It was only within the last ten years that I have actually started paying attention to the people who are behind the animation that I follow. No, I don’t mean the writers or producers or even the animators. The people I’m referring to are the voice actors.
A great voice actor can strike the right cords with a viewer and draw emotions from a character that tug at the viewer’s heartstring. It is impossible to hear the Justice League’s Hawkgirl voiced by Maria Canals and Green Lantern voiced by Phil LaMarr say goodbye to each other in Starcrossed and not feel the character’s tremendous sadness at parting. Nor would you feel pity for Saya Otonashi of Blood Plus when she realizes her loss after she kills Diva if it had not been for the great voice work of Kari Wahlgren who was both Diva and Saya.
This brings me to Billie Lou Watt. She quietly brought Japanese anime to American audiences in the early 50’s & 60’s. She was the American voice of Astroboy and Gigantor. She was also the voice of Kimba the White Lion, the lion cub who came of age after his father’s death, on the 60’s TV cartoon series. (Kimba was later renamed Simba when Disney made the movie, The Lion King.) Additionally, she wrote many of the stories for these series. And prior to her death in September 2001, she was a regular actress on the long running TV soap opera, Search for Tomorrow.
So how do I know of her? I always got her voice confused with that of Phyllis Diller. But she was the voice of “Ma Bagge” on the show, Courage the Cowardly Dog. It was only after I looked her up that I discovered her wonderful contribution to modern animation voice acting. She was a unsung pioneer who was the voice of many of the shows I watched as a child. I’m sorry I didn’t know she was gone until now.
