Skip Hinnant, Original Electric Company Cast Member, Dies at 86
Skip Hinnant, an original cast member of the PBS children's series The Electric Company and the voice of Fritz the Cat, has died. He was 86. The Hollywood Reporter reported that he died on Sunday in Denver, as announced by his family.
Hinnant was born Joseph Howard Hinnant on Sept. 12, 1940, and grew up on Chincoteague Island, Virginia. He graduated from Yale University in 1962. Acting work followed soon after, and he built a career across television, stage and animation.
On television, he played Ted, the boyfriend of Cathy, on the first two seasons of The Patty Duke Show, which aired from 1963 to 1965. He was also one of the original performers on The Electric Company, the Sesame Street offshoot that began on PBS in 1971. He played Fargo North, Decoder and other characters, and stayed with the show until it ended in 1977.
His stage credits included the original off-Broadway production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, where he played Schroeder. His older brother, Bill Hinnant, played Snoopy in that same cast. He also appeared in the original 1968-69 Broadway run of Neil Simon's Plaza Suite, directed by Mike Nichols.
His voice work reached a wide film audience. He voiced Fritz the Cat in two animated movies, both based on the comic character created by Robert Crumb. The first, Fritz the Cat (1972), was directed by Ralph Bakshi and became the first animated film to be rated X. The second, The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (1974), was the first animated film to receive an R rating.
Hinnant also appeared on screen in the 1977 ABC stop-motion holiday special The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town, from the Rankin/Bass studio, where he played the Easter Bunny. Off screen, he served on the national board of the Screen Actors Guild from 1980 to 2003. The union represents performers in film, television and other media, and its board sets policy for its members.
Family loss touched his life as well. His brother Bill drowned in 1978 at age 42 while on vacation in the Dominican Republic.
Hinnant's work spanned children's education, Broadway, Hollywood animation and union leadership. For many viewers, he will be remembered as one of the first faces of The Electric Company, a show that spent years teaching reading to children across the United States.
