Mel Blanc

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Mel Blanc
Blanc in a 1950s publicity photo
Born	Melvin Jerome Blank May 30, 1908 San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died	July 10, 1989 (aged 81) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Heart disease Emphysema
Nationality	American
Other names	"The Man of 1000 Voices"
Alma mater	Lincoln High School
Occupation	Voice actor
Years active	1927–1989
Known for	Looney Tunes The Jack Benny Program
Spouse(s)	Estelle Rosenbaum (1933–89; his death)
Children	Noel Blanc

Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc (May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his more than six-decade-long career performing in radio, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros. as the voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Marvin the Martian, Pepé Le Pew, Speedy Gonzales, Wile E. Coyote, the Tasmanian Devil and many of the other characters from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical short films, during the golden age of American animation.^[1]
He later worked for Hanna-Barbera's television productions, most notably as the voices of Barney Rubble in The Flintstones and Mr. Spacely in The Jetsons. Blanc was also a regular performer on The Jack Benny Program in both its radio and television formats (among various other radio and TV programs), and was the original voice of Woody Woodpecker for Universal Pictures.^[1]
Having earned the nickname "The Man of a Thousand Voices", Blanc is regarded as one of the most influential people in the voice acting industry.^[2]

Early life

Blanc was born Melvin Jerome Blank in San Francisco, California, to Jewish parents Frederick and Eva Blank. The younger of two children, he grew up in the neighborhood of Western Addition in San Francisco, and later in Portland, Oregon, where he attended Lincoln High School. Growing up, he had a fondness for voices and dialect, which he began voicing at the age of ten. He claimed when he was sixteen, he changed the spelling from "Blank" to "Blanc," because a teacher told him that he would amount to nothing and be like his name, a "blank." Blanc joined The Order of DeMolay as a young man, and was eventually inducted into its Hall of Fame.^[3] After graduating high school in 1927, he split his time between leading an orchestra, becoming the youngest conductor in the country at the age of 19, and performing shtick in vaudeville shows around Washington, Oregon, and northern California.^[4]

Career

Radio work

Blanc began his radio career at the age of 19 when in 1927 he debuted as a voice actor on the KGW program The Hoot Owls, where his ability to provide voices for multiple characters first attracted attention. He moved to Los Angeles in 1932, where he met Estelle Rosenbaum, whom he married a year later, before returning to Portland. He moved to KEX in 1933 to produce and co-host his Cobweb And Nuts show with his wife Estelle, which debuted on June 15. The program played Monday through Saturday from 11:00 pm to midnight, and by the time the show ended two years later, it appeared from 10:30 pm to 11:00 pm.
With his wife's encouragement, Blanc returned to Los Angeles and joined Warner Bros.-owned KFWB in Hollywood, California, in 1935. He joined The Johnny Murray Show, but the following year switched to CBS Radio and The Joe Penner Show.

Group photograph of Eddie Anderson, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Mary Livingstone, Jack Benny, Don Wilson, and Mel Blanc.

Blanc was a regular on the NBC Red Network show The Jack Benny Program in various roles, including voicing Benny's Maxwell automobile (in desperate need of a tune-up), violin teacher Professor LeBlanc, Polly the Parrot, Benny's pet polar bear Carmichael, the tormented department store clerk, and the train announcer (see below). The first role came from a mishap when the recording of the automobile's sounds failed to play on cue, prompting Blanc to take the microphone and improvise the sounds himself. The audience reacted so positively that Benny decided to dispense with the recording altogether and have Blanc continue in that role. One of Blanc's most memorable characters from Benny's radio (and later TV) programs was "Sy, the Little Mexican", who spoke one word at a time. The famous "Sí...Sy...sew...Sue" routine was so effective that no matter how many times it was performed, the laughter was always there, thanks to the comedic timing of Blanc and Benny.^[5]
By 1946, Blanc appeared on over 15 radio programs in supporting roles. His success on The Jack Benny Program led to his own radio show on the CBS Radio Network, The Mel Blanc Show, which ran from September 3, 1946, to June 24, 1947. Blanc played himself as the hapless owner of a fix-it shop, as well as his young cousin Zookie.
Blanc also appeared on such other national radio programs as The Abbott and Costello Show, the Happy Postman on Burns and Allen, and as August Moon on Point Sublime. During World War II, he appeared as Private Sad Sack on various radio shows, most notably G.I. Journal. Blanc recorded a song titled "Big Bear Lake."

Animation voice work during the golden age of Hollywood

Private Snafu: Spies, voiced by Blanc in 1943

In December 1936, Mel Blanc joined Leon Schlesinger Productions, which was producing animated short films for Warner Bros. After sound man Treg Brown was put in charge of cartoon voices, and Carl Stalling became music director, Brown introduced Blanc to animation directors Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Friz Freleng, and Frank Tashlin, who loved his voices. The first cartoon Blanc worked on was 1937's Picador Porky as the voice of a drunken bull.^[4] He soon after received his first starring role when he replaced Joe Dougherty as Porky Pig's voice in Porky's Duck Hunt, which marked the debut of Daffy Duck, also voiced by Blanc.
Following this, Blanc became a very prominent vocal artist for Warner Bros., voicing a wide variety of the Looney Tunes characters. Bugs Bunny (whom Blanc made his debut as in 1940's A Wild Hare^[6]^[7]) was known for eating carrots frequently. To follow this sound with the animated voice, Blanc would bite into a carrot and then quickly spit into a spittoon. One oft-repeated story is that Blanc was allergic to carrots. However, Blanc denied having any allergy.^[8]^[9]
In Disney's Pinnochio, Blanc was hired to perform the voice of Gideon the Cat. However, it was eventually decided that Gideon would be mute (similar to Dopey from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), so all of Blanc's recorded dialogue was subsequently deleted except for a solitary hiccup, which was heard three times in the finished film (Blanc would not work for Disney again until Who Framed Roger Rabbit, more than 45 years later).^[10] Blanc also originated the voice (and laugh) of Woody Woodpecker for the theatrical shorts produced by Walter Lantz for Universal Pictures, but stopped voicing the character after he was signed to an exclusive contract with Warner Bros.^[4] During World War II, Blanc served as the voice of the hapless Private Snafu in various war-themed animated shorts.^[11]
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 at the time usually got no screen credits at all, but Blanc was a notable exception; by 1944, his contract with Warner Bros. stipulated a credit reading "Voice characterization(s) by Mel Blanc." Blanc asked for and received this screen credit from studio boss Leon Schlesinger when Schlesinger objected to giving Blanc a pay raise.^[12]

Voice work for Hanna-Barbera and others

In 1960, after the expiration of his exclusive contract with Warner Bros., Blanc continued working for WB, but also began providing voices for Hanna-Barbera; his most famous roles during this time were Barney Rubble of The Flintstones and Cosmo Spacely of The Jetsons. His other notable voice roles for Hanna-Barbara included Dino the Dinosaur, Secret Squirrel, Speed Buggy and Captain Caveman, as well as voices for Wally Gator and The Perils of Penelope Pitstop.
Blanc also worked with former Looney Tunes director Chuck Jones, who by this time was directing shorts with his own company Sib Tower 12 (later MGM Animation) doing vocal effects in the Tom and Jerry series from 1963 to 1967. Blanc was the first voice of Toucan Sam in Froot Loops commercials.
Blanc reprised some of his Warner Bros. characters when the studio contracted him to make new theatrical cartoons in the mid-to-late 1960s. For these, Blanc voiced Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales, 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 Storch). Blanc also continued to voice the Looney Tunes for the bridging sequences of The Bugs Bunny Show, as well as in numerous animated advertisements and several compilation features, such as The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie.

Car accident and aftermath

On January 24, 1961, Blanc was involved in a near-fatal car accident on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Hit head-on, Blanc suffered a triple skull fracture that left him in a coma for three weeks, along with sustaining fractures to both legs and the pelvis.^[13] Blanc returned home from the UCLA Medical Center on March 17. On March 22, Blanc filed a US$500,000 lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles. His accident, one of 26 in the preceding two years at the intersection known as Dead Man's Curve, resulted in the city funding restructuring curves at the location.
Years later, Blanc revealed during his recovery, his son Noel "ghosted" several Warner Bros. cartoons' voice tracks for him. Warner Bros. had also asked Stan Freberg to provide the voice for Bugs Bunny, but Freberg declined, out of respect for Blanc. At the time of the accident Blanc was also serving as the voice of Barney Rubble in The Flintstones. His absence from the show would be relatively brief; Daws Butler provided the voice of Barney for a few episodes, after which the show's producers set up recording equipment in Blanc's hospital room and later at his home to allow him to work from there. Some of the recordings were made while he was in full-body cast as he lay flat on his back with the other Flintstones co-stars gathered around him.^[14] He also returned to The Jack Benny Program to film the program's 1961 Christmas show, moving around via crutches and a wheelchair.

Later career

Blanc circa 1976

In the 1970s, Blanc did a series of college lectures across the US and appeared in commercials for American Express. He would also collaborate on a special with the Boston-based Shriners Burns Institute called Ounce of Prevention, which became a 30-minute TV special.
After spending most of two seasons voicing the robot Twiki in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Blanc's last original character was Heathcliff, in the early 1980s. 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 Taz to other voice actors since as he got older, he found their voices too hard on his throat.
In the 1983 live-action film Strange Brew, Blanc voiced the father of Bob and Doug MacKenzie, at the request of comedian Rick Moranis.
In the 1988 live-action/animated movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Blanc reprised several of his classic Looney Tunes roles (Bugs, Daffy, Porky, Tweety and Sylvester), but left Yosemite Sam to Joe Alaskey (who later became one of Blanc's permanent successors). As Disney released the film (under its Touchstone Pictures banner), it had to earn the blessing of Warner Bros. (and other rival studios) in order to feature the various non-Disney characters in the movie. Blanc died just a year after the film's release. One of his last recording sessions was for a new animated theatrical version of The Jetsons.^[15]

Death

Blanc's gravesite marker

Blanc began smoking cigarettes when he was nine years old. He continued his pack-a-day habit until he was diagnosed with emphysema, which pushed him to quit at age 77.^[16] On May 19, 1989, Blanc was checked into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center by his family^[17] when they noticed he had a bad cough while shooting a commercial; he was originally expected to recover. Blanc's health then took a turn for the worse and doctors found that he had advanced coronary artery disease. He died on July 10 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California at the age of 81.^[18] He was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California. Blanc's will stated his desire to have the inscription on his gravestone read, "THAT'S ALL FOLKS" (the phrase was a trademark of Blanc's character Porky Pig).^[19]

Legacy

Blanc is regarded as the most prolific voice actor in the history of the industry.^[20] He was the first voice actor to receive on-screen credit.^[4]
Blanc's death 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. Indeed, as movie critic Leonard Maltin once pointed out, "It is astounding to realize that Tweety Bird and Yosemite Sam are the same man!"
According to Blanc, Sylvester the Cat was the easiest character to voice because "It's just my normal speaking voice with a spray at the end." Yosemite Sam was the hardest because of his loudness and raspiness.
A doctor who once examined Blanc's throat found that he possessed unusually thick, powerful vocal cords that gave him an exceptional range. The doctor reported that they rivaled those of famed opera singer Enrico Caruso.
After his death, Blanc's voice continued to be heard in newly released productions, such as recordings of Dino from The Flintstones in the 1994 live-action film based on the series and its sequel.^[21]^[22] Archive recordings of Blanc's performance as the Maxwell automobile from The Jack Benny Program were also used in the 2003 movie Looney Tunes: Back in Action.^[23] More recently, archive recordings of Blanc have been featured in new CGI-animated Looney Tunes theatrical shorts; I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat (shown with Happy Feet Two) and Daffy's Rhapsody (shown with Journey 2: The Mysterious Island).^[24]^[25]
Blanc trained his son Noel in the field of voice characterization. Although the younger Blanc has performed his father's characters (particularly Porky Pig) on some programs, he has chosen not to become a full-time voice artist.
For his contributions to radio and animation, Mel Blanc has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6385 Hollywood Boulevard.^[26] His character Bugs Bunny also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (the only others to have received this honor are Walt Disney as both himself and Mickey Mouse; Jim Henson as both himself and Kermit the Frog; and Mike Myers as both himself and Shrek).^[27]

Filmography

Radio

Original Air Date	Program	Role
1933	The Happy-Go-Lucky Hour	Additional voices
1937	The Joe Penner Show	Additional voices
1938	The Mickey Mouse Theater of the Air	Additional voices
1939-1955	The Jack Benny Program	Sy Polly the Parrot Mr. Finque Nottingham Train Announcer Jack Benny's Maxwell Additional voices
1939-1943	Fibber McGee and Molly	Hiccuping Man
1941-1943	The Great Gildersleeve	Floyd Munson
1942-1947	The Abbott and Costello Show	Mel Blanc Botsford Twink Scotty Brown
1942-1948	The Cisco Kid	Additional voices
1943-1946	The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show	The Happy Postman
1943-1955	The Judy Canova Show	Paw Pedro Roscoe E. Wortle
1946-1947	The Mel Blanc Show	Mel Blanc Dr. Christopher Crab Children Zookie

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1937-1969	Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical shorts	Numerous roles	Includes the Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and Sylvester series
1940	Pinocchio	Gideon's hiccups	voice
1940-1941	Woody Woodpecker theatrical shorts	Woody Woodpecker	voice
1943-1945	Private Snafu WWII shorts	Private Snafu Bugs Bunny Additional characters	voice
1944	Jasper Goes Hunting	Bugs Bunny	Puppetoon; cameo
1948	Two Guys From Texas	Bugs Bunny	Live-action; animated cameo
1949	My Dream Is Yours	Bugs Bunny Tweety	Live-action; animated cameos
1949	Neptune's Daughter	Pancho	Live-action
1959-1965	Loopy De Loop theatrical shorts	Additional characters	voice
1961	Breakfast at Tiffanys	Over-eager date	Live-action; cameo
1962	Gay Purr-ee	Bulldog	voice
1963-1967	Tom and Jerry theatrical shorts	Tom and Jerry's vocal effects	Directed by Chuck Jones
1964	Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!	Grifter Chizzling	voice
1964	Kiss Me, Stupid	Dr. Sheldrake	Live-action
1966	The Man Called Flintstone	Barney Rubble Dino	voice
1970	The Phantom Tollbooth	Officer Short Shrift The Dodecahedron The Demon of Insincerity	voice
1974	Journey Back to Oz	Crow	voice
1979	The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie	Bugs Bunny Daffy Duck Porky Pig Wile E. Coyote Pepé Le Pew Marvin the Martian Additional voices	Compilation film
1981	The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie	Bugs Bunny Daffy Duck Porky Pig Tweety Sylvester Speedy Gonzales Yosemite Sam Foghorn Leghorn Wile E. Coyote Additional voices	Compilation film
1982	Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales	Bugs Bunny Daffy Duck Porky Pig Tweety Sylvester Speedy Gonzales Yosemite Sam Foghorn Leghorn Wile E. Coyote Additional voices	Compilation film
1983	Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island	Daffy Duck Porky Pig Tweety Sylvester Speedy Gonzales Yosemite Sam Foghorn Leghorn Tasmanian Devil Bugs Bunny	Compilation film
1983	Strange Brew	Father MacKenzie	Live-action; voice
1986	Howard the Duck	Daffy Duck	Archive recording; voice
1986	Heathcliff: The Movie	Heathcliff	voice
1988	Who Framed Roger Rabbit	Bugs Bunny Daffy Duck Porky Pig Tweety Sylvester	Live-action/animated film; cameos
1988	Daffy Duck's Quackbusters	Daffy Duck Bugs Bunny Porky Pig Tweety Sylvester Additional voices	Compilation film
1990	Jetsons: The Movie	Cosmo Spacely	Released posthumously; dedicated in memory
1994	The Flintstones	Dino (vocal effects)	Live-action; archive recordings (uncredited until home video release)
1996	Space Jam	Classic cartoon voices	Live-action/animated film; archive recordings
2003	Looney Tunes: Back in Action	Gremlin Car (vocal effects)	Live-action/animated film; archive recordings of Jack Benny's Maxwell

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1950-1965	The Jack Benny Program	Professor LeBlanc Sy Department Store Clerk Gas Station Man Mr. Finque Additional characters	Live-action
1959	The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis	Mr. Ziegler	Live-action; "The Best Dressed Man"
1960-1989	The Bugs Bunny Show	Bugs Bunny Daffy Duck Porky Pig Tweety Sylvester Speedy Gonzales Yosemite Sam Foghorn Leghorn Wile E. Coyote Additional voices
1960-1966	The Flintstones	Barney Rubble Dino Additional voices	voice
1961	Dennis the Menace-Miss Cathcart's Friend	Leo Trinkle	Dog Catcher
1962-1963; 1985-1987	The Jetsons	Cosmo Spacely Additional voices	voice
1962-1963	Lippy the Lion & Hardy Har Har	Hardy Har-Har Additional voices	voice
1963	Wally Gator	Colonel Zachary Gator	voice; 1 episode
1964	The Beverly Hillbillies	Dick Burton	Live-action; 1 episode
1964-1965	Ricochet Rabbit & Droop-a-Long	Droop-A-Long Additional voices	voice
1964-1966	The Munsters	Cuckoo clock	Live-action; voice; 6 episodes
1965-1967	The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show	Secret Squirrel	voice
1966	The Monkees	Monkeemobile engine	voice; 1 episode
1969-1971	The Perils of Penelope Pitstop	Yak Yak The Bully Brothers Chug-A-Boom	voice
1971-1973	The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show	Barney Rubble Additional voices	voice
1972	Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies	Daffy Duck Porky Pig Yosemite Sam Elmer Fudd Sylvester Tweety Wile E. Coyote Pepé Le Pew Foghorn Leghorn Charlie Dog	TV Movie
1972-1973	The Flintstone Comedy Hour	Barney Rubble Dino Zonk Stub	voice
1973	Speed Buggy	Speed Buggy	voice
1973	The New Scooby-Doo Movies	Speed Buggy	voice; 1 episode
1976	Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals	Bugs Bunny Daffy Duck Porky Pig	TV Special
1977	Bugs Bunny's Easter Special	Bugs Bunny Daffy Duck Yosemite Sam Tweety Sylvester Pepé Le Pew Foghorn Leghorn Porky Pig	TV Special
1977-1978	Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics	Speed Buggy Captain Caveman	voice
1977-1978	Fred Flintstone and Friends	Barney Rubble Additional voices	voice
1977-1980	Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels	Captain Caveman	voice
1977	A Flintstone Christmas	Barney Rubble Dino	TV Special
1978-1979	Galaxy Goof-Ups	Quack-Up	voice
1978	Bugs Bunny's Howl-Oween Special	Bugs Bunny Daffy Duck Porky Pig Sylvester Tweety Speedy Gonzales	TV Special
1979	Fred and Barney Meet the Thing	Barney Rubble Dino Additional voices	voice
1979	The New Fred and Barney Show	Barney Rubble Dino Additional voices	voice
1979-1980	Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo	Barney Rubble Dino Additional voices	voice
1979-1981	Buck Rogers in the 25th Century	Twiki (voice)	Live-action; voice
1979	Bugs Bunny's Thanksgiving Diet	Bugs Bunny Porky Pig Wile E. Coyote Yosemite Sam Sylvester Tasmanian Devil Millicent	TV Special
1979	Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales	Bugs Bunny Yosemite Sam (as Scrooge) Porky Pig (as Bob Cratchit) Tweety (as Tiny Tim) Foghorn Leghorn Road Runner Wile E. Coyote Tasmanian Devil Santa Claus	TV Special
1980	Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over	Bugs Bunny Young Bugs Bunny Young Elmer Fudd Marvin the Martian Hugo Wile E. Coyote Road Runner	TV Special
1980	The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special	Bugs Bunny Elmer Fudd Yosemite Sam Tweety Sylvester Wile E. Coyote Porky Pig	TV Special
1980	3-2-1 Contact	Twiki	1 episode
1980-1982	Heathcliff	Heathcliff	voice
1980-1982	The Flintstone Comedy Show	Barney Rubble Dino	voice
1981-1982	Trollkins	Additional voices	voice
1982-1984	The Flintstone Funnies	Barney Rubble Captain Caveman	voice
1984-1988	Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats	Heathcliff	voice
1986-1988	The Flintstone Kids	Dino Robert Rubble Captain Caveman Piggy McGrabit	voice
1987	The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones	Barney Rubble Dino Cosmo Spacely	TV Movie
1988	Rockin' with Judy Jetson	Cosmo Spacely	TV Movie
1989	Hanna-Barbera's 50th: A Yabba Dabba Doo Celebration	Barney Rubble	TV Special; aired just seven days after his death