Mel Blanc: Man of a Thousand Voices
Although you may have never seen Mel Blanc’s face, you’ve definitely heard his voice — he voiced hundreds of classic cartoon characters including Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Speedy Gonzales, Barney Rubble, Foghorn Leghorn, and bunches more. Known as the “man of a thousand voices,” he actually claims roughly 400 voices in the video below — a late 80’s interview with David Letterman (Blanc died in 1989).
In the interview, Letterman asks Blanc how he develops the characters’ voices. Blanc replies, “They show me a picture of the character, and then they show me a storyboard which shows what the character is going to do in the cartoon. From this I have to create the voice. Like, Bugs they said was a ‘tough little stinker.’ So I thought, ‘Which is the toughest voice in this country? The Brooklyn or the Bronx?’ [speaking in Bugs Bunny voice] So I, uh, put the two of them together, and that’s how I got the voice of Bugs, doc!” (Blanc’s tombstone bears the motto “That’s All Folks”)
Watch as a master performs a few of his famous voices and explains his process. After the jump (below the video) is a partial list of his most notable cartoon voices, cribbed from Wikipedia.
- Porky Pig (1936-1989, assumed from Joe Dougherty)
- The Maxwell (Jack Benny’s car in “The Mouse that Jack Built”)
- Daffy Duck (1937-1989)
- Bugs Bunny’s prototype/Happy Rabbit (1938-1940)
- Bugs Bunny (1940-1989)
- Woody Woodpecker (1940-1941)
- Hiawatha (1941)
- Cecil Turtle (1941-1947)
- Tweety Bird (1942-1989)
- Private Snafu, numerous World War II
related cartoons (1943)
- Yosemite Sam (1945-1987)
- Pepe Le Pew (1945-1989)
- Sylvester (1945-1989) aka Thomas (1947) in some films.
- Foghorn Leghorn (1946-1987)
- The Barnyard Dawg (1946-1989)
- Henery Hawk (1946-1989)
- Charlie Dog (1947)
- Mac (of Mac & Tosh) (1947)
- K-9 (1948) (sidekick to Marvin the Martian)
- Marvin the Martian (1948-1989)
- Sylvester J. Pussycat, Jr. Mel also plays Sylvester’s son Sylvester Junior when the young cat was introduced (1949)
- Beaky Buzzard (1950)
- Curt Martin (1950-1 episode Hillbilly Hare)
- Elmer Fudd (1950, 1958, 1970s and 1980s, replacing Arthur Q. Bryan)
- 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) aka Taz
- Barney Rubble (1960-1989)
- Dino (1960-1989) (Fred Flintstone’s pet.)
- Cosmo G. Spacely (1962-1989)
- Hardy Har Har (1962-1964)
- Tom Cat and Jerry Mouse (1963-1967)
- Secret Squirrel (1965-1966)
- Frito Bandito (1967-1971)
- Bubba McCoy from “Where’s Huddles?”
- Chugga-Boom/Yak Yak/The Bully Brothers also from “The Perils of Penelope Pitstop”
- Speed Buggy (1973)
- Tucker the Mouse from “The Cricket in Times Square
- Captain Caveman (1977)
- Twiki from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979)
- Heathcliff (1980, appeared in syndication from 1984-1987)
- Gideon from Pinocchio
- Bertie Mouse (of Hubie and Bertie)
- Marc Antony
- 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 (1969)
I was such a huge fan. I grew up watching all these characters. Such a talented, talented man.
