JoBe Cerny died at 78 on October 30 in Illinois after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's disease. Tim Cerny said his father was diagnosed in 2020 and stepped away from voicing the Pillsbury Doughboy around that time as his health declined.
The Second City in 1970
Cerny started with The Second City in 1970 and performed improv on its mainstage in Chicago and for its national touring company. That early run set up a career that moved from live performance into screen work, including Somewhere in Time in 1980, My Best Friend's Wedding in 1997, and Road to Perdition in 2002.
Pillsbury Doughboy in 2014
He succeeded Jeff Bergen as the Pillsbury Doughboy in 2014 and voiced the character for nearly two decades. The report also says he voiced Raid and Scrubbing Bubbles, served as the silent spokesperson for Cheer detergent, and directed The Word of Promise, the 98-hour dramatized audio production of the New King James Version of the Bible that featured more than 500 actors.
Eileen, Patrick, Andrea and Lily
Cerny is survived by his wife of 56 years, Eileen, his son Patrick, daughters-in-law Andrea and Lily, and grandchildren Archer and Cleo. That family list is the clearest sign of how far his work reached beyond the ad character most viewers knew: one voice, carried across brands, productions, and decades, now ended by Alzheimer's disease.
Tim Cerny's account also adds the wrinkle the obituary needed. His father kept voicing the Doughboy into old age, then stepped away as his health declined after the 2020 diagnosis, so the character's long association with him had already begun to fade before his death. What remains open is the same practical question his family and colleagues now face: how to mark a career that stretched from The Second City to national advertising without separating the work from the illness that ended it.
