Alan Young, best known for his role as the cheerful yet clumsy talking horse owner Wilbur Post on the 1960s sitcom Mister Ed, has died at the age of 96. His publicist confirmed his passing occurred on Thursday of “natural causes” at the Motion Picture & Television Home, where he had been living for four years. A veteran actor whose career mostly spanned between the 1940s and 1960s, his credits include his radio and television series The Alan Young Show — which he created and starred in — as well as the films The Time Machine and Tom Thumb. Young briefly retired from show business in 1967, after which he became a communications director for the Christian Science Church. He returned to the industry about a decade later, when he then notably lent his voice to the character of Scrooge McDuck for various Disney productions. Information on Young’s survivors was not immediately available.
