The actress who voiced Chuckie from Rugrats has died

Christine Cavanaugh who voiced Chuckie Finster on Rugrats, Babe and Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory, has died aged 51.

While the cause of her death is unclear, her obituary, printed in the Los Angeles Times, states that she passed away shortly before Christmas on 22 December 2014.

Prepare to feel SERIOUSLY old, because Christine voiced red-haired toddler Chucky between 1991 and 2002, when she left the show and was replaced by Nancy Cartwright (who voices Bart Simpson and others on The Simpsons).

In 1995 she became sheep-pig Babe and from 1996 went on to play boy genius Dexter in Dexter's Laboratory for seven years.

But Nancy was also known for her voice work in other cartoons like Recess, The Powerpuff Girls, The Wild Thornberrys, Sonic the Hedgehog and the animated series for 101 Dalmatians and Hercules.

She retired from voice acting in the early '00s to spend more time with her family and her obituary explains that she moved from Hollywood to the countryside.

"When her life changed she found herself needing the quiet of the country and her love changed from entertaining to hiking, reading, writing and living a simple life."

It adds: "Many know of her from the roles she played, but in each role there was a part of her showing through that the ones who truly knew her could see.

"The childlike awe of the world, humour to deal with the unpleasantness of reality, strength to deal with the challenges we all face, and intelligence to know when to act or accept what fate had allowed."


By Claire Hodgson