John Fiedler made nervousness worth listening to. We value the high, breathy voice and the uses he found for it, from anxious men in supporting parts to Piglet, with room for something nastier than shyness.
Fi1m perspective
John Fiedler's high, breathy voice makes speaking up sound like a small ordeal. In 12 Angry Men (1957), his film debut, he is Juror 2, a nervous bank clerk. It is a good introduction to an actor so often cast as meek or anxious, because the jury's work requires these men to listen to one another. Fiedler gives that nervousness a serious place in the film.
We recommend Sidney Lumet's film for its ensemble, with Henry Fonda at its centre, rather than for any single supporting turn. We were gripped because the deliberations make paying attention to another person feel urgent. The writing sometimes arranges the disagreements too neatly, but Fiedler's bank clerk belongs among these men without needing to be forceful. He need not be the man we remember first for the casting to work.
His stage work offers a less comforting use of that mildness. He originated Karl Lindner on Broadway in 1959 before taking the role into A Raisin in the Sun (1961). Here the meek figure is quietly prejudiced. The casting makes nastiness possible in someone who sounds unthreatening, and stops us assuming that Fiedler's familiar anxiety will always be harmless.
The Odd Couple (1968) brought his Broadway poker player Vinnie to film. He also worked with Bob Newhart, playing the recurring Mr Peterson in The Bob Newhart Show (1972). These supporting assignments made use of an actor whose voice and appearance had helped typecast him in timid parts. That repeated casting could make a character seem settled before he had said much; we would not claim that familiarity always served him well.
Alongside the live-action work, Disney voice roles became a recurring part of his career from the late 1960s. He voiced Piglet in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) and continued playing him until 2005. Here he could play the anxiety without his own slight, balding figure helping to announce it. Start with 12 Angry Men if Piglet is the only Fiedler performance familiar to you; there is a bank clerk worth hearing.
Biography
John Donald Fiedler (3 February 1925 – 25 June 2005) was an American actor and voice actor. Born in Platteville, Wisconsin, he served in the United States Navy during the Second World War before studying at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. His career spanned more than fifty-five years across stage, film, television and radio.
Fiedler made his film debut as Juror 2 in 12 Angry Men (1957). He is known for voicing Piglet in Disney's Winnie-the-Pooh productions from 1968 until his death, as well as roles in The Odd Couple (1968), True Grit (1969) and A Raisin in the Sun (1961). On television he appeared as Mr Peterson in The Bob Newhart Show (1972–1978) and in episodes of Star Trek and The Twilight Zone.
