JoBe Cerny, Voice of the Pillsbury Doughboy, Dies at 78

JoBe Cerny, a Chicago actor whose most recognizable line was the giggle that followed a poke in the Pillsbury Doughboy’s belly, died Oct. 30. He was 78.

Cerny took on the voice of the Doughboy in 2014, joining a line of performers that included Paul Frees and Jeff Bergman. In another long-running advertising role, Cerny made an impression without saying a word: He played the Silent Demonstrator in commercials for Cheer detergent.

Born and raised in Cicero, Illinois, Cerny studied speech and drama at Valparaiso University and earned a master’s degree in theater from Northwestern University. In the 1970s, he performed with Chicago’s Second City on its main stage and with its national touring company.

His career took him from the stage to television, commercials and movies, with small roles in Somewhere in Time, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Road to Perdition and Legally Blonde 2. He also ran Cerny/American Creative Recording Studio in Chicago’s River North neighborhood for more than 30 years, working on thousands of projects, from commercials and audiobooks to feature films.

“I’m lucky, I get to be somebody different every day,” Cerny once said of his work. He called his choice of career an “irresponsible decision to have fun.”

Away from the studio, Cerny collected model trains and loved racing enough to keep driving go-karts into his 60s. Those close to him remembered him as outgoing and as someone who could run into a person he knew just about anywhere.

Cerny is survived by his wife of 56 years, Eileen; his sons, Tim and Patrick; and his grandchildren, Archer and Cleo.