Ask American Profile 12/3/2006

Ask American Profile 12/3/2006

Q I loved The Wonder Years. Whatever happened to the actress who played Winnie Cooper?
—Barbara Melvoy, Seattle, Wash.

Danica McKellar, who starred in The Wonder Years from 1988 to 1993, has the title role in Inspector Mom, a just-launched series of Lifetime Television movies about a crime-solving suburban parent. She also has just released Daily Dose of Dharma, a DVD of yoga and meditation exercises. And this UCLA-schooled mathematics whiz, now 31, is writing a book designed to help teenage girls master the tough concepts of middle-school algebra. Sometimes she even tackles math questions that fans e-mail her through her website, danicamckellar.com. “I can’t resist a math problem!” she says.

Q Who does the voice for the GEICO’s gecko? I love him!
—Delores Carey, Shippensburg, Pa.

As for who provides the voice of the auto insurer’s adorable little lizard, nobody’s talking. A spokesperson for the ad agency that created the GEICO campaign says secrecy is part of the mystique—and success—of the gecko, much like puppeteer Jim Henson kept the identities of the Muppet voices a secret during his lifetime.

Q What can you tell me about William Petersen on CSI? Has he been in any movies?
—Debbie Hendrick, Corbin, N.Y.

Born in Evanston, Ill., Petersen, 53, pursued a football scholarship at Idaho State University before catching the acting bug. His movies include To Live and Die in L.A., Manhunter, Cousins, Skulls, Young Guns II and The Contender. On television, he played John F. Kennedy in HBO’s The Rat Pack and starred in Return to Lonesome Dove and Long Gone. If you watch closely, you can see Petersen wearing his old football jersey (from Bishop Kelly High School in Boise, Idaho) in several of his movie roles.

Q Can you help with the words to the Chevrolet song Dinah Shore used to sing on her TV show?
—Sherman Benson, Kenyon, Minn.

Shore, who died of ovarian cancer in 1994, helped Chevrolet become the best-selling car in America during the years she hosted The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, from 1956 to 1963, literally singing the car company’s praises in the TV show’s theme song: “See the U.S.A. in a Chevrolet / America’s the greatest land of all / So make a date today to see the U.S.A. / And see it in your Chevrolet!”

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