On this day, June 26, 2001 Soccer a Jack Russell Terrier dog Actor best known for portraying the talking dog Wishbone in the PBS television series of the same name. He was thirteen years old. A veteran of many television commercials for companies like Nike Athletics and Mighty Dog Dog Food, he was chosen from out of more than 100 dogs who auditioned for the role. Soccer appeared in almost every episode of the show during its 1995-1998 run. He lived with his trainer, Jackie Martin Kaptan, on the Plano, Texas ranch where the Wishbone series was filmed.

Soccer’s role as Wishbone was considered by many to be one of the most beloved TV dogs of the 1990s.

Birthdays
1904 – Peter Lorre (László Löwenstein) (actor: The Maltese Falcon, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Casablanca, The Raven; died Mar 23, 1964)

1922 – Eleanor Parker (actress: The Sound of Music, Of Human Bondage, Caged, The Man with the Golden Arm, Dead on the Money)

1934 – Dave Grusin (composer: film scores: On Golden Pond, Heaven Can Wait, Tootsie)

1951 – Pamela Bellwood (actress: Airport ’77, Dynasty, Double Standard, Cellar Dweller, Deadman’s Curve, Choices of the Heart)

1956 – Chris Isaak (actor: Little Buddha, Silence of the Lambs, Married to the Mob, Twin Peaks; singer, songwriter: Wicked Game, Blue Hotel, LP: Silvertone)

1970 – Chris O’Donnell (actor: The Three Musketeers, Dead Poets Society, Scent of a Woman, Fried Green Tomatoes, Circle of Friends, Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, The Bachelor, Vertical Limit)

1970 – Matthew Letscher (actor: The Mask of Zorro)

1980 – Jason Schwartzman (actor: Rushmore, Slackers; musician: group: Phantom Planet)