April Terri Winchell (born
on January 4, 1960 in New York City
) is an American
actress,
writer, voice actor, talk radio host, and commentator.
Acting
As a voice actress, she has been heard in hundreds of animated
television programs, such as
King
of The Hill,
The
Simpsons,
Phineas &
Ferb,
Kim Possible,
Recess,
Goof Troop,
Disney's House of Mouse,
Mickey Mouse
Clubhouse (as
Clarabelle
Cow),
Pepper Ann (as Lydia
Pearson),
The Legend of
Tarzan (taking over for
Rosie
O'Donnell as Terk) and
101 Dalmatians: The Series,
(as
Cruella De Vil). She has also
voiced roles in numerous films, including
Beverly Hills Chihuahua,
Toy Story 2,
Antz,
Who
Framed Roger Rabbit,
The Lion
King,
Beauty and the
Beast and Rob Zombie's
The Haunted World of El
Superbeasto. Winchell portrayed the "Glendale Federal
Bank" lady - a cranky, cynical customer mollified by the service at
her new bank - in a series of highly successful radio commercials,
which Winchell wrote and directed herself. She was also considered
for the part of
Regan in
the Exorcist until she fell ill and was
taken out of consideration.
Radio
Besides
her many contributions to radio advertising as a performer, writer
and director, Winchell also hosted a radio talk show program on KFI
, a Los
Angeles radio station. This weekend program aired for three
years, and enjoyed the fastest growing audience in the history of
the station.
Subsequent to the end of this program in
November 2002, she appeared semi-regularly on the Ask Mr. KABC program, on KABC
, an AM
station also in Los Angeles - until the show ended in February
2007.
In 2005, Winchell signed a deal with U.S. pay-TV service
HBO to develop and host a show on
Sirius Satellite Radio. However on
her official website on May 3, 2006, she announced that
negotiations had stalled out between HBO and Sirius, leaving her
program in limbo.
On March 16, 2007, she returned to semi-regular radio appearances
on
The Marc "Mr. K" Germain
Show on
KTLK-AM (the new show
hosted by the former Mr. KABC) and is expected to be on twice a
month.
(Her appearances on Germain's show are
available at her website in addition to KTLK's website.) During
March, Winchell was "banned for life" from KABC in Los
Angeles at the behest of ABC radio host Bill O'Reilly, over a retelling
of an occurrence she dubbed "Croissantgate" (KABC provided Bill
O'Reilly with croissants that were not fresh enough for his taste,
causing a commotion at the station).
Her Glendale Federal radio commercials were critical of the recent
bank mergers, and were instrumental in increasing Glendale
Federal's recognition. (Glendale Federal would ultimately be
purchased by California Federal, which in turn was acquired by
Citibank.)
Theater
As a
musical theatre actress, she starred as Ado Annie in the Columbia Artists revival of
Oklahoma
, and
also appeared opposite Kevin Spacey in
Gypsy.
Additionally, Winchell performed her one-woman show as "Sheila
Sands" at the
Roxy Theatre in Los
Angeles to sold out crowds. The show was produced by
Lily Tomlin and
Jane
Wagner, who discovered her at
Cafe
Largo in Hollywood.
She has
also been a frequent panelist on What's My Line at the Acme Comedy Theatre in Hollywood
.
Advertising
In 1992, Winchell and her then-husband
Mick
Kuisel formed Radio Savant Productions, a radio advertising
production company. Since that time, Winchell has won every award
for advertising excellence, including Cannes, Clio, The $100,000
Mercury Award and The International Grand Andy (it was the only
time the Andy was given for radio).
Internet
Winchell's official website chronicles the actress' activities,
including her professional, personal and romantic life. Her success
at attracting visitors to the site was reflected by the thousands
of dollars raised when she solicited donations from visitors to
support her (and the large bandwidth bills generated by the site)
during a period of unemployment.
April also owns and operates the site regretsy.com under the
pseudonym of "Hellen Killer"
Personal life
Winchell is the daughter of American ventriloquist
Paul Winchell. In her weblog writings and
appearances on radio, she describes her childhood with many
references to the great talent of her father as well as the many
disturbing incidents owing to his mental health issues. Ms.
Winchell did not speak publicly about his mental illness and drug
use for many years, due to the "tremendous responsibility" she felt
to his fans, and the people who had fond childhood memories of his
work from the 1960s through the late 1980s. But her silence ended
in March 2004 after her father published his autobiography
Winch, in which he openly criticized his ex-wife,
Nina Russel, and other family members.
In broadcasts of her KFI show, on her web diary and several other
websites, April Winchell revealed that she and
Kevin Spacey dated for a while after high
school, during the run of the
Gypsy musical, and went to
New York together . She and Spacey remained friends ever
since.
On August 19, 2005 she announced on her website that she was
diagnosed with
cancer and underwent
successful surgery and radiation treatment. To promote solidarity
during her radiation treatment, she issued her own rubber
wristbands. Where
Lance Armstrong's
wrist bands were yellow, April's were "Glow in the Dark" so one
could "glow along" with April.
Winchell is also widely known as a supporter of various charity
causes, including
Project Angel
Food, a Los Angeles-based service providing meals for homebound
people living with AIDS.
Winchell has provided the award winning radio and television
advertising for
Big Bear
Mountain Resorts since the early 90's. In 2007, she began
appearing in their television ads as a reporter-on-the-scene
dealing with a hapless studio anchorman.
References
External links
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