Alan Young as Wilbur Post on "Mister Ed"
(Image credit: Twitter/Yahoo TV)

Mister Ed star Alan Young died Thursday of natural causes, the Motion Picture & Television Fund said Friday. He was 96.

Before playing architect Wilbur Post in the iconic 1961 series about a talking horse, Young hosted an Emmy Award-winning variety show. He later voiced characters in projects like Mickey's Christmas Carol, The Smurfs, and The Ren & Stimpy Show.

"I think it's the same chemistry that made Laurel and Hardy and Jackie Gleason and Art Carney," Young told the Los Angeles Times in 1990, reflecting on the popularity of Mister Ed. "It's the one guy making a fool of the other guy."

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Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.