Proof that lightning can strike twice in the same place: animation legend Mel Blanc dropped out of the high school from which animation legend Matt Groening would later graduate.
Blanc first worked as a professional voice artist was right here in Portland, on KGW radio. He was a pit musician (eventually band leader) at the Orpheum Theater.
Here’s a list of characters voiced by Blanc:
- Porky Pig (1936-1989)
- The Maxwell (Jack Benny’s car)
- Daffy Duck (1937-1989)
- Bugs Bunny (1940-1989)
- Woody Woodpecker (1940)
- Hiawatha (1941)
- Cecil Turtle (1941-1947)
- Tweety Bird (1942-1989)
- Private Snafu (1943)
- Yosemite Sam (1945-1989)
- Pepé Le Pew (1945-1989)
- Sylvester (1945-1989)
- Foghorn Leghorn (1946)
- The Barnyard Dawg (1946-1989)
- Henery Hawk (1946-1989)
- Elmer Fudd (1950, 1958, 1970s and 1980s)
- Bruno the Bear (1951)
- Wile E. Coyote (silent until 1952, first spoke in the short “Operation: Rabbit”)
- Speedy Gonzales (1953)
- The Tasmanian Devil (1954-1960)
- Barney Rubble (1960-1989)
- Dino (1960-1989) (Fred Flintstone’s pet.)
- Cosmo G. Spacely (1962)
- Hardy Har Har (1962-1964)
- Secret Squirrel (1965-1966)
- Frito Bandito (1967-1971)
- Bubba McCoy from “Where’s Huddles?”
- Chugga-Boom/The Bully Brothers also from “The Perils of Penelope Pitstop”
- Speed Buggy (1973)
- Tucker the Mouse from “The Cricket in Times Square” (1973) and two sequels
- Captain Caveman (1977)
- Twiki from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979)
- Heathcliff (1980, in syndication from 1984-1987)
- Gideon the Cat from Pinocchio
- Bertie Mouse (of Hubie and Bertie)
- Moo the Cow in Berkeley Farms Radio Ads. “Farms in Berkeley….Moooo”
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Of the many many cartoon characters Mel Blanc voiced, he is most closely identified with Bugs Bunny. He adlibbed the insouciant “What’s up, doc?” which became Bugs Bunny’s identifying phrase.
Melvin Jerome Blanc holds the #1 ranking on IMDB for number of film credits: 1,012.
When are we going to name a street – or a theater – after him?
2 responses so far ↓
1 Happy Valentine's Day/Not an Oregon film | Oregon Movies, A to Z // Feb 11, 2010 at 8:46 pm
[...] it is an Oregon film. Mel Blanc provided the voice of Pepe Le Pew in the original cartoon. In this mashup, his contribution to the [...]
2 Dan Fiebiger // Nov 28, 2010 at 10:59 pm
Blanc voiced Woody Woodpecker only for the earliest few WWP toons. When work at Warners prevented him from continuing with WWP animator Walter Lance, legend has it that Lance’s wife voiced woody from that-time on (both WW voices were sped-up about a half speed faster in addition), and she became the most famous voice of WW.
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