Today is the natal anniversary of voice artist extraordinaire June Foray, born on September 18 in 1917, the same year that brought John F. Kennedy and Dizzy Gillespie into the world.
Before her plum role as the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel, June had a myriad of credits. Here she is on The Johnny Carson Show.
Of course, thinking of June Foray gets us thinking of cartoons by Jay Ward Productions, especially Rocky and Bullwinkle!
Am mystified as to why the previous graphic does not include one of June Foray's funniest characters, Nell Fenwick from Dudley Do Right!
June is all over the Jay Ward cartoons, playing numerous and varied roles, especially in the Fractured Fairy Tales.
Her "Marjorie Main" voice is particularly hilarious.
Being, as always, Way Too Damn Lazy To Write a Blog, today we'll post clips, beginning with June's appearance with Darrell Van Citters, author of The Art Of Jay Ward.
June is in a tie with Friz Freleng for the longest career in animation and was still working into her nineties.
The sheer number of credits across genres - radio (The Stan Freberg Show!), feature films, television, animation, recordings - is stunning, akin to opening a Wiki entry for Allan Dwan.
Remain positively floored by both the June Foray IMDB page (which very likely does not feature all of her numerous credits), her entry from Behind The Voice Actors and the extended Television Academy interview.
Must also note that there are numerous terrific posts about her on the Cartoon Research website. Many are from Greg Ehrbar's Animation Spin series, including the following:
- 101st Birthday Salute To June Foray
- Walt Disney's Trick Or Treat With June Foray on Records
- June Foray as Walt Disney’s “Pinocchio” & “Ferdinand the Bull”
There’s also a Bullwinkle recordFamoose Moose's Greatest Hits...and Misses! featuring Bill Broughton, Bill Scott and June Foray.
Many of us first became familar with June Foray's ability to ace any role with her contributions to Warner Bros. cartoons.
Check put the bravura performance in Tugboat Granny.
June was extremely active in ASIFA-Hollywood, the society devoted to promoting and encouraging animation and in establishing the Annie Awards, as well as the creation of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2001.
Recall reading that filmmaker Gavin Frietas was producing a documentary about June a few years ago. Don't know if this film is commercially available for viewing on Blu-ray or DVD. Here is a clip from it which was posted on Gavin's YouTube page.
No doubt more background on June, as well as other Michael Jordans of the voice acting field, will be in Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, 1930-70 Vol. 1, the much-awaited book about the greats of voice acting by Keith Scott, character actor-voice artist-impressionist, film and radio historian and author of The Moose That Roared: The Story of Jay Ward, Bill Scott, a Flying Squirrel, and a Talking Moose. It can be pre-ordered now and will be officially out on Tuesday, September 20.
3 comments:
Thanks for putting me on here, Paul!
Plus, June Foray was great. I could tell she genuinely loved what she did.
My pleasure. Buddy! I like your blog a great deal. Along with Peg Bar Profiles, it's among the welcome new additions to blogs covering animation.
Peg Bar is pretty fun. Hopefully more stuff from there is soon.
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