In a Tale of Two Kittys – the cartoon that introduced Tweety to the world – the titular kitties are obvious parodies of Abbott and Costello, imitating their vocal mannerisms and behavior, and with practically the same names. (Tweety was based in part on Red Skelton’s “mean Widdle Kid” persona).
Peter Lorre was imitated in more than one Warner Brothers cartoon – the fish who commits suicide in Horton Hatches the Egg because, having seen Horton perched on the nest on a boat, “I’ve seen everything”. He also plays the Mad Scientist in Haire-Raising Hare who "owns’ the furry orange monster who was later called “Gossamer” (or “Rudolph”) I always thought that was odd. Although Lorre has played a lot of weird roles, including a Sorceror (Corman’s The Raven) and “mad” doctors (in Mad Love and, for laughs, “Dr. Einstein” in Arsenic and Old Lace), he has never, to my knowledge, played a “traditional” Mad Scientist.
Another voice inspired by Cary Grant was from the animated Dick Tracy show in the 60’s. One of the detectives working for Tracey was Hemlock Holmes, a bulldog who wore an English policeman (bobby) hat. His voice was pure Cary Grant.
Interesting that this gets resurrected - to provide an answer in another thread just yesterday I had re-watched the Bugs Bunny cartoon A-Lad-In His Lamp, so I was going to post in here that Mel Blanc was obviously doing a Jim Backus impression for the voice of the Genie.
Turns out after looking it up that it was, in fact, Jim Backus providing that voice, in one of his first professional roles.
I was researching the Tweety Bird being based upon Red Skelton, as that had never occurred to me before, and found a new one I’d missed.Elmer Fudd was originally a character called Egghead and the voice was Joe Penner, who sounds like a cross between Pee Wee Herman and Howard Morris. At least I had assumed it was Joe Penner, which would put him outside the rules (celebs providing the voice themselves), but it turns out that it was just an impersonation by Dave Weber. Joe Penner was famous for the “Hyuck yuck” laugh and his catchphrases “Wanna buy a duck?” and “Oh, you naaasty man.” Here’s another cartoon that did the Joe Penner imitation.
It amazes me no one ever got sued for the wholesale stealing the cartoons did of established celebrity voices that went beyond one-shot jokes, not to mention shameless stealing of catchphrase punchlines. I have acquired a full collection of all 1000 Warner Brothers cartoons and am trying to watch them in sequence (OMG, are the first 60 or so racist.). They really leaned heavily on familiar radio show punchlines to steal a laugh.
I think back then everybody stole from everybody else. There’s a story about how some famous singer sues Max Fletcher for Betty Boop because their singing styles were similar. Supposedly Max showed that there were at least a dozen other singers who sang in the same style.
It was Helen Kane. Not only did the Fleischers make Betty Boop sound like her, they made Betty look like her. Here’s Helen Kane singing I Wanna Be Loved by You. If you follow the link, you’ll see what she looked like, as well as hear what she sounded like.
Kane sued the Fleischers for stealing her likeness. It turned out that Kane’s act was based largely on a black singer who called herself “Baby Esther.” Esther was a Harlem jazz singer who had a babyish voice and used the phrase “boop oop a doop” in her scatting. Kane lost the suit as a result of this. I guess Baby Esther could have sued the Fleischers, especially after the Fleischers used her to prove that Helen Kane was merely a copier herself. I don’t know how that would have come out.
Don’t forget how often Joe Besser’s manchild character was copied for one-off characters for years. My favorite was when Bugs berates Fudd for hunting rabbits with an elephant gun and that he should be hunting elephants. Suddenly there’s a huge elephant there: “If you do, I’ll give you such a pinch!”