Christine Cavanaugh dies aged 51

Cartoon voice Christine Cavanaugh, who brought to life characters including Babe and Chuckie on Nickelodeon cartoon Rugrats, has died aged 51.

Christine Cavanaugh’s sister, Deionn Masock, confirmed the actress had died on December 22 at her home in Utah.

Deionn Masock said the cause of death was not known.

“She was able to do incredible and amazing things with her voice and bring lots of smiles and many laughs to many people,” her family said.

Announcing in the death in the Los Angeles Times, they wrote: “Her imagination, humor and intelligence were evident to anyone who had the pleasure of meeting her.

“Many know of her from the roles she played, but in each role there was a part of her showing through that the ones who truly knew her could see.”

Christine Cavanaugh was a prolific actor, providing the voices of dozens of cartoon characters in the 1990s.

She began her career with small parts on TV shows including Cheers, before landing her first big role in 1991 as Gosalyn Mallard on Darkwing Duck.

In 1995, Christine Cavanaugh gave her voice to the title character in the hit movie Babe, based on Dick King-Smith’s 1983 novel The Sheep-Pig, about a talking pig who wants to be a sheepdog.

Christine Cavanaugh also provided the voice to kid genius Dexter in Cartoon Network’s Dexter’s Laboratory for seven series from 1996.