Stories" posts we look back at the number of celebrities and behind the scenes people that have passed away during the year. This is always a hard list to put together, so if I've missed anyone, please let me know in the comments and I'll add them to the list.

This year we also lost someone very close to us.

Merv Griffin
Tom Snyder
Joel Siegel
Anna Nicole Smith
Robert Goulet
Joey Bishop

Gallery: People we lost in 2007

I little piece of your childhood just passed away.

Dick Wilson has died at the age of 91. He played Mr. Whipple on the long-running series of commercials for Charmin bathroom tissue. He would lurk around corners in the grocery store waiting for some hapless housewife to pick up a package of and squeeze it, then he'd come up to them and say "Please don't squeeze the Charmin!" Then he'd squeeze the tissue himself. It seemed like Whipple didn't do anything else for that grocery change except watch out for people who might come down that aisle and squeeze the Charmin, but it's one of the more memorable ad campaigns in TV history. He made over 500 commercials from 1964 to 1985! He also appeared in many TV shows, including Bewtiched, Maude, The Bob Newhart Show, Quincy, M.E., Adam-12, Hogan's Heroes, The Partridge Family, and I Dream of Jeannie.

Godspeed Mr. Whipple. Two classic ads after the jump!