WArne Arnardo, born Arne Otto Lorang Andersen, was a Norwegian circus performer and -owner, generally referred to as the "circus king" of Norway. He escaped with the circus at an early age, took the stage name "Arnardo", and developed proficiency in several different acts. In 1949, he opened his own circus, under the name of Cirkus Arnardo.
WJim Barber is an American ventriloquist, comedian and singer who performs Internationally.
WEdgar John Bergen was an American actor, comedian and radio performer, best known for his proficiency in ventriloquism and his characters Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. He was the father of actress Candice Bergen.
WWalford Bodie, whose real name was Samuel Murphy Bodie (1869–1939), was a Scottish showman, hypnotist, ventriloquist and stage magician, famous for his "mock" electrocutions involving a replica of "The Electric Chair". He also performed an act of "Bloodless Surgery", claiming he could use electricity, hypnosis and manipulation to cure "all kinds of ailments and disabilities". His performances were enormously popular in the early 20th century, and inspired both Harry Houdini and Charlie Chaplin.
WPeter Brough was an English radio ventriloquist who became a well-known name to audiences in the 1950s. He is associated with his puppet Archie Andrews.
WNina Margarita Conti is a British actress, comedian, and ventriloquist.
WJohn Walcott Cooper, Jr. was an American ventriloquist, entertainer, and singer with the Southern Jubilee Singers. He was known as the "Black Napoleon of Ventriloquism" and also performed under the pseudonym Hezekiah Jones. Over the course of his lifetime Cooper was a member of the Negro Actors Guild of America, the Colored Vaudeville Benevolent Association, and the International Brotherhood of Ventriloquists.
WVince Dantona was an American ventriloquist.
WGeorge Washington Dixon was an American singer, stage actor, and newspaper editor. He rose to prominence as a blackface performer after performing "Coal Black Rose", "Zip Coon", and similar songs. He later turned to a career in journalism, during which he earned the enmity of members of the upper class for his frequent allegations against them.
WJeffrey Dunham is an American ventriloquist, stand-up comedian and actor who has also appeared on numerous television shows, including Late Show with David Letterman, Comedy Central Presents, The Tonight Show and Sonny With a Chance. He has six specials that run on Comedy Central: Jeff Dunham: Arguing with Myself, Jeff Dunham: Spark of Insanity, Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special, Jeff Dunham: Controlled Chaos, Jeff Dunham: Minding the Monsters, and Jeff Dunham: All Over the Map. Dunham also starred in The Jeff Dunham Show, a series on the network in 2009.
WAlyse Cynthia Eady is an American news anchor and beauty pageant titleholder who was Miss Arkansas 2010. Eady was named first runner-up at the 2011 Miss America pageant, which was won by Miss Nebraska 2010 Teresa Scanlan.
WHenry Evans was a conjurer, ventriloquist and humorist, born in Kennington, South London, who used the stage name Evanion. Performances in front of members of the British Royal Family, including Queen Victoria at Sandringham, and the Prince of Wales and Princess Alexandra at Marlborough House, enabled him to use the name "The Royal Conjuror" in his publicity.
WTerry Wayne Fator is an American ventriloquist, impressionist, stand-up comedian, and singer from Dallas, Texas. Fator does ventriloquial impersonations, and uses 15 different puppets in his act. He was the winner of season two of America's Got Talent, and received the million dollar prize. The following year, he was signed on as the headliner at the Mirage hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nevada with a five-year, $100 million contract.
WWayne Federman is an American comedian, actor, author, writer, comedy historian, podcaster, and musician. He is noted for numerous stand-up comedy appearances in clubs, theaters, and on television; a biography of "Pistol" Pete Maravich; and supporting comedic acting roles in The X-Files, The Larry Sanders Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Crashing, Silicon Valley, Legally Blonde, 50 First Dates, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Step Brothers. He was the head monologue writer for NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in its first season. He co-produced the Emmy-winning HBO documentary The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling.
WPietro Ghislandi is an Italian actor.
WAndy Gross is an American former professional racquetball player, now a touring comedian, ventriloquist, magician, and illusionist. He is known for his television and film appearances, and for his live touring show called Andy Gross's MindBoggling Variety Show.
WJonathan Harrington (1811–1881) was a ventriloquist and illusionist in 19th century United States. He performed in Boston, Philadelphia, and elsewhere.
WKeith Shenton Harris was an English ventriloquist, best known for his television show The Keith Harris Show (1982–90), audio recordings, and club appearances with his puppets Orville the Duck and Cuddles the Monkey. He had a UK Top 10 hit single in 1982 with "Orville's Song" which reached number 4 in the charts.
WJesse Donald Knotts was an American actor, voice actor and comedian, widely known for his role as Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, a 1960s sitcom for which he earned five Emmy Awards, and for his role as Ralph Furley on the highly rated sitcom Three's Company from 1979 to 1984. He also starred in multiple comedic films, including the leading role in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966) and The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964). In 1979, TV Guide ranked him #27 on its 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time list.
WKirsten Langbo was a Norwegian children's writer, singer-songwriter and entertainer.
WHarry Lester, born Maryan Czajkowski in Poland, best known by his stage name The Great Lester, was a seminal vaudeville ventriloquist.
WMallory Lewis is an American writer, television producer, ventriloquist, and puppeteer. Lamb Chop, created by Tarcher's mother, Shari Lewis, is literally a sock puppet alterego of the mother and daughter.
WShari Lewis was an American ventriloquist, puppeteer, children's entertainer, comedian, and television show host. She was best known as the original puppeteer of the sock puppet Lamb Chop, first appearing on Captain Kangaroo in March 1956 and then Hi Mom, a local morning television show that aired on WRCA-TV in New York City.
WVenu Madhav was an Indian film actor, television presenter, mimicry artist and comedian known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema, and few Tamil and Kannada films. He was one of the finest comedians in the Telugu cinema, he starred in some 170 films in a variety of roles, starting his career as an impressionist; imitating celebrities, politicians, and local dialects. He received breakthrough in cinema with works such as Master (1997), and Tholi Prema (1998).
WNancy Helen Marcus was an American biologist and oceanographer. During her graduate studies, Marcus became known as an expert on copepod ecology and evolutionary biology. She began her career as a postdoctoral fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution where she studied copepod dormancy and its implications for marine aquaculture. She continued her field research as a professor of oceanography and later as the director of the Florida State University Marine Laboratory (FSU). During this time Marcus was elected as a Fellow of the Association for Women in Science and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and served as the President of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography. As the president, she led efforts in increase education activities and to increase the endowment fund.
WJay Marshall was an American magician and ventriloquist.
WDonald Earle Messick was an American voice actor, best known for his performances in Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
WThomas Blaine Mullica was an American comedy magician and impressionist who performed on television specials and appeared on Late Night with David Letterman, The World's Greatest Magic, Viva Variety and Penn & Teller's Sin City.
WSatyajit Padhye is an Indian ventriloquist, puppeteer and puppet maker, and third generation ventriloquist.
WYeshwant Keshav Padhye was the pioneering Indian Ventriloquist who started ventriloquism in India in the 1920s. He was also a puppeteer and maker.
WDamien Colcanap, better known as Jeff Panacloc, is a French ventriloquist and stand-up comedian born on 8 September 1986 in Saint-Thibault-des-Vignes, Seine-et-Marne.
WOtto Sol Petersen was an American ventriloquist, comedian, and actor known for his act Otto and George, which he performed with his dummy George Dudley. Petersen began performing with George as a street act in Manhattan and Brooklyn in the early 1970s. In the late 1970s the act moved into night clubs and began to evolve into an "X-rated" act.
WCarla Rhodes is an American ventriloquist, comedian and musician who was mentored by Shari Lewis as a teenager. She lives in New York City. She adds a new twist to the old art of ventriloquism. Rhodes' main squeeze is a cantankerous 1920s gentleman named Cecil Sinclaire.
WThomas Frederick Parnell OBE, known professionally as Fred Russell, was an English ventriloquist. Usually credited as being the first to use a knee-sitting figure, he is known as "The Father of Modern Ventriloquism".
WMimicry Srinivos is an international impressionist (entertainment), ventriloquist and very first sound illusionist from India. For the past 43 years he performed more than 7000 shows all over India and around the world, including US, UK, UAE, Singapore, Malaysia, Sharjah, Bahrain, Kuwait, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia Sri Lanka Australia. He is a disciple of the world-renowned mimic Padmashri Dr. Nerella Venumadhav and learnt ventriloquism from Prof. M.M. Roy of Chennai, India and later he graduated in ventriloquism from Mahers institute of ventriloquists, Colorado, US. He is a member of " North American Association of Ventriloquists". He is also known as "Mimikry Srinivas, " Mimicry Sreenivas, "Mimicry Srinivas" "Mimicry Seenu" and "Mimicry Srinivos". In the year 2013, the Education department of previous combined Andhra Pradesh state (India) included Srinivos' story in Class 8th Physics lesson in the chapter "Sound".
WDavid Strassman is an American ventriloquist, stand-up comedian, actor, voice artist, and comedian. He is best known for his ventriloquism act with Chuck Wood and Ted E. Bare.
WMarcy Tigner was an American Christian children's entertainer, who released numerous albums for several prominent Christian record labels in the mid-1960s through the early 1980s. She used her natural voice, which had a very unnatural childlike quality. She developed the Little Marcy ventriloquist's doll to aid her performances to give a congruent visual aid to match her voice, and thus toured the United States for several years under the Little Marcy guise for evangelistic crusades and solo concerts. Her last album appeared in 1982, after which she made a few local appearances in Oregon. By the mid-1990s she was entirely retired, but it was about this time that record collectors specializing in "weird" music brought about a re-interest in her output.
WWillie Tyler is an American ventriloquist, comedian and actor. Tyler has been credited as Willie Tyler and Lester or Willie Tyler & Lester. He has appeared in many television commercials, sitcoms and films. Tyler got his first big break in 1972 on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.
WVonda Kay Van Dyke was crowned the 1965 Miss America on September 13, 1964. Earlier in the year, she had taken a break as a 21-year-old junior at Arizona State College at Flagstaff to become Miss Arizona. She is unique among pageant winners in that she was and still is the only Miss America who was also Miss Congeniality.
WNicolas Marie Alexandre Vattemare, also known under the stage name Monsieur Alexandre, was a French ventriloquist and philanthropist who created the first international system for the exchange of items among libraries and museums.
WSofía Margarita Vergara Vergara is a Colombian-American actress, television producer, comedian, presenter and model. She has been the highest paid actress in American television for 7 consecutive years, from 2013-2019.
WMark Wade is "America's Foremost Children's Ventriloquist". He has performed and lectured internationally on the subject, and was named "Ventriloquist Of The Year" in 1980. He is the Executive Director of the Vent Haven International Ventriloquists' ConVENTion, and is the Executive Director of Maher Ventriloquist Studios, the oldest established ventriloquist studio that teaches the art of ventriloquism. Along with Ken Groves and Tom Crowl Mark started the IVS in 2013. He also sits on the Board of Advisors for the Vent Haven Ventriloquist Museum, a post he has had for many years.
WKenny Warren is an American ventriloquist, comedian, and author. He has appeared on television shows such as What's My Line? and To Tell the Truth and also has performed with comedians such as Jerry Seinfeld and Rodney Dangerfield.
WJimmy Weldon is an American voice actor, ventriloquist, and former television host. He is best known as the voice of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Yakky Doodle and the host and ventriloquist in the locally produced television series The Webster Webfoot Show.
WWenceslao Moreno, better known as Señor Wences, was a Spanish ventriloquist and comedian. His popularity grew with his frequent appearances on CBS-TV's The Ed Sullivan Show in the 1950s and 1960s.
WPaul Winchell was an American ventriloquist, comedian, actor, voice artist, humanitarian, and inventor whose career flourished in the 1950s and 1960s. From 1950 to 1954, he hosted The Paul Winchell Show, which also used two other titles during its prime time run on NBC: The Speidel Show, and What's My Name?. From 1965–1968, Winchell hosted the children's television series Winchell-Mahoney Time.
WWinona Winter was an American vaudeville performer and silent-film actress.
WIn the Hebrew Bible, the witch of Endor is a woman Saul consulted to summon the spirit of prophet Samuel in the 28th chapter of the First Book of Samuel in order to receive advice against the Philistines in battle after his prior attempts to consult God through sacred lots and prophets had failed. The witch is absent from the version of that event recounted in the deuterocanonical Book of Sirach (46:19–20).
WArthur Wilkinson Worsley was a British ventriloquist who appeared regularly on British television from the 1950s to the 1970s. His act with dummy Charlie Brown had Charlie do all the talking, while Worsley himself remained "silent".
WZillah & Totte is a Swedish ventriloquist act consisting of Cecilia "Zillah" Ustav and her puppet monkey Totte. Zillah was the winner of the first season of Talang, Sweden's version of Got Talent, in 2007, and received the 1,000,000 SEK prize. The following year she won the gold medal in the World Championships of Performing Arts in Hollywood and was awarded the title of Grand Champion of the World in the Variety class. Since then she has hosted four seasons of her own TV show called APTV med Zillah & Totte on the major Swedish television network TV4, and two seasons of the hidden camera show Cheeese on Swedish Nickelodeon. She continues touring with her family entertainment comedy show all over Sweden.
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