Ernie Coombs

Ernest "Ernie" Coombs, CM (November 26, 1927 – September 18, 2001) who was most famous for being the host of the popular Canadian television TV show called Mr. Dressup. 'Mr. Dressup was on TV for a very long time.

He was born in Lewiston, Maine in 1927. After he finished school at the North Yarmouth Academy he decided to find work entertaining children. He first started learning how to do this when he moved to Canada in 1963 and started working for Fred Rogers on an early version of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. This show was on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation TV channel. After Rogers moved back to the United States in 1964 Coombs stayed in Canada. His next work was on a TV show called Butternut Square which was on TV from 1964 to 1967.

After "Butternut Square" ended Coombs started the "Mr. Dressup" TV show. It would become one of Canada's longest-running children's TV shows. As Mr. Dressup he would do art, sing songs, tell stories and play children's games. In each show Mr. Dressup would dress up in costumes that he would find in a box he called his "Tickle Trunk".

Coombs became a Canadian citizen in 1994.

His TV show did not stop until February 1996.  The same year, he was named a Member of the Order of Canada . 

Repeats of his TV show were shown on CBC Television until 2006.

After he retired from TV Coombs continued to work entertaining children and did a lot of work to raise money for many children's charities.

Coombs had a stroke on September 10, 2001. He died on September 18, 2001 in Toronto, Ontario. He was 73 years old when he died.

Other websites
Ernie Coombs' Order of Canada Citation 
Ernie Coombs' CBC personalities page
Canadian Connections' Ernie Coombs page 
The Mr. Dressup Pictures and Sound Page by Buffalonian Steve Cichon

 Multimedia 
CBC Archives Remembering Mr. Dressup - CBC News 2001

Category:1927 births
Category:2001 deaths
Category:Musicians from Ontario
Category:Canadian television actors
Category:People from Lewiston, Maine