Francis the Talking Mule creator dies.

[SkipMagic]

Newspaper publisher David “Tom” Stern III, who held top positions at the New York Post and the Philadelphia Daily News but will always be remembered as the creator of "Francis the Talking Mule,’’ died Saturday in San Francisco of natural causes. He was 94.

From here.

My grandmother and I used to watch the Francis films on Sundays–right after the Ma and Pa Kettle shows.

Other actors who found early success playing opposite the eloquent equine were Piper Laurie, Clint Eastwood, David Janssen, Leonard Nimoy, ZaSu Pitts and Jim Backus.

I was too young at the time to notice, but it looks like a few famous people had a run-in with that talking ass.

[C_K_Dexter_Haven]

No mention of Donald O’Connor who was the main human interacting with Francis in all the movies? … and who died earlier this… Sigh.

[SkipMagic]

Well, the article actually mentioned Donald’s death:

The films starred Donald O’Connor, who died two months ago, as Peter Stirling, an Army GI rescued by Francis behind enemy lines in Burma.

… but I didn’t mention him in the OP. I knew that he died a few months back, and that Otto had started a thread about his death here.

I just figured that O’Connor’s death was old news. No slight to the man was intended.

I’ve never been a big fan of animal buddy movies, but the Francis series made me laugh. Much more so than, say, George Burn’s imitative baby, Mr. Ed.

[Raymond_Luxury_Yacht]

Sorry to hear about Tom kicking the bucket.
On the plus side, he bought the farm.