Christine Cavanaugh, an actress best known for providing the voice for the title pig in the 1995 film “Babe,” has died. She was 51.

Cavanaugh died Dec. 22 at her home in Cedar City, Utah, her family confirmed. No details regarding the cause of death were disclosed.

Besides Babe, Cavanaugh’s voice-over credits include skittish toddler Chuckie Finster of Nickelodeon’s “Rugrats,” the youthful mad scientist Dexter in “Dexter’s Laboratory” on the Cartoon Network and Gosalyn Waddlemeyer-Mallard in Disney’s “Darkwing Duck.”

She often was hired for her ability to sound like a little boy.

“There’s a freedom to voice-over acting,” Cavanaugh told the Toronto Star newspaper in 2000. “I can do things I could never do on camera. I can be elderly or I can be a baby … or animals. It’s wonderful.”

After inhabiting the character of Babe off-screen for the Oscar-nominated film, Cavanaugh showed up on the red carpet at the Academy Awards ceremony in 1996 carrying a pink bejeweled Judith Leiber handbag in the shape of a pig.

Another voice actress, E.G. Daily, was hired for the 1998 sequel, “Babe: Pig in the City,” after contract negotiations stalled.Among her wide-ranging voice-over credits were Marty Sherman on Jon Lovitz’s animated series “The Critic,” Oblina in “Aaahh!!! Real Monsters” and Bunnie Rabbot on “Sonic the Hedgehog.”Born Aug. 16, 1963, in Utah, Cavanaugh attended Utah State University and the University of Hawaii before moving to California. She acted in local theater and had small television roles in the late 1980s before finding her niche doing voice-over work. Cavanaugh, who was divorced from her husband Kevin, moved back to Utah in 2001 and retired from voice acting.


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