It’s not a secret that I am a big fan of animation and the voice actors that make them work. Once an animated character has a voice, that voice defines that character forever. For example, every time the Batman character, “The Joker” appears in a cartoon, he always sounds like the voice originally created by Mark Hamill, whether or not Hamill is actually doing the voice work. A great voice actor creates the sound that sticks in our heads and no one was better in doing that than June Foray. As I write this, she is still with us.
If you grew up in the United States in the last century, you’ve heard June Foray’s voice. Among her numerous voice characterizations, she was the voice of:
– Granny, Miss Prissy and Witch Hazel in the Warner Brothers cartoons directed by Chuck Jones. In fact, she was most of the female voices in the Warner Brothers cartoons during the Chuck Jones years, having taken over from Bea Benaderet.
– Rocket J. Squirrel (Rocky), Natasha Fatale, Nell Fenwick from the Jay Ward series Rocky and His Friends and The Dudley Do-Right Show as well as all of the female voice for Ward’s Fractured Fairy Tales.
– Lucifer the Cat (Cinderella) and Grandmother Fa (Mulan & Mulan 2) and Daisy Duck for Disney.
– Cindy Lou Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
– Aunt May Parker in the 1981 Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends cartoon series.
– Jokey Smurf in The Smurfs.
– Grammi Gummi in Adventures of the Gummi Bears.
– Granny in 2 Stupid Dogs.
– Splinter and Knothead in The Woody Woodpecker Show.
– Talky Tina in the The Twilight Zone episode, Living Doll with Telly Salvalis. (Her utterance of “I’m Talky Tina and I’m going to kill you” remains one of the most chilling things I’ve ever heard.)
June Foray has been the voice of many of the cartoon characters I’ve enjoyed over my lifetime. I’m eternally grateful for her contribution to my world.
