Giuseppe “Peppino” Mazzullo passed away on Sept. 30. The talented Italian actor and voice actor, who lived to be 100 years old, will be missed not only in his native country, but around the world.
Why is that, exactly?
Mazzullo was the voice of Topo Gigio from 1961 to 2006. That was the little Italian mouse that stole America’s heart for nearly a decade.
Topo Gigio was created in Italy in 1958 by artist Maria Perego, her husband Federico Caldura, and fellow artist Guido Stagnaro. The fictional anthropomorphic mouse was designed as a puppet and first appeared on RAI’s Serata di gala in 1959. He turned up on other popular Italian programs, including lta fedeltà, Canzonissima and Zecchino d’Oro.
The mouse later became the main character on Storie di Topo Gigio, a beloved children’s TV show on RAI during the 1960s. Several movies were made, including The Magic World of Topo Gigio (1961) and Topo Gigio and the Missile War (1967). Two modern animated series, Japan’s Topo Gigio (1988-1990) and Italy’s Topo Gigio (2019-2020), created whole new fan bases that still exist today.
Topo Gigio’s popularity is still remarkably high. He served as Italy’s animated representative during the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025. There’s also an active website in Italy, with cartoons, an online store and more. A dedicated page to Perego, who passed away in 2019, is easy to find – along with photos of the mouse with legendary jazz musician Louis Armstrong, actor Raúl Astor and singer/songwriter Michael Jackson.
There’s another important photo of Topo Gigio on the website, too. It features the little Italian mouse with Ed Sullivan, who turned him into one of the most recognizable stars on American television.
Topo Gigio had a recurring segment on The Ed Sullivan Show between 1962 and 1971. Three puppeteers controlled the 10-inch-tall (or 25 cm) mouse made of foam rubber, while Mazzullo handled the voice. A black screen in the background hid the black-clad puppeteers. This created the illusion of a talking puppet who could seemingly walk, run and jump on Sullivan’s arm and shoulder.
The little mouse would greet Sullivan in each skit with a cheerful “Hello, Eddie!” They engaged in light banter about topics such as Italy, St. Patrick’s Day, Christmas, playing the violin, American civics and Topo Gigio’s girlfriend, Rosie. At the end, he would ask Sullivan the same thing, “Eddie, kiss me goodnight!” The joy and happiness he felt afterwards was unmistakable.
Topo Gigio’s skits were among the most popular, appreciated and asked-for routines that Sullivan ever put on TV. Many of them can still be viewed on the official Ed Sullivan Show page on YouTube. A DVD of various appearances was produced, too.
What did Mazzullo think about the anthropomorphic mouse that he voiced for 45 years? Most of his interviews were conducted in Italian, which obviously isn’t surprising. An English-language version of a Feb. 1998 interview with Gazzetta del Sud that was reproduced just after his death provided some rather interesting insights for a wider audience.
“He was born…with a shirt,” he told the newspaper. “Because he had a wonderful mother like Maria Perego, who had already created him to do a musical number. One day she pointed out this puppet to me, who had never yet ‘spoken,’ and said to me: ‘Try to find a voice for him, who knows, a good character might emerge’…and, thank God, that was the case.”
Mazzullo noted that “as in all myths,’ there are conflicting versions about the birth of the tender puppet. Its creation is mostly attributed to Maria Perego, but some television historians maintain that the real ‘inventor’ was Guido Stagnaro.” Gazetta de Sud then mentioned in parentheses, “(the two then, with Federico Caldura, formed a lucky trio on the small screen).”
When asked to define his “relationship” with Topo Gigio, he answered, “What can I say…it’s part of my life. Through this puppet I have the fortune and joy of also playing an educational role for children. A noble task.” A further question about the little mouse being a “pedagogue” elicited this response, “Well, involuntarily. At a certain point you understand that a character who has been so loved for so many years cannot be interpreted lightly. So I’m very careful about the words I say and how I say them. Even when Gigio shouts he must be endearing, he must never bother the public’s ears.”
There’s one final exchange in Mazzullo’s interview with Gazzetta del Sud that deserves a special mention.
When asked if he always has a puppet with him, Mazzullo replied, “No, I’ve never had it, and I don’t want to have it.” The publication asked why, and here’s his intriguing response, “Because he becomes a puppet. I love the character…and I have instructed my collaborators to never let me see Topo Gigio thrown to the ground or hanging from a nail like a marionette. We only meet when it’s time to go on air. I don’t even try…because I can’t repeat the intonations I give the first time. I really live them, I put my soul into them.”
That’s a unique bond between the famous mouse puppet and the longtime actor who voiced him. It would have been interesting to know what Sullivan thought about this before he kissed Topo Gigio goodnight one last time.
Michael Taube, a longtime newspaper columnist and political commentator, was a speechwriter for former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper.
