The Man of a Thousand Voices - May 30, 2007

If Hollywood ever had an indispensable talent, it was Mel Blanc, the man of a thousand voices.  Blanc, whose 99th birthday we celebrate today, was a unique voice actor. He worked for most of the major studios, appeared regularly on radio and television (especially with Jack Benny, providing the "voices" of Benny's automobile and pet polar bear), and received credit for "voice characterizations" on all Warner Bros. cartoons -- even those in which he didn't do any voices at all!  His career began by imitating a drunken bull, but the short list of his other characters would include Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Barney Rubble, Woody Woodpecker, Foghorn Leghorn, Tweety and Sylvester, Marvin the Martian, the Tasmanian Devil, and Twiki the Robot.  About the only voice he didn't do was Elmer Fudd (that was Arthur Q. Bryan). When Mel Blanc died, it took literally dozens of actors to replicate the voices he'd created, all of whom would have otherwise been speechless. Suggested Sites... Wikipedia: Mel Blanc - biography of the voice behind innumerable characters. Mel Blanc's Vocal Cords - exactly what it sounds like: someone stuck a camera down Mel's throat while he did Looney Tunes voices. Don Markstein's Toonopedia - a vast repository of toonological knowledge IMDb: Mel Blanc - filmography of Blanc's nearly 1000 cartoons and TV shows. Looney Tunes.com - online home of Bugs, Daffy, and the rest of gang from Termite Terrace.