Christine Cavanaugh

Christine Josephine Cavanaugh (née Sandberg; August 16, 1963 – December 22, 2014) was an American voice actress and actress who had a distinctive speaking style and provided the voice for a large range of cartoon characters. She starred as the voice of Bunnie Rabbot from the Sonic the Hedgehog Saturday-morning cartoon on ABC, Babe from the 1995 film of the same name, Gosalyn Mallard in Darkwing Duck, and served as the original voices of Chuckie Finster in Nickelodeon's Rugrats and the title character in Cartoon Network's Dexter's Laboratory. In 2001, she retired from voice acting and died on December 22, 2014, from undisclosed causes.

Cavanaugh was born in 1963 to Rheta Mason (née Sharky) and Waldo Eugene Sandberg in Layton, Utah. She graduated from Layton High School in 1981. She first attended Utah State University, then the University of Hawaii, where she met her future husband, Kevin Cavanaugh. The couple married in 1985, and divorced later that same year. However, she kept his surname as her professional name upon becoming an actress. Cavanaugh was a Mormon.

In 1991, Cavanaugh voiced Gosalyn Mallard, the title character's adopted daughter on Disney's Darkwing Duck as well as Chuckie Finster on the Nickelodeon cartoon Rugrats, and later in 1994, Oblina, one of the three main monster-students on Aaahh!!! Real Monsters.

Cavanaugh could also be heard on The Critic as the voice of Marty, Jay Sherman's son. Her voice credits also include the animated series Sonic the Hedgehog, 101 Dalmatians: The Series, Hercules: The Animated Series, The Powerpuff Girls, The Wild Thornberrys, and Recess, as well as the voice of Birdie in McDonald's commercials. In the early 1990s, Cavanaugh also served as an announcer for The Disney Channel for "coming up next" bumpers.

In 1995, Cavanaugh lent her voice to the live-action film Babe in the starring role of Babe the Gallant Pig. She was offered to reprise her role for the sequel, Babe: Pig in the City, but decided against it due to personal matters, so the role was instead played by her Rugrats co-star Elizabeth Daily, the voice of Tommy Pickles. Also in 1995, Cavanaugh started doing the voice of boy-genius Dexter on Dexter's Laboratory, which began as a short under Cartoon Network's What a Cartoon! show, and later became the first short to be adapted into its own series for Cartoon Network. She later won an Annie Award in 2000 for her voice performance as Dexter in the hour-long TV special Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip.

Cavanaugh also guest starred on several TV shows including Salute Your Shorts, Cheers, Empty Nest, Wings, The X-Files, Everybody Loves Raymond, and ER, and had supporting roles in the feature films Soulmates and Jerry Maguire. Cavanaugh retired from voice acting in 2001, wanting to spend time with her family. After her retirement, she was replaced by Candi Milo as the voice of Dexter and by Nancy Cartwright (her co-star in The Critic) as the voice of Chuckie in Rugrats.

On December 22, 2014, Cavanaugh died at her home in Cedar City, Utah. She was 51 years old. Actors Bill Farmer and Jim Cummings, and actresses E.G. Daily, Tara Strong, and Grey DeLisle, tweeted farewell messages to her as tribute.

Voice roles

Live-action