Christine Cavanaugh


Christine Josephine Cavanaugh was an American actress, who had a distinctive speaking style and provided the voice for a large range of cartoon characters. She starred as the voice of Bunnie Rabbot from the Sonic the Hedgehog Saturday-morning cartoon on ABC, Babe from the 1995 film of the same name, Gosalyn Mallard in Darkwing Duck, and served as the original voices of Chuckie Finster in Nickelodeon's Rugrats, Oblina in Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, and the titular character in Cartoon Network's Dexter's Laboratory.

Early life and education

Christine Josephine Sandberg was born on August 16, 1963, in Layton, Utah, to Waldo Eugene Sandberg and Rheta Mason. She graduated from Layton High School in 1981. She first attended Utah State University, then the University of Hawaii, where she met her future husband, Kevin Cavanaugh. The couple married in 1985, and divorced later in the same year. Cavanaugh was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Career

In 1991, Cavanaugh voiced Gosalyn Mallard, the title character's adopted daughter on Disney's Darkwing Duck as well as Chuckie Finster on the Nickelodeon cartoon Rugrats, and later in 1994, Oblina on Aaahh!!! Real Monsters.
Cavanaugh could also be heard on The Critic as the voice of Marty, Jay Sherman's son. Her voice credits also include the animated series Sonic the Hedgehog, ', Hercules: The Animated Series, The Powerpuff Girls, The Wild Thornberrys, and Recess, as well as the voice of Birdie in McDonald's commercials. In the early 1990s, Cavanaugh also served as an announcer for The Disney Channel for "coming up next" bumpers.
In 1995, Cavanaugh lent her voice to the live-action film Babe in the starring role of Babe the Gallant Pig. She was offered to reprise her role for the sequel, ', but decided against it when contract negotiations fell through, so the role was instead played by her Rugrats co-star Elizabeth Daily. Also in 1995, Cavanaugh started doing the voice of boy-genius Dexter on Dexter's Laboratory, which began as a short under Cartoon Network's What a Cartoon! show, and later became the first short to be adapted into its own series for Cartoon Network. She later won an Annie Award in 2000 for her voice performance as Dexter in the hour-long TV special .
Cavanaugh also guest starred on several TV shows including Salute Your Shorts, Cheers, Empty Nest, Wings, The X-Files, Everybody Loves Raymond, and ER, and had supporting roles in the feature films Soulmates and Jerry Maguire. Cavanaugh retired from voice acting in 2001. After her retirement, she was replaced by Candi Milo as the voice of Dexter and by Nancy Cartwright, her co-star in The Critic, as the voice of Chuckie in Rugrats.

Death

On December 22, 2014, Cavanaugh died at her home in Cedar City, Utah of undisclosed causes. She was 51 years old. She was cremated and her ashes scattered into the Great Salt Lake.

Filmography

Voice roles

Live-action