Yo Quiero Taco Bell

Gidget died this week -- no, not the teen surf girl played by Sandra Dee in the movies and Sally Field on TV, but Gidget the chihuahua.

Gidget became famous in the late 1990s as the star of a series of Taco Bell commercials, in which she said (in a male voice), "Yo quiero Taco Bell." Here's the original commercial:

Here are links to a couple of other Taco Bell commercials.

Gidget had quite a career as an animal actor after Taco Bell and appeared in a GEICO commercial in the movie "Legally Blonde 2." According to the AP obituary, she "traveled first-class, opened up the New York Stock Exchange and made an appearance at Madison Square Garden."

The thing that made Gidget memorably cute and lovable on television was that she wasn't very good-looking, by chihuahua standards. She had what dog breeders call an "undershot jaw" and extra-large ears.

No word on whether Gidget actually ate Taco Bell's tacos and chalupas.