Peter Sallis, voice of 'Wallace and Gromit,' dead at 96

LONDON (AP) — British actor Peter Sallis, who played irrepressible, cheese-loving inventor Wallace in the "Wallace and Gromit" cartoons, has died, his agent said today. He was 96.

Sallis' talent agency, Jonathan Altaras Associates, said he died Friday at a retirement home for actors in London.

Born in London in 1921, Sallis began his working life in a bank, but caught the acting bug as a Royal Air Force serviceman during World War II. After the war, he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and built up a diverse career onstage and in British film and television.

He became famous in Britain as a star of the long-running sitcom "Last of the Summer Wine." Sallis was proud to have appeared in every episode during the show's 37-year run.

Millions around the world know his voice from animator Nick Park's "Wallace and Gromit," which charted the adventures of a cheese-loving Yorkshireman with a passion for inventing wild contraptions and his level-headed, silent dog, Gromit.

With their old-fashioned stop-motion animation and lightly anarchic British humor, Park's short films, feature and BBC series gained fans around the world.