(And now for something completely serious, the man of many voices, including Pillsbury Doughboys original voice) Paul Frees (June 22, 1920 – November 2, 1986) He is probably best remembered for his cartoon work with the Walt Disney Company, Jay Ward Productions, and Rankin/Bass Productions. He possessed an unusually wide four-octave voice range that would enable him to voice everything from the thundering basso profundo of the unseen Ghost Host in the Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland in California and at Walt Disney World in Florida to the squeaky voice of the Little Green Sprout in the Green Giant vegetable commercials. Born Solomon Hersh Frees in Chicago, Illinois, he first appeared on vaudeville in the 1930s, as an impressionist, under the name Buddy Green. In 1942 he began his acting career and remained active until his death in 1986. During that time, he was involved in more than 250 films, cartoons, and television appearances, which often went uncredited like many other voice actors. His early radio career was cut short when he was drafted into World War II where he fought at Normandy, France on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Wounded in action, he returned to the US for a year of recuperation. After the war, he attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, California but dropped out and returned to radio work when his first wifes health failed. He appeared frequently on Hollywood radio series, including Escape, playing lead roles and alternating with actor William Conrad as the opening announcer of Suspense in the late 1940s, and parts on Gunsmoke and Crime Classics. One of his few starring roles in this medium was as Jethro Dumont in the 1949 series The Green Lama, as well as a syndicated anthology series The Player, in which he narrated and played all of the parts. In the 1950s and into the 1970s, he was often called upon to re-loop the dialogue of other actors, often to correct for foreign accents, lack of English proficiency, or poor line readings by non-professionals. These dubs extended from a few lines to entire roles. This can be noticed rather clearly in the film Midway (1976) where he reads for actor Toshiro Mifunes performance as Admiral Yamamoto, or in the film Some Like It Hot (1959) in which he provides the voice of funeral director Mozzarella as well as much of the falsetto voice for actor Tony Curtis female character Josephine. He also dubbed the entire role of Eddie in the Disney film The Ugly Dachshund (1966), replacing actor Dick Wessel, who had died of a sudden heart attack after completion of principal photography. He also dubbed actor Humphrey Bogart in his final film The Harder They Fall (1956), who was suffering at the time from what would be diagnosed as esophageal cancer and thus could barely be heard in some takes, hence the need for his voice to be dubbed. He also voiced the cars in the comedy The Great Race (1965). Some of his most memorable voices were for various Disney projects. He voiced Disneys Professor Ludwig Von Drake in eighteen episodes of the Disney anthology television series, beginning with the first episode of the newly renamed Walt Disneys Wonderful World of Color on September 24, 1961. The character also appeared on many Disneyland Records. Von Drakes introductory cartoon, An Adventure in Color, featured The Spectrum Song, which he sang as Von Drake. He was a regular presence in Jay Ward cartoons, providing the voices of Boris Badenov (from The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show), Inspector Fenwick (from Dudley Do-Right, impersonating Eric Blore), Ape (impersonating Ronald Colman), District Commissioner Alistair and Weevil Plumtree in George of the Jungle, Baron Otto Matic in Tom Slick, Fred in Super Chicken, and the Hoppity Hooper narrator, among numerous others. For Rankin/Bass cartoons, he voiced the traffic cop, ticket-taker, and Santa Claus in Frosty the Snowman (1969) and the central villain Burgermeister Meisterburger and his assistant Grimsley in Santa Claus Is Comin to Town (1970). He was several voices, including Eon the Terrible in Rudolphs Shiny New Year (1976). In 1968, he appeared as Captain Jones in the Thanksgiving special The Mouse on the Mayflower, and that Christmas he appeared as the father of the Drummer Boy, Ali, and as the three Wise Men in The Little Drummer Boy. He provided the voices for several J. R. R. Tolkien characters (most notably the dwarf Bombur) in Rankin/Bass animated versions of The Hobbit (1977) and The Return of the King (1980). He also voiced King Haggards wizard Mabruk in The Last Unicorn (1982) and provided several voices for the Jackson Five cartoon series between 1971 and 1973. In television commercials, he was the voice of the Pillsbury Doughboy, the 7-Up bird Fresh-Up Freddie, Froot Loops spokesbird Toucan Sam (previously voiced by Mel Blanc, later voiced by Maurice LaMarche), Boo-Berry in the series of monster cereal commercials, and the Little Green Sprout, who called out to the Jolly Green Giant, Hey, Green Giant, whats new besides ho-ho-ho? He narrated many live action films and television series, including Naked City (1958 to 1963) and provided the voice of the eccentric billionaire John Beresford Tipton on the dramatic CBS television series The Millionaire (1955 to 1960). He was the narrator at the beginning of the film The Disorderly Orderly (1964) starring actor Jerry Lewis. He also looped an actors voice in the film The Ladies Man (1961) also starring Jerry Lewis. He was also a songwriter and screenwriter, his major work being the little-seen 1960 film The Beatniks. On rare occasions, he appeared on camera, usually in minor roles. He played the Orson Welles sound-alike radio reporter in The War of the Worlds (1953), where he is seen dictating into a tape recorder as the military prepares the atomic bomb for use against the invading Martians. In 1954, he appeared in the film noir classic Suddenly (1954) which starred Frank Sinatra and Sterling Hayden. He played a scientist in The Thing from Another World (1982), a death-row priest in A Place in the Sun (1951), and French fur trader McMasters in The Big Sky (1952). In 1955, he appeared as an irate husband suing his wife for alimony in an episode of CBSs sitcom The Ray Milland Show. In the film Jet Pilot (1957), he played a menacing Soviet officer whose job is to watchdog pilot Janet Leigh, but instead manages to eject himself out of a parked jet, enabling Leigh to rescue John Wayne and fly back to the West. He also played the apocalyptic voice for the talking rings in The Time Machine (1960), the voice of a war correspondent interviewing Army General George Patton while riding his horse in Patton (1970) and also as a member of Pattons staff, and also did various voice-overs for other actors, including the voice for the sheik hosting a troop review for Patton, as well as several others. His voice also appears in Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) as the English language voice of the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and the opening voice-over narration for Doc Savage (1975). He also did the final ending narration after the destruction of the Earth in Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970). He died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 66. For his contributions to the Disney legacy, he was honored posthumously as a Disney Legend on October 9, 2006.
Posted on: Wed, 28 May 2014 17:28:42 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015