# Who popularized celebrity animation voiceovers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 18, 2006, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651 "2006-12-18T16:55:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651/1 "2006-12-18T16:55:38Z")
Every single computer animated feature released these days comes complete with a cast of celebrity voices. Who started this trend and when did become popular. Was it Disney? My best guess would be it started before computer animation. **Angela Lansbury** in Beauty and the Beast (1991) must have been something of a hit with audiences. Then the following year with **Robin Williams** in Aladdin stealing the show it looked like they were on to something. The All-Star cast of Toy Story (1995) really seemed to set the trend. Were there earlier examples of celebrities lending their voices to animation? ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651/2 "2006-12-18T17:12:26Z")
Did it start before computer animation? [Hell yes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle_Book_(1967_film)) Disney’s Jungle Book 1967 The guys I know were famous at the time were Phil Harris (Baloo the bear) and Louis Prima (King Louis - king of the swingers :)) Possibly others in the cast were too but IANAOTCB\* \*old time celebrity buff. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651/3 "2006-12-18T17:15:02Z")
[QUOTE=Hampshire] Were there earlier examples of celebrities lending their voices to animation? [/QUOTE] The first examples that come to my mind are Eva Gabor in _The Aristocats_ (1970), and Peggy Lee in _Lady and the Tramp_ (1955). You also find other people of the time (who were often known for non-animated work) providing voices as well: Sterling Holloway, Scatman Crothers, Paul Winchell, Stan Freberg… ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651/4 "2006-12-18T17:21:41Z")
The voice cast of Jungle Book were probably the first celebrities (and Sebastian Cabot (Bagheera) and George Sanders (Shere Khan) were in there, as well). But they were all non-hip oldsters, wrt to the audience. Robin Williams probably gets the nod as the first “good get” animated voice. Before he did **Aladdin** , he was in **Ferngully**. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651/5 "2006-12-18T17:50:00Z")
Whoever did it needs to be shot- it is singlehandedly ruining animated films. Maybe they are more popular than ever, but at the sake of artisitic integrity. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651/6 "2006-12-18T18:00:34Z")
The problem is not having famous people doing voices. The problem is having people do voices solely becuase they are celebrities. Compare **Pixar** movies to basically all other animated movies and you’ll see what I mean. **Tom Hanks** and **Tim Allen** may be big names, but they are fantastic as Woody and what’s-his-face. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651/7 "2006-12-18T18:06:10Z")
Agree, there are many actors with voices that are tailor made for certain animated characters. But most don’t. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651/8 "2006-12-18T18:17:25Z")
The 1960s??? Come on, Jack Benny and the other members of his show all contributed voices to the 1959 Warner Brothers cartoon **The Mouse that Jack Built** based on their TV show. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053083/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053083/) But before that, Edger Bergen and his characters provided voices for Disney’s 1947 **Fun and Fancy Free** , as did Dinah Shore. They weren’t doing character voices, but the fact that these were Bergen and Shore’s voices on the soundtrack surekly contributed to its commercial draw. > **[Fun and Fancy Free (1947) ⭐ 6.4 | Animation, Adventure, Comedy](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039404/)** > > 1h 13m | Approved ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651/9 "2006-12-18T18:22:39Z")
For that matter, Victor Moore parodied himself in 1945’s **Ain’t that Ducky** (but got no screen cedit, so maybe it doesn’t count). [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037501/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037501/) The 12934 Betty Boop cartoon **Poor Cinderella** has a Rudy Vallee caricattre singing, but I don’t know who did the voice (maybe they just used a record of Vallee. IMDB ain’t saying, and neither is anybody else): [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037501/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037501/) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651/10 "2006-12-18T18:29:27Z")
Actually, it’s possible the first famous voice chosden for an animation character might have been Cliff Edwards, who sang as “Ukulele Ike” (a name Dopers should be familiar with), and had a brief speaking part in **Gone With the Wind** as a wounded rebel soldier in the hospital, before he got chosen as the voice of Jiminy Cricket for Disney’s **Pinocchio**. I have no idea how popular Edwards was, though, and whether he was well-known before this role or not. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651/11 "2006-12-18T19:01:57Z")
In my own lifetime, the voiceovers for animation that were previously Big Names were Frankie Avalon for **Alakazam the Great** (The Japanese movie **Saiyu-ki** ) [Ain't that Ducky (Short 1945) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037501/) Arguably Dwaybne Hickman, Kathryn Grant, Herschel Bernardi and Jim Backus in the Mr. Magoo feature cartoon from 1959 **1001 Arabian Nights** And, definitely a case of pushing the celebrities, 1962’s Chuck Jones-produced **Gay Purr-ee** , with the speaking and singing voices of Judy Garland, Robert Goulet, Red Buttons, and Hermione Gingold (besides the stands caroon voices of June Foray, Mel Blanc, and others, and the underappreciated Paul Frees singingf and speaking: > **[Gay Purr-ee (1962) ⭐ 6.6 | Animation, Comedy, Family](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057093/)** > > 1h 25m | Approved ---
**Author:** ![Viridiana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ebca7d/32.png) [@Viridiana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Viridiana)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651/12 "2006-12-18T19:11:08Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] Whoever did it needs to be shot- it is singlehandedly ruining animated films. Maybe they are more popular than ever, but at the sake of artisitic integrity. [/QUOTE] Well, I don’t know about singlehandedly 🆒 but I do wish they would stop, or at least not play it up in the “Come see this movie because we got xxx for it, not, y’know, because it’s a great movie” sense. Every big animation company except Pixar does it (well, Dreamworks and that other one), and subsequently I respect Pixar much more, disregarding the fact that I think they’re better animators anyway. They really seem to focus on the movie product itself. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651/13 "2006-12-18T19:13:21Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] Whoever did it needs to be shot- it is singlehandedly ruining animated films. Maybe they are more popular than ever, but at the sake of artisitic integrity. [/QUOTE] I think it depends on whether or not the actors are playing “themselves as animated characters” or are creating original voices for the “characters”. Whoopi Goldberg in the _Lion King_ was Whoopi-Goldberg-as-a-hyena. :rolleyes: But Jerry Orbach as the French-accented Lumiere in _Beauty and the Beast_ was brilliant and unrecognizable from his stint as Lenny on “Law & Order” and his theatre days playing roles like Billy Flynn in Chicago. Great character voice! ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651/14 "2006-12-18T19:35:42Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] Arguably Dwaybne Hickman, Kathryn Grant, Herschel Bernardi and Jim Backus in the Mr. Magoo feature cartoon from 1959 **1001 Arabian Nights** [/quote] Backus was Magoo long before he became known as an movie/TV actor, and Bernardi was not a name actor in 1959 (he never really was in films or TV – Broadway was his metier, and even that came after Magoo). Kathryn Grant was successful, but hardly a name to draw in audiences. Hickman had just become a successful TV star when the film was released, but he was also an unknown when it was filmed. So this was a case where the stars became better known after the movie; the casting was not designed to capitalize on their names. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651/15 "2006-12-18T20:52:58Z")
Of course it’s a marketing ploy, being able to put De Niro and Will Smith on the poster. But I think another reason is the talk show circuit. Selling the movie, providing stuff for DVD extras, sitting in a flashy hotel room and doing 50 exclusive interviews in an afternoon - it’s all part of the actor’s job and chances of journalists giving a damn increases if it’s Will Smith, the hip rapper/actor, and not Bill Smith, talanted but unknown voice actor ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651/16 "2006-12-18T21:02:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Backus was Magoo long before he became known as an movie/TV actor He was, but by the time this was made, he’d been a known movie actor as well, being in **Rebel Without a Cause** and others. Hickman had just started as Dobie Gillis, but was known. He was known from the Bob Cummings show before that, but I wasn’t around at the time, so I’m not sure how well known. Anyway, thios was was filled with “ifs”, whicvh is why I put the “arguably” in there. ---
**Author:** ![Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e36b37/32.png) [@Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_A_Tame_Lion)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651/17 "2006-12-18T21:54:42Z")
Just want to add my 2¢ and agree that using name actors for voiceovers is detrimental to these films. It’s too distracting, hearing that familiar voice with an unfamiliar visual. And I think it encourages a lack of imagination in the movie makers (“Who needs a good script? We’ve got Will Smith voicing the lead character?”). Find someone who can play the part, not look good on the marquee. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2006, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651/18 "2006-12-19T02:16:59Z")
Some of the dwarfs in Disney’s _Snow White_ were played by famous radio stars of the day. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2006, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651/19 "2006-12-19T03:27:40Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] He was, but by the time this was made, he’d been a known movie actor as well, being in **Rebel Without a Cause** and others. Hickman had just started as Dobie Gillis, but was known. He was known from the Bob Cummings show before that, but I wasn’t around at the time, so I’m not sure how well known. Anyway, thios was was filled with “ifs”, whicvh is why I put the “arguably” in there. [/QUOTE] But the point is that they weren’t chosen in order to promote the animated film. Backus had been Magoo since 1949 (it’s his third credit), so of course he was going to play the role. Hickman was just another minor actor when hired; it just happened that Dobie Gillis was a hit, but that hit after the movie. In both cases, they were bit players prior to Mr. Magoo (Backus didn’t become a recognizable star until “Gilligan’s Island.”) They were hardly celebrity voices as indicated in the OP, just actors who took a voice acting gig. No one was cashing in on their names (maybe they mentioned Backus, but only because he was the voice of Magoo long before anyone knew his face.) About the only one who you could make a case for as being a recognizable star was Hans Conreid (who did play the the title character in **[The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T](http://www.sff.net/people/rothman/GBF/drt.htm)** and the lead in **The Twonky** , but, then, both films were flops), and he, too, was a very successful voice actor of the time. It’s completely different from using Robin Williams in **Aladdin** – a recognizable big name star. > [@Guanolad](#): > > Some of the dwarfs in Disney’s Snow White were played by famous radio stars of the day. Billy Gilbert as Sneezy was the only actual one who was recognizable from movies at the time (as a character actor), and Disney didn’t credit anyone, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2006, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651/20 "2006-12-19T05:18:11Z")
I’d argue for [Alice in Wonderland](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043274/) as an early example: Ed Wynn and Jerry Colonna both received screen credit, they were both highly recognizable at the time, and their shtick in the film is in many respects a carryover of the personas they had on radio (Colonna) and television (Wynn) at that time. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-popularized-celebrity-animation-voiceovers/384651.md?page=2)