The similarities between Ernie Coombs and Mr. Dressup
Famed children's performer talked to CBC News in 1985 about the ways he and Mr. Dressup were alike
To most Canadians, Ernie Coombs was better known as Mr. Dressup.
But could those two people be separated after so many years together?
It was a topic the CBC's Deirdre Kessler asked Coombs about when he was in Charlottetown for a live performance back in 1985.
Coombs said there was a lot of Mr. Dressup's character in himself from the get-go.
'Basically me with a different name'
"When I started doing Mr. Dressup, I didn't see him as a character — an overt character where I had to put on a different voice, or of a lot of makeup, or a funny beard, or something like that," Coombs explained during the interview, which Midday aired for viewers on Nov. 5, 1985.
"He was basically me with a different name, doing things that I do like to do."
Coombs said that similarity in character made it easier for him to play Mr. Dressup, as he didn't feel he had "to keep up a certain façade on television" for so many years.
He also believed Mr. Dressup had been "a good influence" on the man playing Mr. Dressup.
"I think probably having been Mr. Dressup for 20 years has probably made me a better person than I might have been," said Coombs.
"I have to absorb a lot of the niceness and thoughtfulness that Mr. Dressup has," he explained.
