Ernest "Ernie" Arthur Coombs, CM (November 26, 1927– September 18, 2001) was a children's entertainer who starred in the Canadian television series Mr. Dressup.

Ernest Coombs was born in Lewiston, Maine, and pursued a career in children's entertainment after attending North Yarmouth Academy in Yarmouth, Maine. As an understudy to Fred Rogers, he travelled to Canada in 1963 to work for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on an early version of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Rogers moved back to the United States the following year, but Coombs decided to stay in Canada, joining a new show called Butternut Square. Butternut Square ran from 1964 to 1967. During the run, Coombs appeared as the character in a stage show at the Poor Alex Theatre.^[1][2]

After Butternut Square ended, Coombs developed Mr. Dressup, which became one of English Canada's longest-running and most beloved children's programs^{[citation needed]}. As Mr. Dressup, he presented arts and crafts, songs, stories and games for children with his friends Casey and Finnegan, a child and a dog who lived in a treehouse in Mr. Dressup's back yard. Casey wasn't given a unisex name intentionally, but it was a serendipitous choice because the character's childlike voice left Casey's gender ambiguous. Over the years, when viewers would ask Coombs whether Casey was a boy or a girl, he would ask, "What do you think?" However the questioner responded, he would say, "You're right!"^{[citation needed]}

Later in the series, when the show's principal puppeteer, Judith Lawrence, retired, Casey and Finnegan were replaced by a small cast of anthropomorphic animal puppets. Coombs believed very strongly in gentle, wholesome children's programming that encouraged kids to use their creativity and imagination. In each episode, Mr. Dressup would dress up (hence his name) in a costume from his Tickle Trunk, and lead children in an imagination game. Many times his puppets would also appear in costume as well.

Coombs became a Canadian citizen in 1994. The series continued production until its final taping in February 1996, when Coombs retired. The same year, he was named a Member of the Order of Canada. Repeats continued to be shown on CBC Television until they were discontinued in 2006^{[citation needed]}.

After retirement, Coombs continued to work as an entertainer, playing roles in Ross Petty's Christmas pantomimes of Peter Pan, Cinderella, and Aladdin, and acted as a spokesman for children's charities.

Coombs also did a travelling stage show called "Tales from the Tickle Trunk." In this show he would share stories about the making of the Mr. Dressup show, as well as the origins, and fates, of some of the characters.

Coombs lived with his family in the Toronto suburb of Pickering. His wife Marlene ran a day care in downtown Toronto, called the Butternut Day Care.^[3] She was killed in a traffic accident in 1992; she was walking on the sidewalk of Yonge Street in Toronto, when a car hit her.^[4] The driver may have had a seizure, resulting in a loss of control of the vehicle.^[5]

Coombs suffered a stroke on September 10, 2001, and died on September 18, 2001 in Toronto, Ontario when he was seventy-three years old.^[6]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ernie Coombs at the Internet Movie Database
• Ernie Coombs' Order of Canada Citation
• Ernie Coombs' CBC personalities page
• Canadian Connections' Ernie Coombs page
• The Mr. Dressup Pictures and Sound Page by Buffalonian Steve Cichon

Multimedia[link]

• CBC Archives Remembering Mr. Dressup - CBC News 2001