Cartoon voices inspired by celebrities.

Cafe Society
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I love cartoon voices. When I was a kid, the voices were just the characters. As I got older and was exposed to more movies, I realized a lot of voices are actually imitations of existing non-animated characters. I thought it would be fun to compile a list of characters and who inspired their voices. I tried to stay away from cartoon voices that were actually voiced by those actors, like Bill Thompson doing his Wallace Wimple character from Fibber McGee and Molly as Droopy Dog, or Joe E. Ross as Sgt. Flint on Hong Kong Phooey (doing his Officer Toody from Car 54 Where Are You? “Ooh…Ooh!”), and so on. I also avoided one-offs. Warner Brothers used to do a lot of radio show voice characters’ catchphrases for punchlines, but they weren’t real characters. Here’s what I came up with off the top of my head.

Warner Bros:
Foghorn Leghorn…Senator Claghorn
Beaky Buzzard…Edgar Bergen’s puppet Mortimer Snerd
Pepé Le Pew… Charles Boyer
Pete Puma…Crazy Guggenheim
Various characters (“I will love him and pet him and will call him George”…Lennie and George from Of Mice and Men (1939)

Animaniacs:
Goodfeathers…Obviously Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, and Joe Pesci.
The Brain…Orson Welles
Runt…Dustin Hoffman from Rain Man.

Hanna-Barbera:

Jinx the cat…Daws Butler imitating Stan Freberg’s imitation of Marlon Brando
Doggie Daddy…Jimmy Durante
Yogi Bear… Art Carney’s Ed Norton
Huckleberry Hound…It’s been suggested Andy Griffith despite Daws Butler having done the voice a decade earlier. It was really Daws imitating someone from the same region as Griffith’s character, so it’s just the same accent.
Baba Looey…Desi Arnaz (by way of Mexico. Not exactly a match, but it was meant to evoke him.)
Snagglepuss…Bert Lahr
Top Cat…Phil Silvers
Hokey Wolf…Phil Silvers
Ding-A-Ling…Buddy Hackett
JabberJaw…Curly Howard
Peter Potamus…Joe E. Brown
Wally Gator…Ed Wynn
Morocco Mole…Peter Lorre

Jay Ward:

Bullwinkle…Red Skelton’s Clem Kadiddlehopper
Boris Badenov… Akim Tamiroff, especially Tamiroff’s role in The Great McGinty
Mr Peabody… Clifton Webb as Mr. Belvedere

Misc:

Betty Boop…Helen Kane, who ripped off Baby Esther.

Tennessee Tuxedo…William Powell (yes, Don Adams claims he was imitating him)
Chumley…Charlie Cantor’s voice and personality of Clifton Finnegan on the Duffy’s Tavern radio show of the 1940s
Phineas J. Whoopee…Frank Morgan

Homer Simpson…Walter Matthau (Tracy Ulman and first season)
Frink…Jerry Lewis
Chief Wiggam…Edward G. Robinson
Officer Lou…Sylvester Stallone
Rainier Wolfcastle…Ahnold

Dr. Farnsworth… Burgess Meredith and Frank Morgan
Dr. Zoidberg…George Jessel and Lou Jacobi
Ren…Peter Lorre and Kirk Douglas
Stimpy…Larry Fine

Got more?

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Another from Jay Ward:

Captain Horatio “Wrongway” Peachfuzz — Ed Wynn (again)

And Dr. Zoidberg would sometimes channel Curly Howard, particularly when he felt a precipitous exit was called for.

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On Top Cat, Fancy Fancy’s voice was meant to evoke Cary Grant. He was voiced by John Stephenson.

Benny the Ball was meant to sound like Pvt Doberman on Phil Silvers’ show (Sgt Bilko), and he did … because he was voiced by the same actor, Maurice Gosfield.

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Peter. Peter Peachfuzz.

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Disney: Professor Ludwig von Drake was based on Sid Caesar’s Professor character.

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The Ant and the Aardvark was a series of cartoons produced by David H. DePatie and Friz Freleng that ran with the Pink Panther on TV. Both characters were voiced by John Byner. Byner imitated Jackie Mason’s voice for the Aardvark, while he gave the Ant Dean Martin’s voice.

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Roger (on American Dad!), inspired by Paul Lynde

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Sugar Bear, inspired by Bing Crosby.

Beachcomber from Transformers G1, arguably also Bing Crosby.

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Warner Brothers early cartoons often had imitations of stars of time that are obscure now. Jerry Colonna and Hugh Herbert were commonly used, sometimes for a single line spoken by a character who used a different voice the rest of the cartoon.

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Mr. MaGoo was, of course, Jim Backus.
Droopy Dog was modeled after Wallace Wimple, an old radio character.

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Fred Flintstone is, basically, Jackie Gleason.

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A really obscure one: In Hanna-Barbera’s ***Yippee, Yappee, and Yahooey ***, Yahooey (voiced by Daws Butler) talked like Jerry Lewis.

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Even as a little kid I realized “Hey, this is just The Honeymooners!”

I was disappointed that, when I asked why that was legal, my parents didn’t care, and clearly did not take cartoons seriously.

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And Barney Rubble (voiced by Mel Blanc) was basically Ed Norton—though not at first. His voiced changed and got deeper.

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Not Truman Capote?

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IMHO these are worth noting too.

Also from The Simpsons: The “Frank Nelson Type” or “Yes Man”

and, not the voice per se but the character:
Drederick Tatum is based on Mike Tyson, and
Dr. Hibbert was inspired by Bill Cosby’s Cliff Huxtable

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Hmph, obviously I’m wrong - Capote couldn’t have been that well known that early.

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The Oddball Couple, based on The Odd Couple (TV version)

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Also on The Simpsons, Mayor Quimby (Dan Castellaneta) is one of the Kennedys: some say John, some say Ted.

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Warner Brothers:

Rocky (Edward G. Robinson)