Melvin Jerome Blanc (né Blank ;[2][3] May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989)[4] was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over sixty years. Referred to as "The Man of a Thousand Voices",[5] he is regarded as the greatest and most influential voice actor of all time.[6] Blanc is best known for providing voices for Looney Tunes cartoons by Warner Bros. during the golden age of American animation.
Blanc began his career during the Golden Age of Radio when he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for comedy radio programs, including those of Jack Benny, Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen, The Great Gildersleeve, Judy Canova and his own short-lived sitcom. He later expanded to animation, providing the voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety, Sylvester the Cat, Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, Speedy Gonzales, Marvin the Martian, Foghorn Leghorn, the Tasmanian Devil, Pepé Le Pew and numerous other characters from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoons.[7] Blanc also voiced the Looney Tunes characters Porky Pig and Elmer Fudd after replacing their original performers, Joe Dougherty and Arthur Q. Bryan, respectively, although he occasionally voiced Elmer during Bryan's lifetime as well.[7]
Blanc later voiced characters for Hanna-Barbera's television cartoons, including: Barney Rubble and Dino on The Flintstones, Mr. Spacely on The Jetsons, Secret Squirrel on The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show, the title character of Speed Buggy, and Captain Caveman on Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels and The Flintstone Kids.[7] He was also the voice of Gideon's hiccups in Pinocchio, one of his two appearances at Disney. Blanc was also the voice of Woody Woodpecker in the first four animated shorts from 1940 to 1941, his only appearance at Universal Pictures. He also provided the screams for Tom and Jerry in the short films from 1963 to 1967, in 34 short films directed by Chuck Jones.
Early life
Blanc was born on May 30, 1908, in San Francisco, California. Blanc's birth name was Melvin Jerome Blank and his Jewish-American parents were Eva and Frederick Blank.[8] He grew up in San Francisco's Western Addition neighborhood,[9] and later in Portland, Oregon, where he attended Lincoln High School.[10] He had an early fondness for voices and dialect, which he began practicing at the age of 10. He claimed that he changed the spelling of his name when he was 16, from Blank to Blanc, because a teacher told him that he would amount to nothing and be like his name, a "blank". He joined the Order of DeMolay as a young man, and was eventually inducted into its Hall of Fame.[11] After graduating from high school in 1927, he divided 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.[12]
Career
Radio work
Blanc began his radio career at the age of 19 in 1927, when he made his acting debut 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 (1909–2003), 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 in 1935. He joined The Johnny Murray Show, but the following year switched to CBS Radio and The Joe Penner Show.
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 and the train announcer. 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 characters from Benny's radio (and later TV) programs was "Sy, the Little Mexican", who spoke one word at a time.
Personal life
Blanc and his wife Estelle Rosenbaum were married on January 4, 1933,[4] and remained married until his death in 1989.[4] Their son, Noel Blanc, was also a voice actor.[4]
Blanc was a Freemason as a member of Mid Day Lodge No. 188 in Portland, Oregon.[48][49] He held membership at the lodge for 58 years. Blanc was also a Shriner.[50][51]
Death
Blanc began smoking at least one pack of cigarettes per day at the age of nine and continued up through 1985, having quit smoking after being diagnosed with emphysema.[53] He was later diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), after his family checked him into the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on May 19, 1989[4] when they noticed he had been coughing profusely while shooting an Oldsmobile commercial.[44] He was originally expected to recover,[54] but after his health had worsened, doctors discovered that he had advanced coronary artery disease. He also fell from his bed and broke his femur during the stay.
Blanc died at the age of 81 from complications related to both illnesses on July 10, 1989, at 2:30 pm, nearly two months after being admitted into the hospital.[4]
Legacy
Blanc is regarded as the most prolific voice actor in entertainment history.[57] He was the first voice actor to receive on-screen credit.[58]
Blanc's death was considered a significant loss to the cartoon industry because of his skill, expressive range, and the sheer number of the continuing characters he portrayed, whose roles were subsequently assumed by several other voice talents. As film critic Leonard Maltin observed, "It is astounding to realize that Tweety Bird and Yosemite Sam are the same man!"[59] Darrell Van Citters drew a lithograph titled "Speechless" in tribute to Blanc, which showed a spotlight on a microphone while the Looney Tunes characters somberly bowed their heads in a moment of silence.[60][61]
Blanc said that Sylvester the Cat was the easiest character for him to voice, because "[he's] just my normal speaking voice with a spray at the end"; and that Yosemite Sam was the hardest, because of his loudness and raspiness.
Filmography
Radio
Film
Television
Video games
Theme park attractions
Discography
- Yah, Das Ist Ein Christmas Tree and I Tan't Wait Til Quithmuth Day (Capitol, 1950, Album CAS-3191)
- Clink, Clink, Another Drink (Bluebird, 1942)[80] as Drunk
External links
References
- Inkpot Award Comic-con.org, December 6, 2012, retrieved February 27, 2022^
- retrieved June 1, 2019^
- retrieved June 1, 2019^