Lionel Wilson on AllMovie

As the voice of animated do-gooder Tom Terrific, actor/writer Lionel Wilson was invited into family homes week after week as a popular segment of Captain Kangaroo. Though Tom Terrific would ultimately remain his most recognizable character, Wilson also made an impression over the years as the voice of Billy Bear in a series of cartoons produced in the 1960s and '70s. Born in New York City in March of 1924, Wilson was at the tender age of 14 when he made his Broadway debut in Dodsworth. Later touring in productions of The Fantasticks and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Wilson gravitated increasingly toward voice work in television commercials and cartoons in the 1950s. In his later years Wilson could be heard as Eustace the Farmer on The Cartoon Network's Courage the Cowardly Dog. In addition to his vocal work, Wilson adapted the novel Come and Be Killed into a stage play and penned such children's books as The Mule Who Refused to Budge and Commander Toad in Space. On April 30, 2003, just after completing the editing of his memoir, entitled ...And Also in the Cast, Lionel Wilson died of natural causes in New York. He was 79.