Don Rickles

Donald Jay "Don" Rickles (May 8, 1926 – April 6, 2017) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, singer, author, voice artist, and comedian who performed the voice of Mr. Potato Head in the Toy Story franchise. He reprised his role in Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, Toy Story Toons (except Small Fry, in which Mr. Potato Head did not speak), Toy Story of Terror!, and Toy Story That Time Forgot. He also reprised his role as Mr. Potato Head as an Interactive Audio-Animatronic at Toy Story Midway Mania!.

On April 6, 2017, he died at his home in Beverly Hills, California of kidney failure at the age of 90. Prior to his death, he had intended to reprise his role as Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story 4, but a representative had stated he did not record any dialogue due to the script still being rewritten at the time. Shortly thereafter, petitions have launched to include Rickles in the film. According to Josh Cooley, his family contacted Pixar to ask if they could still include him and they managed to assemble enough material to have him reprise his role through 25 years worth of archived recordings (used within the whole franchise and other works), similarly to how archived records of Paul Newman and Tom Magliozzi were used for Doc Hudson and Rusty Rust-eze in Cars 3. The film was dedicated to Rickles, along with Adam Burke.

Trivia

• Mr. Potato Head's line in Toy Story "What are you lookin' at, ya hockey puck?" is one of Rickles' catchphrases.
• Rickles also starred in Martin Scorsese's film Casino, which was released on November 22, 1995 (the same day Toy Story was released).