Silent Voices
If you grew up watching tv and especially after-school and Saturday morning cartoons as I did, then you no doubt heard the voices of three skilled actors who, while not household names, possibly worked harder than most people in show business.
Henry Corden, the second voice of Fred Flintstone, Howard Morris, the voice of Atom Ant who also appeared as Ernest T. Bass on the “Andy Griffith Show”, and Thurl Ravenscroft, who lent his talents to cereal commercial cartoon Tony the Tiger and the Dr. Seuss Christmas special “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” all passed away recently. Baby boomers like myself have only fond memories.
Corden, the voice of the cartoon caveman Fred Flintstone, with his "Yabba dabba doo!," for more than two decades, died of emphysema May 19 in Los Angeles at age 85. He took over as Bedrock’s most lovable loudmouth when the original voice, Alan Reed, died in 1977. Reed had the role since The Flintstones first aired in 1960.
Born in Montreal, Corden moved to New York as a child and arrived in Hollywood in the 1940's. His first acting role was in the 1947 film "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." Known for playing villains, he found small parts in movies like "The Black Castle" (1952) and "The Ten Commandments" (1956).
Corden moved into voice acting in the 1960's, taking on bit parts in Hanna-Barbera shows like "Jonny Quest," "Josie and the Pussycats" and "The New Tom & Jerry Show."
Since "The Flintstones" echoed "The Honeymooners," Mr. Corden tweaked his delivery to approximate that of Jackie Gleason's character, Ralph Kramden.
Corden was working until about three months ago. He can most recently be heard on cereal commercials yelling "Barney, my Pebbles!"
Howard Morris did everything from cartoon voices to television comedy to musicals and Shakespeare. He died May 21 at age 85.
Viewers of TV's Golden Age remember his work with Sid Caesar on "Your Show of Shows," and as hick Ernest T. Bass on "The Andy Griffith Show."
On stage, in the 1960 City Center revival of Finian's Rainbow he played the randy leprechaun named Og; his performance is preserved on a cast album of the revival.
Morris appeared in a Broadway production of Hamlet and in the original run of the musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
In addition to his work as an actor, which includes a long resume of cartoon voicing for Hanna-Barbera and other studios, Morris directed commercials, TV shows (the pilot of "Get Smart") and the feature films "With Six You Get Eggroll," "Who's Minding the Mint?" and "Don't Drink the Water."
According to the L.A. Times, his memorable voice work included playing the voice of the Qantas Airlines koala, Gerald McBoing-Boing in Columbia cartoons, Atom Ant in "The Atom Ant Show," Beetle Bailey and General Halftrack in "Beetle Bailey and His Friends," and Jughead Jones and Big Moose Mason in "The Archie Show."
The actor's on-screen acting resume includes the comedies "Boys' Night Out," "The Nutty Professor" and Mel Brooks' films "High Anxiety," "Life Stinks" and "History of the World: Part I."
Thurl Ravenscroft was the booming voice of Tony the Tiger, whose catchphrase, "They're g-r-r-r-e-a-t!" was used to sell cereal, died May 22 at age 91.
The voice that could remind generations of their Kellogg's Frosted Flakes also made baby boomers nostalgic for other pop culture landmarks of their childhoods.
Many remember his evil rendition of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" in the television special "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" which has aired annually since 1966.
For more than half a century, he has been linked with Disney.
At Disneyland, Ravenscroft's voice can still be heard "yo-ho-ho-ing" in Pirates of the Caribbean, and his likeness can be seen singing — he's the bust broken off the base — in the Haunted Mansion.
He was a singing mouse in the Disney film "Cinderella" (1950) and a crooning dog in 1955's "Lady & the Tramp." He sang and voiced roles in about two dozen Disney movies starting in 1941.
Before he gave voice to Fritz, the German parrot in Disneyland's Tiki Room, Ravenscroft gave enthusiastic life to Tony the Tiger in 1952.
His Mellomen quartet was already singing jingles for other Kellogg cereals when he created the stretched-out growl, enhanced with reverberation, that pronounced Frosted Flakes great.
"I often say that I've made a career out of one word," Ravenscroft said with a chuckle in a Times interview in 1983.
Ravenscroft's last Tony the Tiger commercial was taped last fall.
Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft was born Feb. 6, 1914, in Norfolk, Neb., and moved to Los Angeles in 1933 to attend the Otis College of Art and Design and pursue a career in advertising.
After an actor told him he had "a flair for show business," he auditioned at Paramount, became a studio singer and dropped out of school.
In 1937, he formed a singing group called the Sportsmen Quartet, performing backup vocals for such stars as Jack Benny, Bing Crosby and Rudy Vallee on the radio. They also could be heard on Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies cartoons for Warner Bros.
During World War II, he became a navigator for the Air Transport Command, flying 150 Atlantic crossings. In 1947, he returned to Hollywood and formed another quartet, called the Mellomen, which performed with Frank Sinatra, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Elvis Presley.
They were featured on the Edgar Bergen-Charlie McCarthy radio show and did work for Walt Disney Studios. A religious man, Ravenscroft recorded the Book of Psalms for the blind, and in 1981 he began narrating annual presentations of "The Glory of Christmas" at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove.
Those who worked with him often called him "unpretentious." When people asked how he made a living, he would say, "Well, today I sang like a mouse, I was a horse out in the barn, I was the voice of a coyote."
Posted by bernie at May 25, 2005 12:32 PMTrackBack