Mel Blanc

Mel Blanc
Born	Melvin Jerome Blank May 30, 1908 San Francisco, California
Died	July 10, 1989 Los Angeles, California
Cause of death	Heart disease Emphysema
Nationality	American
Occupation(s)	Voice actor Radio personality
Years active at Hanna-Barbera	1959-1989
Characters played	Barney Rubble Dino Hardy Har Har Cosmo Spacely Droop-a-long Coyote Sneezly Secret Squirrel Salty Yak Yak Bully Brothers Chugga-Boom Bubba McCoy Zonk Stub Speed Buggy Captain Caveman

Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc (born Blank; May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality known for being one of the most influential people in the voice acting career, and for being known as "The Man of a Thousand Voices". For Hanna-Barbera, he was best known as the voice of Barney Rubble, Dino, Mr. Spacely, Secret Squirrel, Speed Buggy, and Captain Caveman. He was also both Tom and Jerry in Chuck Jones' run of the Tom and Jerry theatrical shorts.

Blanc died on July 10, 1989, at the age of 81. Jetsons: The Movie, one of his last roles, was dedicated to him.

Roles

20th century

• Loopy De Loop (1959-1965)
• The Flintstones (1960-1966)
  • Barney Rubble
  • Dino
• The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series (1962-1963)
  • Hardy Har Har
• The Jetsons (1962-1963; 1985-1987)
  • Cosmo Spacely
• Tom and Jerry (1963-1967)
  • Tom Cat
  • Jerry Mouse
• The Magilla Gorilla Show (1964-1965)
  • Droop-a-long Coyote
• The Peter Potamus Show (1964-1966)
  • Sneezly
• Hey There, It's Yogi Bear (1964)
  • Grifter Chizzling
• The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show (1965-1967)
  • Secret Squirrel
• Sinbad Jr. and his Magic Belt (1965-1966)
  • Salty
  • Voice ("Knight Fright," 1965)
  • Announcer ("Knight Fright," 1965)
• The Man Called Flintstone (1966)
  • Barney Rubble
• Abbott & Costello (1967-1968)
• The Perils of Penelope Pitstop (1969-1970)
  • Yak Yak
  • Bully Brothers
  • Chugga-Boom
• Where's Huddles? (1970)
  • Bubba McCoy
  • Oscar ("Hot Dog Hannah," 1970)
• The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (1971-1973)
  • Barney Rubble
• The Flintstone Comedy Hour (1972-1973)
  • Barney Rubble
  • Dino
  • Zonk
  • Stub
• Speed Buggy (1973)
  • Speed Buggy
• The New Scooby-Doo Movies
  • Speed Buggy ("The Weird Winds of Winona," 1973)
• Fred Flinstone and Friends (1977-1978)
• Laff-a-Lympics (1977-1978)
  • Speed Buggy
  • Captain Caveman
  • Barney Rubble
• Fred Flintstone and Friends (1977-1978)
  • Barney Rubble
• Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels (1977-1980)
  • Captain Caveman
• A Flintstone Christmas (1977)
  • Barney Rubble
  • Dino
• The Flintstones: Little Big League (1978)
  • Barney Rubble
• Hanna-Barbera's All-Star Comedy Ice Revue (1978)
  • Barney Rubble
  • Dino
• Galaxy Goof-Ups (1978-1979)
  • Quack-Up
• Fred and Barney Meet the Thing (1979)
  • Barney Rubble
  • Dino
• The New Fred and Barney Show (1979)
  • Barney Rubble
  • Dino
• Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo (1979-1980)
  • Barney Rubble
  • Dino
• The Flintstones: Fred's Final Fling (1980)
  • Barney Rubble
  • Dino
• The Flintstone Comedy Show (1980-1982)
  • Barney Rubble
  • Dino
  • Captain Caveman
• The Flintstones: Jogging Fever (1981)
  • Barney Rubble
• The Flintstones: Wind-Up Wilma (1981)
  • Barney Rubble
  • Dino
• Trollkins (1981-1982)
  • TBA
• Yogi Bear's All-Star Comedy Christmas Caper (1982)
  • Barney Rubble
• The Flintstone Funnies (1982-1984)
  • Barney Rubble
  • Captain Caveman
• The Flintstone Kids (1986-1988)
  • Dino
  • Robert Rubble
  • Captain Caveman
  • Piggy McGrabit
• The Flintstones' 25th Anniversary Celebration (1986)
  • Barney Rubble
• The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones (1987)
  • Barney Rubble
  • Dino
  • Cosmo Spacely
• Rockin' with Judy Jetson (1988)
  • Cosmo Spacely
• Hanna-Barbera's 50th: A Yabba Dabba Doo Celebration (1989)
  • Barney Rubble
  • Dino
• Jetsons: The Movie (1990)
  • Cosmo Spacely
• The Flintstones (1994)
  • Dino (archival recordings)
• The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000)
  • Dino (archival recordings)

Other roles

Before working for Hanna-Barbera, Blanc made a prolific career in radio programs during the Golden Age of Radio, including The Jack Benny Program, where he provided the distinct voices for Benny's Maxwell automobile, violin teacher Professor LeBlanc, Polly the Parrot, Benny's pet polar bear Carmichael and the train announcer. He would carry a majority of these roles when the program transitioned to television in 1950.

At Warner Bros.' cartoon unit during the Golden Age of animation, he was famously known for originating almost all the character voices in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepé Le Pew, Marvin the Martian, and Porky Pig among many others. He continued to voiced these characters until his passing in 1988, during which he voiced some of their cameos in the feature film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Blanc was briefly attached as the initial voice of Woody Woodpecker (including his trademark laughter) for Walter Lantz's series of theatrical shorts for Universal, but stopped after the character's first three shorts when he signed an exclusive contract for Warner Bros. Despite this, Blanc's laugh was used in the Woody Woodpecker cartoons until 1951, when Gracie Stafford provided Woody's voice and laugh until the series' end in 1972.

He was hired to provide the voice for Gideon the cat, in the 1940 Disney feature film Pinocchio, but it was eventually decided that the character would be mute (save for a hiccup heard three times in the final film).

After voicing Twiki in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Blanc's last original character was Heathcliff from the titular comic strip, whom he voiced in both the 1980 Ruby-Spears animated series and the 1984 DIC series.