Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. (also known as Warner Bros. Pictures, or simply Warner Bros.—the shortened form of the former official, sometimes still used, formal corporate name: Warner Brothers
Blanc liked to tell the story about how he got turned down at the Schlesinger studio by music director Norman Spencer, who was in charge of cartoon voices, saying that they had all the voices they needed. Then Spencer died, and sound man Treg BrownTregoweth Edmond "Treg" Brown was a motion picture sound editor who was responsible for the sound effects in Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons starting in 1940. He also won the 1965 Academy Award for Sound Effects for his work on the film The Great Race.In One Froggy Evening,...
took charge of cartoon voices, while Carl StallingCarl W. Stalling was a noted American composer and arranger of music for animated cartoons. He is most closely associated with the Looney Tunes shorts produced by Warner Bros., where he worked, averaging one complete score each week, for twenty-two years.-Biography:Stalling was born and grew up in...
took over as music director. Brown introduced Blanc to animation directors Tex AveryFrederick Bean "Fred/Tex" Avery was an American animator, cartoonist, voice actor and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros...
, Bob ClampettRobert Emerson "Bob" Clampett was an American animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes series of cartoons from Warner Bros. and the television shows Time for Beany, and Beany and Cecil.-Early career:Clampett showed an interest in animation and...
, Friz FrelengIsadore "Friz" Freleng was an animator, cartoonist, director, and producer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros...
, and Frank TashlinFrank Tashlin was an American animator, screenwriter, and film director. He was 6'2" tall and weighed nearly 300 pounds....
, who loved his voices. The first cartoon Blanc worked on was Picador Porky as the voice of a drunken bull. He took over as Porky PigPorky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig...
's voice in Porky's Duck HuntPorky's Duck Hunt is an animated short film produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, directed by Tex Avery, and released on April 17, 1937 by Warner Bros. Pictures....
, which marked the debut of Daffy DuckDaffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Daffy was the first of the new breed of "screwball" characters that emerged in the late 1930s to supplant traditional everyman characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Popeye, who...
, also voiced by Blanc.
Blanc soon became noted for voicing a wide variety of cartoonThe word cartoon has various meanings, based on several very different forms of visual art and illustration. The term has evolved over time....
characters, adding Bugs BunnyBugs Bunny is a fictional character who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated films produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, which became Warner Bros. Cartoons in 1945. In 2002, he was named by TV Guide as the greatest cartoon character of all time, an honor he shares...
, Tweety Bird, Pepé Le PewPepé Le Pew is an Academy Award-winning fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, first introduced in 1945. A French anthropomorphic skunk that always strolls around in Paris in the springtime, when everyone's thoughts are of "love", Pepé is...
and many others. His natural voice was that of Sylvester the CatSylvester J. Pussycat, Sr., or simply, Sylvester the Cat, or Sylvester, or Puddy Tat or gringo pussy-gato/Senor Pussycat , is a fictional character, a three-time Academy Award-winning anthropomorphic...
, but without the lispy spray. (Blanc's voice can be heard in an episode of The Beverly HillbilliesThe Beverly Hillbillies is an American television sitcom. It ranked among the top 12 most watched series on television for seven of its nine seasons, twice ranking as the #1 series of the year, with a number of episodes that remain among the most-watched television episodes of all time...
that also featured frequent Blanc vocal foil Bea BenaderetBea Benaderet was an American actress, born in New York City and raised in San Francisco, California. Sometimes credited as Bea Benadaret, she is best remembered for starring in the 1960s television series Petticoat Junction and The Beverly Hillbillies as Jed Clampett's cousin Pearl Bodine , and...
; in his small appearance, Blanc plays a vexed cab-driver.)
In his later years, Blanc claimed that a handful of late 1930s and early 1940s Warner cartoons that each featured a rabbit clearly a precursor of Bugs Bunny all actually dealt with a single character named Happy RabbitBugs' Bunny was an unnamed rabbit before he was evolved into Bugs Bunny.The rabbit's first appearance was essentially the same as the early Daffy Duck...
. No use of this name by other Termite Terrace personnel, then or later, has ever been documented, however. Happy Rabbit was noted for his laugh which became more famous as the laugh of Woody WoodpeckerWoody Woodpecker is an animated cartoon character, an anthropomorphic acorn woodpecker who appeared in theatrical short films produced by the Walter Lantz animation studio and distributed by Universal Pictures...
which Blanc was the original voice of until he won an exclusive contract with Warner Bros. which meant he couldn't do Woody's voice anymore as the Woody Woodpecker cartoons were produced by Walter Lantz Productions and distributed by Universal PicturesUniversal Studios , a subsidiary of NBC Universal, is one of the six major American movie studios. Its main motion picture production/distribution arm is called Universal Pictures. Its production studios are located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California...
. Blanc later recorded "The Woody Woodpecker Song" for Capitol RecordsCapitol Records is a major United States-based record label owned by EMI and located in Los Angeles and New York City as part of Capitol Music Group...
.
Though his best-known character was a carrotThe carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange, purple, red, white, or yellow in colour, with a crisp texture when fresh. The edible part of a carrot is a taproot...
-chomping rabbitRabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world. There are seven different genera in the family classified as rabbits, including the European rabbit , Cottontail rabbit , and the Amami rabbit...
, munching on the carrots interrupted the dialogue. Various substitutes, such as celeryApium graveolens is a plant species in the family Apiaceae commonly known as celery or celeriac depending on whether the petioles or roots are eaten.- Taxonomy :...
, were tried, but none of them sounded like a carrot. So for the sake of expedience, he would munch and then spit the carrot bits into a spittoonA spittoon is a receptacle made for spitting into, especially by users of chewing and dipping tobacco. It is also known as a cuspidor , although that term is also used for a type of spitting sink used in dentistry...
rather than swallowing them, and continue with the dialogue. One oft-repeated story is that he was allergic to carrots and had to spit them out to minimize any allergic reaction; but his autobiography makes no such claim; in fact, in a 1984 interview with Tim LawsonTim Lawson is an American writer.Lawson is the author of The Magic Behind The Voices: A Who's Who of Cartoon Voice Actors ....
, co-author of The Magic Behind The Voices: A Who's Who of Cartoon Voice Actors (University Press of Mississippi, 2004), Blanc emphatically denied being allergic to carrots. In a recent Straight Dope column, a Blanc confidante confirmed that Blanc only spit out the carrots because of time constraints, and not because of allergies or general dislike.
Blanc said his most challenging job was voicing Yosemite SamYosemite Sam is an American animated cartoon character in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The name is somewhat alliterative and is inspired by Yosemite National Park. He is commonly depicted as a short-tempered and extremely grouchy cowboy...
; it was rough on the throat because of Sam’s sheer volume and raspiness. (Foghorn Leghorn's voice was similarly raucous, but to a lesser degree.) Late in life, he reprised several of his classic voices for Who Framed Roger RabbitWho Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Steven Spielberg and based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?. It was released by Walt Disney Pictures, under the Touchstone banner and co-produced by Amblin Entertainment...
, but deferred to Joe AlaskeyJoe Alaskey is an American actor, comedian, and voice artist, credited as one of the successors of Mel Blanc in impersonating the voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and other characters from Warner Bros. cartoons. He was born in Watervliet, New York.-Well-known roles:His most frequent recurring...
to do Yosemite Sam's and Foghorn Leghorn's voices.
Blanc's long association with the Warner Brothers theatrical cartoons was in contrast with the primarily television-oriented careers of such voice actors as Daws ButlerDaws Butler was a voice actor born in Toledo, Ohio. He originated the voices of many famous animated cartoon characters, including Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, Snagglepuss, and Huckleberry Hound.Daws Butler trained many working actors including Nancy Cartwright and Joe Bevilacqua...
and Don MessickDonald Earl "Don" Messick was one of the most prolific voice actors of the second half of the 20th century. He voiced several classic cartoon characters, including Scooby-Doo, Ranger Smith and Boo Boo Bear, Muttley, Bamm-Bamm Rubble, Astro, Zorak, Godzooky, Dr...
. Although Butler and Messick both had voice roles in MGMMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., or MGM, is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B...
theatrical cartoons and those made by Walter LantzWalter Benjamin Lantz was an American cartoonist and animator, best known for founding Walter Lantz Productions and creating Woody Woodpecker.-Early years and start in animation:...
, the two made far fewer theatrical shorts than Blanc. Butler and Messick's longest running theatrically released showcase was Loopy DeLoop, a French-English wolf mistaken by the population as a vicious monster in spite of his pleas of being a good wolf. A closer parallel to Blanc's career can be found in that of Paul FreesPaul Frees was an American voice actor and character actor.-Biography:Born Solomon Hersh Frees in Chicago, he began his acting career in 1942, and remained active for over forty years...
, who did substantial voice work for films as well as television.
Throughout his career, Blanc was well aware of his talents and protected the rights to them contractually and legally. He, and later his estate, did not hesitate to take civil action when those rights were violated. Voice actors usually got no screen credits at all, but Blanc was a notable exception; by 1944, his contract stipulated a credit reading "Voice characterization by Mel Blanc." Blanc asked for and received this screen credit from studio boss Leon Schlesinger when Leon objected to giving Blanc a raise in pay. Other frequent Warner voice artists, such as Arthur Q. BryanArthur Quirk Bryan was a United States comedian and voice actor, remembered best for his longtime recurring role as well-spoken, wisecracking Dr...
(Elmer FuddElmer J. Fudd is a fictional cartoon character and one of the most famous Looney Tunes characters. He has one of the more disputed origins in the Warner Bros. cartoon pantheon . His aim is to shoot Bugs, but he usually ends up seriously injuring himself and other antagonizing characters. He has a...
), Stan FrebergStanley Victor Freberg is an American author, recording artist, animation voice actor, comedian, radio personality, puppeteer, and advertising creative director....
(Pete PumaPete Puma is a cartoon puma, voiced by Stan Freberg. He debuted in the November 15, 1952 Rabbit's Kin, a Merrie Melodies animated short directed by Robert McKimson, from a story by Tedd Pierce...
) among many other characters, June ForayJune Foray is an American voice actress, best known as the voice of many animated characters . Her career has encompassed radio, theatrical shorts, feature films, television, record albums , video games, talking toys and other media...
(GrannyGranny, a co-star of many Sylvester the Cat and Tweety Bird animated shorts throughout the 1950s and '60s, is a Looney Tunes character that was created by Tex Avery. She is always depicted as an elderly and old-fashioned spinster who wears spectacles, a gray bun, and a late 19th century school marm...
) and Bea BenaderetBea Benaderet was an American actress, born in New York City and raised in San Francisco, California. Sometimes credited as Bea Benadaret, she is best remembered for starring in the 1960s television series Petticoat Junction and The Beverly Hillbillies as Jed Clampett's cousin Pearl Bodine , and...
(many female voices), remained uncredited on-screen. However, Freberg did receive screen credit for Three Little BopsThree Little Bops is a 1957 Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, with voices by Stan Freberg and music by jazz composer/trumpeter Shorty Rogers...
, a musical spoof of The Three Little PigsThree Little Pigs is a fairy tale featuring talking animals. Printed versions date back to the 1840s, but the story itself is thought to be much older.The phrases used in the story, and the various morals which can be drawn from it, have become enshrined in western culture...
, directed by Friz FrelengIsadore "Friz" Freleng was an animator, cartoonist, director, and producer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros...
. Freberg is a frequent contributor to the various Golden Collection projects that showcase the Looney TunesLooney Tunes is a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theaters from 1930 to 1969. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and is Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. The regular Warner Bros...
and Merrie MelodiesMerrie Melodies was the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in...
. Blanc, himself, is often spoken of with reverence by younger voice specialists in those DVD collections.
Blanc's screen credit was noticed by radio show producers, who gave him more radio work as a result. It wouldn't be until the early '60s that the other voice actors and actresses became credited on Warner Brothers theatrical cartoons.
Benny/Bugs crossover
The Warner cartoons were filled with references to the popular media of film and radio, including references to The Jack BennyJack Benny , born Benjamin Kubelsky, was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...
Program, whose various gags frequently found their way into Warner scripts voiced by Blanc. For example:
- Bugs was known for repeating Benny's catchphrase, "Now cut that out!"
- The "Anaheim, Azusa and Cuc...amonga" joke was once used by Daffy Duck in the cartoon Daffy Duck Slept Here
Daffy Duck Slept Here is a 1948 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Robert McKimson, starring Porky Pig and Daffy Duck. All voices are by Mel Blanc...
.
- Frank Nelson's "Yeeeeees?" would be invoked by minor characters from time to time.
- Blanc's imitations of sputtering cars, squawking parrots, whinnying horses, etc., would be invoked frequently in both series.
- On the March 23, 1954 episode of Benny's radio program, Benny encounters Bugs Bunny in a dream.
The ultimate clash of the mythos occurred with the 1959 release of the Warner Bros. cartoon The Mouse that Jack BuiltThe Mouse that Jack Built is a Merrie Melodies cartoon short, released April 4, 1959, directed by Robert McKimson and written by Tedd Pierce, a parody of The Jack Benny Program starring the voices of Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, Don Wilson and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson as rodent caricatures of...
. Directed by Robert McKimsonRobert "Bob" McKimson, Sr. was an American animator, illustrator, and director best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros.-Biography:...
, the cartoon features the cast of the Benny radio and TV program drawn as mice. Blanc was credited as the voice of the Maxwell, and besides Benny, co-stars Mary LivingstoneMary Livingstone , was an American radio comedienne and the wife and radio partner of comedy great Jack Benny . Enlisted almost entirely by accident to perform on her husband's popular program, she proved a talented comedienne...
, Eddie "Rochester" AndersonEdmund Lincoln Anderson , often known as Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, was an American comic actor who became famous playing "Rochester van Jones" , the valet to Jack Benny's eponymous title character on the long-running radio and television series The Jack Benny Program. Anderson also owned...
, and Don WilsonDon Wilson was an American announcer and occasional actor in radio and television, with a Falstaffian vocal presence, remembered best as the rotund announcer and comic foil to the star of The Jack Benny Program....
all reprised their Benny show roles.
Car accident and aftermath
On January 24, 1961, Blanc was involved in a near-fatal car accidentA traffic collision is when a road vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, or geographical or architectural obstacle. Traffic collisions can result in injury, property damage, and death.- Terminology :...
on Sunset BoulevardSunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...
in Hollywood. Hit head-on, Blanc suffered a triple skull fracture that left him in a comaIn medicine, a coma is a profound state of unconsciousness. A comatose person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to pain or light, does not have sleep-wake cycles, and does not take voluntary actions....
for three weeks, along with fractures of both legs and the pelvisIn human anatomy, the pelvis is the part of the trunk inferioposterior to the abdomen in the transition area between the trunk and the lower limbs...
.
The accident prompted over 15,000 get-well cards from anxious fans, including some addressed only to "Bugs Bunny, Hollywood, USA", according to Blanc's autobiography. One newspaper falsely reported that he had died. After his recovery, Blanc reported in TV interviews, and later in his autobiography, that a clever doctor had helped him to come out of his coma by talking to him as Bugs Bunny, after futile efforts to talk directly to Blanc. Although he had no actual recollection of this, Blanc's wife and son swore to him that when the doctor was inspired to ask him, "How are you today, Bugs Bunny?", Blanc answered in Bugs' voice. Blanc thus credited Bugs with saving his life.
Blanc returned home from the UCLA Medical CenterThe Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center is a hospital located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California....
on March 17 to the cheers of more than 150 friends and neighbors. On March 22, he filed a US$500,000 lawsuit against the city of Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
. His accident, one of 26 in the preceding two years at the intersection, resulted in the city funding restructuring curves at the location.
Years later, Blanc revealed that during his recovery, his son Noel "ghosted" several Warner Brothers cartoons' voice tracks for him. At the time of the accident, Blanc also served as the voice of Barney RubbleThis article is about the fictional character from The Flintstones. For the song by The Twang, see Barney Rubble Barney Rubble, is a fictional character in the television animated series The Flintstones. He is the diminutive blonde-haired caveman husband of Betty Rubble and adoptive father of...
on ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. It first broadcast on television in 1948...
's The FlintstonesThe Flintstones is an animated American television sitcom that ran from 1960 to 1966 on ABC. The series was the first prime-time animated series aimed at adults. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions , The Flintstones is about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next door...
. His absence from the show would be relatively brief; Daws ButlerDaws Butler was a voice actor born in Toledo, Ohio. He originated the voices of many famous animated cartoon characters, including Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, Snagglepuss, and Huckleberry Hound.Daws Butler trained many working actors including Nancy Cartwright and Joe Bevilacqua...
provided the voice of Rubble for a few episodes, after which the show's producers set up recording equipment in Blanc's house to allow him to work from his residence. He also returned to The Jack Benny ProgramThe Jack Benny Program, starring Jack Benny, is a radio-TV comedy series which ran for more than three decades and is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th-century comedy.-Radio:...
to film the program's 1961 Christmas show, moving around via crutchCrutches are medical devices used when a patient is injured usually anywhere below the waist. They usually consist of supports to provide the patient with extra stability to enable normal movement.-Types:...
es and/or a wheelchairA wheelchair is a wheeled mobility device in which the user sits. The device is propelled either manually or via various automated systems. Wheelchairs are used by people for whom walking is difficult or impossible due to illness , injury, or disability...
.
Voice work for Hanna-Barbera and others
In the early 1960s, after the expiration of his exclusive contract with Warner Brothers, Blanc went to Hanna-BarberaHanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. , was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
and continued to voice various characters, his most famous being Barney RubbleThis article is about the fictional character from The Flintstones. For the song by The Twang, see Barney Rubble Barney Rubble, is a fictional character in the television animated series The Flintstones. He is the diminutive blonde-haired caveman husband of Betty Rubble and adoptive father of...
from The FlintstonesThe Flintstones is an animated American television sitcom that ran from 1960 to 1966 on ABC. The series was the first prime-time animated series aimed at adults. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions , The Flintstones is about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next door...
(whose dopey laugh is similar to Foghorn Leghorn's booming chuckle) and Mr. Spacely from The JetsonsThe Jetsons is a prime-time animated sitcom that was produced by Hanna-Barbera. The original incarnation of the series aired Sunday nights on ABC from September 23, 1962 to March 3, 1963.It was Hanna-Barbera’s space age counterpart to The Flintstones...
(similar to Yosemite SamYosemite Sam is an American animated cartoon character in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The name is somewhat alliterative and is inspired by Yosemite National Park. He is commonly depicted as a short-tempered and extremely grouchy cowboy...
, but not as raucous). Daws ButlerDaws Butler was a voice actor born in Toledo, Ohio. He originated the voices of many famous animated cartoon characters, including Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, Snagglepuss, and Huckleberry Hound.Daws Butler trained many working actors including Nancy Cartwright and Joe Bevilacqua...
and Don MessickDonald Earl "Don" Messick was one of the most prolific voice actors of the second half of the 20th century. He voiced several classic cartoon characters, including Scooby-Doo, Ranger Smith and Boo Boo Bear, Muttley, Bamm-Bamm Rubble, Astro, Zorak, Godzooky, Dr...
were Hanna-Barbera's top voice men, while Blanc was the newcomer, but with all of the 1930s and 1940s Warner Brothers theatrical cartoons appearing on Saturday morning TV to compete with the made-for-TV Hanna-Barbera cartoons, Blanc was again deemed relevant.
Blanc did these voices, plus others for such ensemble cartoons as Wacky RacesWacky Races is an animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series features 11 different cars racing against each other in various road rallies, with each driver hoping to win the title of the "World's Wackiest Racer." Wacky Races ran on CBS from September 14, 1968 to...
and The Perils of Penelope PitstopThe Perils of Penelope Pitstop is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera that premiered on CBS on September 13, 1969...
for Hanna-Barbera. Blanc shared the spotlight with his two professional rivals and personal friends, Butler and Messick: In a short called Lippy the Lion, Butler was Lippy, while Blanc was his hyena sidekick, Hardy Har-Har. In the short Ricochet Rabbit, Messick was the voice of the gunslinging rabbit, while Blanc was his sidekick, Deputy Droop-a-Long Coyote.
Blanc also worked with Chuck JonesCharles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...
, who by this time was directing shorts with his own company Sib Tower 12 (later MGM Animation)MGM Animation/Visual Arts was an animation studio established in 1962 by animation director/producer Chuck Jones and producer Les Goldman as Sib Tower 12 Productions...
, doing vocal effects in the Tom and JerryTom and Jerry is a series of theatrical animated cartoons featuring a cat and a mouse.Tom and Jerry may also refer to:* The Tom and Jerry Show, a 1975 television series featuring the cartoon characters...
series from 1962 to 1967.
In addition, Blanc was the first person to play Toucan SamToucan Sam is the avian mascot of Froot Loops cereal. The character is a blue cartoon toucan with a striped beak. Although his beak originally had two pink stripes, during the 1970s it became a tradition that each stripe on his beak represented one of the flavors of the pieces in the cereal:...
in Froot LoopsFroot Loops is a brand of breakfast cereal produced by Kellogg's and sold in India, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States, Germany, The Middle East and Latin America as well as South Africa. The cereal pieces are torus-shaped and come in a variety of bright colors and a blend of...
commercials, using a slightly cartoonish version of his natural voice. (The ad agency later decided to give Sam an upper-crust English accent and replaced Blanc with Paul FreesPaul Frees was an American voice actor and character actor.-Biography:Born Solomon Hersh Frees in Chicago, he began his acting career in 1942, and remained active for over forty years...
.)
Blanc reprised some of his Warner Brothers characters when the studio contracted to make new theatrical cartoons in the mid-to-late 1960s. For these, Blanc voiced Daffy DuckDaffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Daffy was the first of the new breed of "screwball" characters that emerged in the late 1930s to supplant traditional everyman characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Popeye, who...
and Speedy GonzalesSpeedy Gonzales , "The Fastest Mouse in all Mexico", is an animated cartoon mouse from the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Speedy's major traits are his ability to run extremely fast and his comedic Mexican accent...
, the characters who received the most frequent use in these shorts (later, newly introduced characters such as Cool Cat and Merlin the Magic Mouse were voiced by Larry StorchLawrence Samuel "Larry" Storch is an American actor best known for his comic television roles, including voice-over work for top cartoon shows, including Mr...
). Blanc also continued to voice the Looney Tunes characters on the bridging sequences for The Bugs Bunny ShowThe Bugs Bunny Show is a long-running American television anthology series hosted by Bugs Bunny, that was mainly composed of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons released by Warner Bros. between August 1, 1948 and the end of 1969. The show originally debuted as a primetime half-hour program on...
and in numerous animated advertisements.
Later career and death
Contrary to popular belief, Blanc was not one of hundreds of individuals that George LucasGeorge Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, director and chairman of Lucasfilm Ltd. He is best known for being the creator of the epic sci-fi franchise Star Wars and joint creator of the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
auditioned to provide the voice for the character of C-3POC-3PO is a character from the Star Wars universe, who appears in both the original Star Wars films and the prequel trilogy. He is also a major character in the television show Star Wars: Droids, and appears frequently in the series' "Expanded Universe" of novels, comic books, and video games...
for his 1977 film Star WarsStar Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released simply as Star Wars, is an American 1977 space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It was the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films continue the story, while a prequel trilogy contributes...
. That distinction instead fell to fellow voice actor Stan FrebergStanley Victor Freberg is an American author, recording artist, animation voice actor, comedian, radio personality, puppeteer, and advertising creative director....
, and it was Freberg who ultimately suggested that the producers use mimeA mime artist is someone who uses mime as a theatrical medium or as a performance art, involving miming, or the acting out a story through body motions, without use of speech. In earlier times, in English, such a performer was referred to as a mummer...
actor Anthony DanielsAnthony Daniels is an English actor, best known for his role as the droid C-3PO in the Star Wars series of films made between 1977 and 2005.-Biography:...
' own voice in the role.
After spending most of two seasons voicing the robot TwikiTwiki is a fictional character on the television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Twiki is a robot sometimes referred throughout the series as an "ambuquad"...
in Buck Rogers in the 25th CenturyBuck Rogers in the 25th Century is an American science fiction adventure television series produced by Universal Studios. The series ran for two seasons between 1979 - 1981, and the feature-length pilot episode for the series was released as a theatrical film several months before the series...
, Blanc's last original character, in the early 1980s, was HeathcliffHeathcliff is a comic strip created by George Gately in 1973 featuring an eponymous cat. Now written and drawn by Gately's nephew, Peter Gallagher, it is distributed to over 1000 newspapers by Creators Syndicate, who took over the comic from McNaught Syndicate in 1988.Heathcliff has some...
, who spoke a little like Bugs Bunny but with a more street-tough demeanor. Blanc continued to voice his famous characters in commercials and TV specials for most of the decade, although he increasingly left the "yelling" characters like Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn and the Tasmanian Devil to other voice actors, as performing these were too hard on his throat and voice by the time of his old age in the 1980s. One of his last recording sessions was for a new animated theatrical version of The JetsonsJetsons: The Movie is a 1990 animated science-fiction feature film produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and released to theaters by Universal Studios...
.
Blanc died on July 10, 1989 at Cedars-Sinai Medical CenterCedars-Sinai Medical Center is a hospital located in Los Angeles, California, USA.-History:From 1906 to 1910, Dr. Sarah Vasen, the first woman doctor in Los Angeles acted as superintendent of what was then the Kaspare Cohn Hospital....
in Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
, CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
of heart diseaseHeart disease or cardiopathy is an umbrella term for a variety for different diseases affecting the heart. As of 2007, it is the leading cause of death in the United States, England, Canada and Wales, killing one person every 34 seconds in the United States alone.-Coronary heart disease:Coronary...
and emphysemaEmphysema is a lung disease, characterized by an abnormal, permanent enlargement of air spaces distal to the terminal bronchioles. The disease is coupled with the destruction of walls, but without obvious fibrosis...
. He was interred in the Hollywood Forever CemeteryHollywood Forever Cemetery is at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard in the Hollywooddistrict of Los Angeles, California. It is adjacent to the north wall, or back, of Paramount Studios, who, with RKO Studios, bought by 1920. The Beth Olam Cemetery in the southwestern section of the cemetery is for...
in Hollywood, CaliforniaHollywood is a district in Los Angeles, California, United States, situated west-northwest of Downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word "Hollywood" is often used as a metonymy of American cinema...
. Blanc's willA will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his estate and provides for the transfer of his property at death. For the devolution of property not disposed of by will, see inheritance and intestacy...
stated his desire to have the inscription on his gravestone read, "THAT'S ALL FOLKS."
Blanc's death from cardiovascular diseaseCardiovascular disease or cardiovascular diseases is the class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels ....
in 1989 was considered a significant loss to the cartoon industry because of his skill, expressive range, and sheer volume of continuing characters he portrayed, which are currently taken up by several other voice talents; no one individual can currently match the vocal range Blanc was able to establish. Indeed, as movie critic Leonard MaltinLeonard Maltin is an American film critic and film historian. He has authored several mainstream books on the cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
once pointed out, "It is astounding to realize that Tweety Bird and Yosemite SamYosemite Sam is an American animated cartoon character in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The name is somewhat alliterative and is inspired by Yosemite National Park. He is commonly depicted as a short-tempered and extremely grouchy cowboy...
are the same man!"
That range was partially aided by recording technology; for instance, Blanc's standard Daffy Duck voice is essentially his Sylvester voice played a few percent faster than it was recorded to give it a higher pitch, as well as pronouncing "s" with a "th" sound. Blanc would later develop the skill to reproduce such "sped-up" voices himself live as necessary. Other Blanc character voices that were given this special treatment included Porky PigPorky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig...
, Henery HawkHenery Hawk is a cartoon character from the American Looney Tunes series, who appeared in twelve cartoons. His first appearance was The Squawkin' Hawk, directed by Chuck Jones and produced by Leon Schlesinger...
, and Speedy GonzalesSpeedy Gonzales , "The Fastest Mouse in all Mexico", is an animated cartoon mouse from the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Speedy's major traits are his ability to run extremely fast and his comedic Mexican accent...
.
After his death, Blanc's voice continued to be heard in newly released properties. In particular, a recording of his Dino the DinosaurDino is a fictional character featured in the Hanna-Barbera animated television series The Flintstones, and its spinoffs. He is a pet dinosaur of the series' main characters, Fred and Wilma Flintstone. In the show, he was a metaphorical pet dog, and exhibited the characteristics of a typical...
from the 1960s Flintstones series was used without a screen credit in the 1994 live-action theatrical film based upon the seriesThe Flintstones is a 1994 live-action film directed by Brian Levant, and based on the prime time animated series of the same name. It is produced by Amblin Entertainment, Hanna-Barbera Productions and distributed by Universal Studios. The film was poorly received by critics but was a box-office...
. This resulted in legal action against the film studio by the Blanc estate, which claimed his recordings were used without permission or proper credit. The credit was later added to the home release of the movie. Less problematic was the retention of older recordings of Blanc as Uncle Orville and a pet bird in the 1994 update of the Carousel of ProgressThe Carousel of Progress is an attraction located in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom Park at the Walt Disney World Resort, currently operating under the name, Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress...
attraction at Walt Disney World, despite cast changes in other roles. Blanc's distinctive voice can still be heard in the Audio-AnimatronicAudio-Animatronics is the registered trademark for a form of robotics created by Walt Disney Imagineering for shows and attractions at Disney theme parks, and subsequently expanded on and used by other companies. The robots move and make noise, generally in speech or song...
presentation.
Children
Blanc trained his son, Noel, in the field of voice characterization. While the younger Blanc has performed his father's characters (particularly Porky PigPorky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig...
) on some programs, he has chosen not to become a full-time voice artist. Noel appeared in the booth as a celebrity guest for the 2002 and 2003 Chevrolet Monte Carlo 400 NASCAR Races featuring the Looney TunesLooney Tunes is a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theaters from 1930 to 1969. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and is Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. The regular Warner Bros...
characters in themed paint schemes for Chevrolet drivers and did the voices of the characters. Noel is a regular featured guest on radio shows throughout the United States and Canada.
Noel's wife, Katherine Blanc, is an artist and book author.
Animation records
Mel Blanc holds a few very important records in the field of animation (none of which are currently recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records), the most famous being, of course, the "1000 Voices" he was said to have performed. Not as notable are two records of longevity: his original characterization of Daffy DuckDaffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Daffy was the first of the new breed of "screwball" characters that emerged in the late 1930s to supplant traditional everyman characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Popeye, who...
(for over 52 years) is the longest time any animated character has been performed by his or her original voice contributor. He also voiced Porky PigPorky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig...
for exactly the same amount of time as Daffy — since the same cartoon (Porky's Duck HuntPorky's Duck Hunt is an animated short film produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, directed by Tex Avery, and released on April 17, 1937 by Warner Bros. Pictures....
) — through to his death, though Porky was not originally voiced by Blanc. Blanc was also the original voice of almost every character he voiced, leaving him as the clear runaway for the record of "Most Characters Originally Voiced By One Actor," and he almost certainly provided voices in more cartoons than any other voice actor. And to top that off, he is runner-up to his own 52-year record of his original characterization of Daffy, by voicing Bugs BunnyBugs Bunny is a fictional character who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated films produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, which became Warner Bros. Cartoons in 1945. In 2002, he was named by TV Guide as the greatest cartoon character of all time, an honor he shares...
for almost 49 years from the date of his debut (July 27, 1940). In third place is Clarence NashClarence Charles "Ducky" Nash was an American voice actor, best known for providing the voice of Donald Duck for Walt Disney Studios...
who voiced Donald DuckDonald Duck is an American cartoon character from The Walt Disney Company. Donald is a white anthropomorphic duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He usually wears a sailor shirt, cap, and a red or black bow tie, but no trousers...
for 48 and a half years.
List of cartoon characters
- Porky Pig
Porky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig...
(1936–1989, assumed from Joe DoughertyJoe Dougherty was an American voice actor who provided the original voice of the Warner Brothers animation character, Porky Pig, starting with the character's debut in I Haven't Got a Hat in 1935 until Porky's Romance in 1937. After that, Mel Blanc took over the role and voiced Porky for 52 years...
)
- The Maxwell
The Maxwell was a brand of automobiles manufactured in the United States of America from about 1904 to 1925. The present-day successor to the Maxwell company is Chrysler Group.-History:...
(Jack BennyJack Benny , born Benjamin Kubelsky, was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...
's car in "The Mouse that Jack BuiltThe Mouse that Jack Built is a Merrie Melodies cartoon short, released April 4, 1959, directed by Robert McKimson and written by Tedd Pierce, a parody of The Jack Benny Program starring the voices of Jack Benny, Mary Livingstone, Don Wilson and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson as rodent caricatures of...
")
- Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Daffy was the first of the new breed of "screwball" characters that emerged in the late 1930s to supplant traditional everyman characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Popeye, who...
(1937–1989)
- Bugs Bunny's prototype
Bugs' Bunny was an unnamed rabbit before he was evolved into Bugs Bunny.The rabbit's first appearance was essentially the same as the early Daffy Duck...
/Happy Rabbit (1938–1940)
- Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a fictional character who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated films produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, which became Warner Bros. Cartoons in 1945. In 2002, he was named by TV Guide as the greatest cartoon character of all time, an honor he shares...
(1940–1989)
- Woody Woodpecker
Woody Woodpecker is an animated cartoon character, an anthropomorphic acorn woodpecker who appeared in theatrical short films produced by the Walter Lantz animation studio and distributed by Universal Pictures...
(1940-1941)
- Hiawatha
Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt is a Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series, starring Bugs Bunny and Hiawatha, first released on June 7, 1941. The short makes several direct references to The Song of Hiawatha, an epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow...
(1941)
- Cecil Turtle
Cecil Turtle is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of films. Though he made only three theatrical appearances, Cecil is remarkable in that he is one of the very few characters who was actually able to consistently best the Warners rabbit....
(1941–1947)
- Tweety Bird (1942–1989)
- Private Snafu
Private Snafu is the title character of a series of black-and-white American instructional cartoon shorts produced between 1943 and 1945 during World War II. The character was created by director Frank Capra, chairman of the U.S. Army Air Force First Motion Picture Unit, and some of the shorts were...
, numerous World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
related cartoons (1943)
- Yosemite Sam
Yosemite Sam is an American animated cartoon character in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The name is somewhat alliterative and is inspired by Yosemite National Park. He is commonly depicted as a short-tempered and extremely grouchy cowboy...
(1945–1987)
- Pepé Le Pew
Pepé Le Pew is an Academy Award-winning fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, first introduced in 1945. A French anthropomorphic skunk that always strolls around in Paris in the springtime, when everyone's thoughts are of "love", Pepé is...
(1945–1989)
- Sylvester
Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr., or simply, Sylvester the Cat, or Sylvester, or Puddy Tat or gringo pussy-gato/Senor Pussycat , is a fictional character, a three-time Academy Award-winning anthropomorphic...
(1945–1989) aka Thomas (1947) in some films.
- Foghorn Leghorn (1946)
- The Barnyard Dawg (1946–1989)
- Henery Hawk
Henery Hawk is a cartoon character from the American Looney Tunes series, who appeared in twelve cartoons. His first appearance was The Squawkin' Hawk, directed by Chuck Jones and produced by Leon Schlesinger...
(1946–1989)
- Charlie Dog
Charlie Dog is an animated cartoon fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes series of cartoons.Bob Clampett minted the scenario that Charlie Dog would later inherit in his cartoon short Porky's Pooch, first released on 27 December, 1941. A homeless hound pulls out all the stops to get...
(1947)
- Mac (of Mac & Tosh
The Goofy Gophers are animated cartoon characters in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. The gophers, named Mac and Tosh, are small and brown with tan bellies and buck teeth....
) (1947)
- K-9 (1948) (sidekick to Marvin the Martian
Marvin the Martian is a fictional character appearing in the Looney Tunes cartoons. Despite appearing in only five of the original shorts, Marvin has developed a cult following...
)
- Marvin the Martian
Marvin the Martian is a fictional character appearing in the Looney Tunes cartoons. Despite appearing in only five of the original shorts, Marvin has developed a cult following...
(1948–1989)
- Sylvester J. Pussycat, Jr. Mel also plays Sylvester's son Sylvester Junior when the young cat was introduced (1949)
- Beaky Buzzard
Beaky Buzzard is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Beaky is a fat buzzard with black body feathers and a white tuft around his throat. His neck is long and thin, bending halfway at an enormous adam's apple...
(1950)
- Curt Martin (1950-1 episode Hillbilly Hare)
- Elmer Fudd
Elmer J. Fudd is a fictional cartoon character and one of the most famous Looney Tunes characters. He has one of the more disputed origins in the Warner Bros. cartoon pantheon . His aim is to shoot Bugs, but he usually ends up seriously injuring himself and other antagonizing characters. He has a...
(1950, 1958, 1970s and 1980s, replacing Arthur Q. BryanArthur Quirk Bryan was a United States comedian and voice actor, remembered best for his longtime recurring role as well-spoken, wisecracking Dr...
)
- Bruno the Bear (1951)
- Wile E. Coyote (silent until 1952, first spoke in the short "Operation: Rabbit
Operation: Rabbit is a Looney Tunes animated cartoon first released theatrically in 1952. It was directed by Chuck Jones and features Bugs Bunny and Wile E. Coyote....
")
- Speedy Gonzales
Speedy Gonzales , "The Fastest Mouse in all Mexico", is an animated cartoon mouse from the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Speedy's major traits are his ability to run extremely fast and his comedic Mexican accent...
(1953)
- The Tasmanian Devil
The Tasmanian Devil, often referred to as "Taz", is an animated cartoon character featured in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes series of cartoons. The character appeared in only five shorts before Warner Bros...
(1954–1960) aka Taz
- Barney Rubble
The Flintstones is an animated American television sitcom that ran from 1960 to 1966 on ABC. The series was the first prime-time animated series aimed at adults. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions , The Flintstones is about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next door...
(1960–1989)
- Dino
Dino is a fictional character featured in the Hanna-Barbera animated television series The Flintstones, and its spinoffs. He is a pet dinosaur of the series' main characters, Fred and Wilma Flintstone. In the show, he was a metaphorical pet dog, and exhibited the characteristics of a typical...
(1960–1989) (Fred FlintstoneFrederick Joseph "Fred" Flintstone is a fictional character who originated in the animated sitcom The Flintstones on ABC. He is the husband of Wilma Flintstone and father of Pebbles Flintstone...
's pet.)
- Cosmo G. Spacely (1962-1989)
- Hardy Har Har (1962–1964)
- Tom Cat
Thomas "Tom" Cat is a fictional character and half of the academy-award winning Tom & Jerry cartoon cat-and-mouse duo. He is a blue/grey anthropomorphic cat who first appeared in the 1940 animated short Puss Gets the Boot...
and Jerry MouseGerald "Jerry" Mouse is a fictional character and half of the academy-award winning Tom and Jerry cartoon cat-and-mouse duo. He is a brown anthropomorphic mouse who first appeared in the 1940 animated short Puss Gets the Boot...
(1963-1967)
- Secret Squirrel
Secret Squirrel is a cartoon squirrel created by Hanna-Barbera. Secret Squirrel was one of two co-stars of The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show, which debuted in 1965. He was given his own show in 1966, but was reunited with Atom Ant for one more season in 1967...
(1965–1966)
- Frito Bandito
The Frito Bandito was the cartoon mascot for Fritos corn chips from 1967 to 1971. The Bandito was created by the Foote, Cone & Belding Agency, and animated by Tex Avery. The character was voiced by Mel Blanc, who used an exaggerated Mexican accent not unlike another character of his, Speedy...
(1967–1971)
- Bubba McCoy from "Where's Huddles?"
- Chugga-Boom/Yak Yak/The Bully Brothers also from "The Perils of Penelope Pitstop"
- Speed Buggy
Speed Buggy was a Saturday Morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions from September 8, 1973 to August 30, 1975 on CBS. Similar in style to Hanna-Barbera's successful Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, Speed Buggy followed the adventures of an anthropomorphic, fiberglass Dune Buggy, Speed Buggy...
(1973)
- Tucker the Mouse from "The Cricket in Times Square" (1973) and two sequels
- Captain Caveman (1977)
- Twiki
Twiki is a fictional character on the television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Twiki is a robot sometimes referred throughout the series as an "ambuquad"...
from Buck Rogers in the 25th CenturyBuck Rogers in the 25th Century is an American science fiction adventure television series produced by Universal Studios. The series ran for two seasons between 1979 - 1981, and the feature-length pilot episode for the series was released as a theatrical film several months before the series...
(1979)
- Heathcliff
Heathcliff is a comic strip created by George Gately in 1973 featuring an eponymous cat. Now written and drawn by Gately's nephew, Peter Gallagher, it is distributed to over 1000 newspapers by Creators Syndicate, who took over the comic from McNaught Syndicate in 1988.Heathcliff has some...
(1980, appeared in syndication from 1984–1987)
- Gideon from Pinocchio
Pinocchio is a American animated feature produced by Walt Disney and based on the story Pinocchio: Tale of a Puppet by Carlo Collodi. The second film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics, it was made after the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and was released to theaters by RKO Radio...
- Bertie Mouse (of Hubie and Bertie)
- Marc Antony
thumb|300px|From left to right: [[Claude Cat]], Pussyfoot and Marc Antony.Marc Antony and Pussyfoot are animated characters in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons...
- Moo the Cow in Berkeley Farms Radio Ads. "Farms in Berkeley....Moooo"
- Officer Short Shrift, several Lethargians, three out of five of the royal palace guards, The Word Speller, The Dodecahedron, and The Demon of Insincerity from The Phantom Tollbooth
The Phantom Tollbooth is a live-action/animated film based on Norton Juster's 1961 children's book The Phantom Tollbooth. This film was produced by Chuck Jones and the live action portions by Dave Monahan, produced by MGM Animation/Visual Arts, and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to movie...
(1969)
Besides these, Blanc also voiced many minor and one time characters and animal sound effect roles.
List of noteworthy radio characters
Besides voicing characters on his own radio show (which ran from 1946–47) Blanc was a regular on such comedy classics as The Jack Benny Show, Burns & Allen, and Abbott & Costello, providing both voices and sound effects ranging from people to animals to backfiring cars.
- The Happy Postman (Burns & Allen)
- Professor LeBlanc (The Jack Benny Program)
- Mr. Technicolovich (Abbott & Costello)
- Sy the Mexican (Jack Benny, radio & TV)
- Himself (The Mel Blanc Show)
- Zookie (The Mel Blanc Show)
- Polly the Parrot (The Jack Benny Program)
- Carmichael the Polar Bear (The Jack Benny Program)
- Train Station Announcer (The Jack Benny Program; "Train leaving on Track Five for Ana-heim, A-zuza, and Cuc-a-monga!!")
- Christmas sales clerk (The Jack Benny Program; in most holiday episodes of the radio and TV version, Blanc would appear as a sales clerk in a department store who's driven insane by Jack's style of shopping and returning gifts.)
Other credits
- Mel Blanc was hired to perform the voice of Gideon the Cat
The Fox and the Cat are a pair of fictional characters who appear in Carlo Collodi's book The Adventures of Pinocchio . Both are depicted as con-men, who lead Pinocchio astray and unsuccessfully attempt to murder him. The pair pretend to sport disabilities; the Fox lameness and the Cat blindness...
in Walt DisneyWalter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon and philanthropist. Disney is famous for his influence in the field of entertainment during the twentieth century. As the co-founder Walter Elias...
's PinocchioPinocchio is a American animated feature produced by Walt Disney and based on the story Pinocchio: Tale of a Puppet by Carlo Collodi. The second film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics, it was made after the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and was released to theaters by RKO Radio...
. However, it was eventually decided for Gideon to be mute (just like Dopey, whose whimsical, Harpo MarxArthur Adolph "Harpo" Marx , born Adolph Arthur Marx, was the second-born of the Marx Brothers and a unique comic performer whose style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions...
-style persona made him one of Snow White and the Seven DwarfsSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a American animated feature based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Snow White. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full color, the first...
most comic and popular characters), and all of Blanc's recorded dialogue in this film had been deleted, save for one military hiccup, which was heard three times in the film (he was still paid for all of the unused dialogue so if you consider his salary against the actual used "hiccup", he holds the record for highest paid—per word—voice-over actor). This and Who Framed Roger RabbitWho Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Steven Spielberg and based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?. It was released by Walt Disney Pictures, under the Touchstone banner and co-produced by Amblin Entertainment...
are the only known work he ever did for Disney animation. He was, however, heard on occasional radio projects featuring Disney characters, such as The Mickey Mouse Theater of the AirThe Mickey Mouse Theater of the Air was a musical-variety radio series for children, sponsored by Pepsodent and heard on NBC. Broadcast from the Disney Little Theater on the RKO lot from January 2 to May 15, 1938, the program was created to promote the February 1938 release of Snow White and the...
.
- In 1949, Mel appeared in the film Neptune's Daughter
Neptune's Daughter is an Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical starring Esther Williams, Red Skelton, Ricardo Montalbán, Betty Garrett, Keenan Wynn, Xavier Cugat, and Mel Blanc directed by Edward Buzzell, and featuring music by Frank Loesser.-Trivia:...
with Esther WilliamsEsther Jane Williams is a retired American competitive swimmer and MGM movie star, notable for her musical films that featured elaborate performances with swimming and diving.-Early years:...
, Red SkeltonRed Skelton , born Richard Bernard Skelton, was an American comedian who was best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971...
and Ricardo MontalbanRicardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino, KSG , was a Mexican-born American radio, television, theatre and film actor. He had a career spanning seven decades and multiple notable roles...
.
- Blanc was one of three regular panelists in the 1955 game show
A game show is a type of television program in which members of the public or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving problems usually for money and/or prizes. On some shows contestants compete against other players or another team while...
Musical ChairsMusical Chairs was a short-lived NBC game show that ran from July 9 to September 17, 1955; The host was Bill Leyden and the series featured voice actor Mel Blanc, composer Johnny Mercer, and orchestra leader Bobby Troup as regular panelists....
. Occasionally, he was asked to sing in the style of a popular singer.
- Blanc once called into the game show Press Your Luck
Press Your Luck is an American television daytime game show that ran weekdays on CBS from September 19, 1983 to September 26, 1986, where contestants collected "spins" by answering trivia questions and then used the spins on an 18-space game board full of cash and prizes. The person who amassed the...
during the end credits when host Peter TomarkenPeter David Tomarken was an American television personality primarily known as the host of Press Your Luck.-Early life:...
mistakenly gave the answer to the question "Which cartoon character uses the phrase 'Sufferin' succotashSuccotash is a food dish consisting primarily of corn and lima beans or other shell beans. Other ingredients may be added, including tomatoes, green and sweet red peppers, and possibly including pieces of cured meat or fish...
'?" as Daffy Duck. Blanc informed him that the correct answer was Sylvester. (In reality, both characters have used the phrase, although it is more commonly associated with Sylvester.) Blanc spoke to Tomarken in Sylvester's voice to explain the error, as well in the voices of Speedy Gonzales and Porky Pig. Tomarken apologized for the error and promised that all three contestants would be allowed to return to play the game again.
- Blanc was the voice of Bob and Doug McKenzie
Bob and Doug McKenzie are a pair of fictional Canadian brothers who hosted "The Great White North", a sketch which was introduced on SCTV for the show's third season when it moved to CBC Television in 1980...
's father in the movie Strange BrewThe Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew is a 1983 film starring the popular SCTV characters Bob & Doug McKenzie, played by Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis, who also served as co-directors. Max von Sydow co-stars...
.
- In 1971, he appeared as himself in one of the American Express
American Express Company , sometimes known as "AmEx", is a diversified global financial services company that is headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best known for its credit card, charge card, and...
"Do you know me?" credit card TV commercials. The ad campaign centered on famous people whose faces were nonetheless usually not recognized by the public.
- Blanc appeared in a public service announcement for the Shriners Burns Institute on the dangers of burns on children.
- He also provided the voice of Quintro the Puppet in Snow White and the Three Stooges
Snow White and The Three Stooges is the second feature film to star the Three Stooges after their 1959 resurgence in popularity. By this time, the trio consisted of Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Curly Joe DeRita...
.
- Blanc did virtually all of his famous Looney Tunes characters' voices in NFL Films
NFL Films is a Mount Laurel, New Jersey-based company devoted to producing commercials, television programs, feature films, and documentaries on the National Football League, as well as other unrelated major events and awards shows...
' The Son of Football FolliesFootball Follies are collections of American football bloopers performed by National Football League players. Produced by NFL Films, these collections also spoof parts of popular culture. Mel Blanc joined in the fun in 1976 with The Son of Football Follies, and returned in 1989 for The Super Duper...
- In addition to hundreds of credited vocal roles, Blanc also provided many brief incidental voices and vocal effects for TV sitcoms, almost never receiving screen credit. Two noted examples were regularly providing the voice of the raven cuckoo clock
A cuckoo clock is a clock, typically pendulum-driven, that strikes the hours using small bellows and pipes that imitate the call of the Common Cuckoo in addition to striking a wire gong...
in The MunstersThe Munsters is a 1960s American television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. The show was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era, such as Leave It to Beaver. It ran concurrently with the The Addams Family. Although the...
and voicing a parrotParrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most warm and tropical regions. The order is subdivded in three families: the Psittacidae , the Cacatuidae and the Nestoridae...
(who even spoke in the courtroomA courtroom is the actual enclosed space in which a judge regularly holds court.The schedule of official court proceedings is called a docket; the term is also synonymous with a court's caseload as a whole....
) in the Perry MasonPerry Mason is an American TV series produced by Paisano Productions that ran from 1957 to 1966. Perry Mason was played by actor Raymond Burr. The title character is a fictional Los Angeles, California, defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner...
episode "The Case of the Perjured Parrot."
- In his autobiography, That's Not All, Folks!, Blanc confessed to a minor bit of deception regarding his nickname, "The Man of a Thousand Voices," stating that by his estimate, he had provided only 850 voices.
- Blanc performed his Speedy Gonzales
Speedy Gonzales , "The Fastest Mouse in all Mexico", is an animated cartoon mouse from the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Speedy's major traits are his ability to run extremely fast and his comedic Mexican accent...
character in Pat Boone's 1962 hit record of "Speedy Gonzales".
- Blanc also made many records for Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States-based record label owned by EMI and located in Los Angeles and New York City as part of Capitol Music Group...
, including his Warner Brothers characters and such other characters as Woody WoodpeckerWoody Woodpecker is an animated cartoon character, an anthropomorphic acorn woodpecker who appeared in theatrical short films produced by the Walter Lantz animation studio and distributed by Universal Pictures...
, with his most famous Capitol album being Party Panic and in 1950 had a hit single (also in the UK) as Sylvester and Tweety-Pie in "I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat". He also performed on records with other artists including Spike Jones and His City Slickers and The Sportsmen.
- During 1977–1978, Blanc was an active CB Radio operator. He often used the CB handles Bugs or Daffy and talked over the air in the Los Angeles area using his many voices. He appeared in an interview with clips of him having fun talking to children on his home CB radio station in the NBC Knowledge Series television episode about CB radio in 1978.
- He was also the voice of the cuckoo & the parrot in the Coco Wheats Commercials
- Blanc's voice over sound effects were used in many animated films such as Paramount's Gulliver's Travels (as an uncredited voice over as King Bombo's shout of joy) to animated shorts from The Pink Panther to most recently in Jetix'a "Pucca".
Homages and tributes
- In the Porky Pig
Porky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig...
short Curtain Razor, Mel Blanc appears as a turtle doing only 999 voices out of a claimed one thousand (he actually does only about 7 distinct voices here, which were edited into a rapid-fire montage of short sound bites, thus giving the impression of more voices). The clip was shown by Turner Network TelevisionTNT is an American cable TV channel created by media mogul Ted Turner and currently owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner which also owns Cartoon Network. However, despite the fact that it is a channel, it is seen all across the United States, much like a television...
out of context as a tribute when Blanc died.
- In the Frasier
Frasier is an American sitcom broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993 to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Paramount Television.A spin-off from Cheers, Frasier stars Kelsey Grammer as psychiatrist...
episode 'HAM Radio', a voice actor of many voices is named Mel White, a homage to Mel Blanc. In FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
, blanc, the way the famous voice actor preferred to spell his surname, means white White is a color, the perception which is evoked by light that stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the human eye in nearly equal amounts and with high brightness compared to the surroundings. A white visual stimulation will be void of hue and grayness.White light can be...
.
- In the 1944 Warner's cartoon Russian Rhapsody (directed by Bob Clampett
Robert Emerson "Bob" Clampett was an American animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes series of cartoons from Warner Bros. and the television shows Time for Beany, and Beany and Cecil.-Early career:Clampett showed an interest in animation and...
), Blanc appears as one of the gremlins (the one sawing around Henry Binder's hair) who are sabotaging Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
's plane. The other gremlins are other members of the Warners' staff, including Binder, Leon SchlesingerLeon Schlesinger was an American film producer, most noted for founding Leon Schlesinger Productions, which later became the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, during the golden age of Hollywood animation.-Early life and career:...
, and Friz FrelengIsadore "Friz" Freleng was an animator, cartoonist, director, and producer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros...
.
- A well-known lithograph was made in his honor. It shows Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theaters from 1930 to 1969. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and is Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. The regular Warner Bros...
characters Bugs BunnyBugs Bunny is a fictional character who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated films produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, which became Warner Bros. Cartoons in 1945. In 2002, he was named by TV Guide as the greatest cartoon character of all time, an honor he shares...
, Daffy DuckDaffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Daffy was the first of the new breed of "screwball" characters that emerged in the late 1930s to supplant traditional everyman characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Popeye, who...
, Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite SamYosemite Sam is an American animated cartoon character in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The name is somewhat alliterative and is inspired by Yosemite National Park. He is commonly depicted as a short-tempered and extremely grouchy cowboy...
, Porky PigPorky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig...
, Pepé Le PewPepé Le Pew is an Academy Award-winning fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, first introduced in 1945. A French anthropomorphic skunk that always strolls around in Paris in the springtime, when everyone's thoughts are of "love", Pepé is...
, SylvesterSylvester J. Pussycat, Sr., or simply, Sylvester the Cat, or Sylvester, or Puddy Tat or gringo pussy-gato/Senor Pussycat , is a fictional character, a three-time Academy Award-winning anthropomorphic...
, Tweety Bird, and Speedy GonzalesSpeedy Gonzales , "The Fastest Mouse in all Mexico", is an animated cartoon mouse from the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Speedy's major traits are his ability to run extremely fast and his comedic Mexican accent...
with their headIn anatomy, the head of an animal is the rostral part that usually comprises the brain, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth...
s bowed in reverence, standing around a lone microphoneA microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike , is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1876, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...
with a spotlight shining on it. The simple inscription on the print reads: "Speechless." According to Warner Bros.Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. (also known as Warner Bros. Pictures, or simply Warner Bros.—the shortened form of the former official, sometimes still used, formal corporate name: Warner Brothers
, it is the highest selling piece of animation art ever produced. The picture was also made into an animated picture, with sound and changing scenes, and sold in the now-defunct Warner Brothers chain of retail stores.
- In the The Office episode "Take Your Daughter to Work Day," boss Michael Scott
Michael Gary Scott is a fictional character on NBC's The Office, portrayed by Steve Carell, and based on David Brent from the original British version. Michael, the central character of the series, is currently the co-manager of the Scranton branch of paper distribution company Dunder Mifflin...
acts out Blanc's "Cucamonga" bit, even including a pause.["Take Your Daughter to Work Day" at NBC.com]
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