Also Jay Ward: George of the Jungle, Ape is a dead-on impression of Ronald Colman.
Optimus Prime–John Wayne.
I think the weirdest one I ever came across was the anime movie Thunderbirds which had nothing to do with the American TV series. Some of the dubbed characters were based on Jackie Gleason, Ed Norton and Jack Nicholson.
There was a cartoon series called Mask were the main villain sounded like Edger G Robinson. It’s been awhile but I think one of the characters voices was based on Jack Nicholson.
I see Maurice LaMarche did the voice of The Brain. I’ve seen at least two other cartoons where he does the exact same voice.
Droopy Dog was first voiced by the actual actor who played Wallace Wimple, so that’s why I excluded him. Here’s a video of him.
Apparently, Gleason attempted to sue them, but didn’t want to be known as the guy who took the Flintstones off the air.
The voice that really inspired this thread was finding out recently that Mr Jinx was supposed to be Marlon Brando. We’re so used to people imitating him from The Godfather and On the Waterfront, it’s weird hearing how people imitated him when he was only known for Streetcar Named Desire. Usually, when someone nails a characterization, people imitate him doing that person rather than that person. For instance, most Nixon impressions are based on Rich Little shaking his jowls. George Bush is via Dana Carvey’s take on him. Stan Freberg did a cover of Sh Boom in the character of Brando. Daws Butler just imitated Freberg doing Brando.
Isn’t Stewie Griffin’s voice supposedly based on Rex Harrison?
Thank god you grew up, moved out and repudiated their heretical belief systems!
“Underdog” was Wally Cox playing himself.
The case of how Leon Schlesinger, the producer of the legendary Warner Brother’s cartoons from the 30s-60s inspired one of most famous voices in cartoons:
Schlesinger had slight lisp, and as Chuck Jones said in his book “Chuck Jones: Conversations”:
“We were sitting around, a bunch of us sitting around talking, and he’d say, “Whatcha working on, fellas?” And, well, we knew he wasn’t listening to us, so we’d say, “Well, we’re working on a picture about Daffy Duck,” and it turns out Daffy isn’t a duck at all; he’s a transvestite chicken.” 
And he would say “That’th it, boys. Put in lot’th of joketh”
Later when they got back to Termite Terrace or the animation work area Cal Howard turned to Tex Avery, who was directing a picture called Porky’s Duck Hunt, and he said:
“Why don’t you use Leon’s voice on that duck?”
So it happened, but there was a problem, eventually Leon was going to see the short and find out… There was complete uncertainty how he was going to react; so, all the guys involved wrote their resignations or prepared for the worst when the day came and Leon sat in the small screen room. He would say, “Roll the garbage!”, showing how much he cared for the “product”, and when the titles finished Leon stood up and looked at the worried guys and said something like:
“Jesus Christ’th, that’s a funny voice! Where’d you get that’th voice?”
Chuck Jones then wrote later: “… As long as Daffy Duck is alive, Leon Schlesinger is there, in his corner of heaven.” 
Was there an American Thunderbirds? I only know the British one. 
Didn’t Leon also say “A skunk speaking French isn’t funny!”?
Hanna-Barbera’s Doggy Daddy was voiced by Doug Young doing Jimmy Durante.
Super Bwoing was essentially Jimmy Stewart as a clumsy apprentice superhero.
The Evil Scientist in Warner Bros “Water, Water, Every Hare” was voiced by John T Smith doing Vincent Price. The one in “Hair-Raising Hare” was voiced by Mel Blanc doing Peter Lorre.
Mighty Mouse: Enrico Caruso.
Here’s another odd one. The Inspector cartoons starred Pat Harrington Jr (Now mostly known as Schneider from One Day at a Time) doing Alan Arkin rather than Peter Sellars since it was made during that brief period Arkin played the character.
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And it is clear from those cartoons that the big red monster was named Rudolf and not Gossamer.
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Nitpick: Schlesinger only produced the Looney Toons and Merrie Melodies until 1944, when he sold his studio to Warner Bros. He died in 1949 at the age of 65.
:smack:
I knew that, I should had mentioned that the years I pointed were about when the original LT & MM were in production, not that Leon was active for all those years.
Bert Lahr objected to his voice (actually done by Daws Butler) being used for a cereal commercial featuring Snagglepuss. Butler was therefore given a credit as the voice artist.