Wayne Allwine, the voice of Mickey Mouse is dead

The 62-year-old who has been voicing the legendary cartoon character since 1977, died of complications of diabetes at UCLA Medical Center, reported Los Angeles Times.

"Wayne's great talent, deep compassion, kindness and gentle way, all of which shone brightly through his alter ego, will be greatly missed," Disney chief executive Robert Iger said in a statement.

Allwine who had joined Disney in 1966 as a helper in the mail room, was only the third person to voice Mickey Mouse since the iconic cartoon first hit movie theatres in 1928 with the animated movie "Steamboat Willie" .
The first to voice Mickey was Walt Disney himself and the role was later passed onto the studio's sound effects wizard Jimmy Macdonald. When MacDonald was passing on the reins to Allwine he famously remarked, "Just remember kid, you're only filling in for the boss."

Allwine made his debut voicing the world's most famous mouse on "The New Mickey Mouse Club" in 1977 and went on to voice for Disney movies, TV specials, theme parks, records, toys and video games.

Allwine was also a well established sound effects editor and had won an Emmy Award in 1986 for outstanding sound editing for a series for Steven Spielberg's 'Amazing Stories'.