Posted: July 28, 2009, 5 a.m. EDT
Gidget, the Chihuahua who uttered one of the 1990s’ most memorable marketing taglines, “¡Yo quiero Taco Bell!,” has died at age 15.
Gidget collapsed from a stroke at trainer Sue Chipperton’s home in Santa Clarita, Calif., last week and had to be euthanized, said Gidget’s owner Karin McElhatton of Studio Animal Services to The Wall Street Journal.
The Chihuahua was best known for her Taco Bell commercials that ran from 1997 to 2000, and also had a cameo as the mother of Reese Witherspoon’s Chihuahua Bruiser in the sequel to “Legally Blonde.”
“She made so many people happy,” Chipperton told People.
During one of Gidget’s last photo shoots for People in February, Chipperton told a reporter that the dog always loved the limelight.
“When she’s on a set, she comes alive,” Chipperton said at the time. But the dog also loved some serious downtime, and was happy to sleep “for 23 hours and 45 minutes a day. She’ll lay outside when it’s 105 degrees! I like to joke that it’s like looking after a plant.”