Danny Dark | |
---|---|
Born | Daniel Melville Croskery December 19, 1938 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S. |
Died | June 13, 2004 65) Los Angeles, California, U.S. | (aged
Alma mater | Drury University |
Occupation(s) | Voice actor, voice-over performer, announcer |
Years active | 1958–2004 |
Danny Dark (December 19, 1938 – June 13, 2004) was an American voice-over artist. For nearly four decades, he narrated memorable lines in advertisements for Budweiser ("This Bud's for you"), Raid Ant & Roach Killer ("Raid - Kills Bugs Dead"), StarKist tuna ("Sorry, Charlie") and Parkay ("Parkay Margarine from Kraft. The flavor says 'butter'."). The trade paper Radio & Records said, "Dark's distinctive voice has been heard in more award-winning commercials than any announcer in broadcast history."
Dark was born Daniel Melville Croskery in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, but his family moved to Tulsa, shortly after. He attended Tulsa Central High School, where he studied under a well-known teacher of future performers, Isabelle Ronan. He started in Missouri as a radio D.J. in the late 1950s, while studying at Drury University. He quickly advanced to stations in Cleveland, Miami, New Orleans, St. Louis, finally landing a 1963-66 stint as the evening DJ for KLAC in Los Angeles. [1]
Over the course of his career, Dark was the spokesman for Keebler Cookies, the Chevrolet Camaro, AT&T, Kmart, Texaco, Armor-All, Whitman's Chocolates, Dreyer's Ice Cream, and many other Blue Chip companies. Dark was the voice of the long-running TV western Bonanza , voicing their intermission commercials for the program's sponsor, Chevrolet. Dark was an announcer who came to be known as the "voice" of the CBS network during the 1970s and later, on the NBC television network during the 1980s and early 1990s, doing promo advertisements for night-time programming, as well as an announcer for NBC's flagship station, WNBC-TV, and the imaging voice for many of the network's affiliates and O&O stations for their local newscasts. [ citation needed ] Dark also provided the "This program is about Unsolved Mysteries..." opening narration for the popular 80s and 90s true crime series. He also voiced the NBC News 1983 "Go Where The News Is" advertising campaign.
He voiced the role of Superman/Clark Kent for twelve years, from 1973 to 1985, in each of the various incarnations of Hanna-Barbera's animated series Super Friends . He also narrated historical documentaries for the Biographical series on History Channel, including Johnny Cash: The Man in Black, and General Robert E. Lee.
His only film roles were in the 1976 film Tunnel Vision and as an announcer in 1980's Melvin and Howard starring Jason Robards.
Dark died in Los Angeles of a pulmonary hemorrhage and was interred in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery. [2]
William Conrad was an American actor, producer, and director whose entertainment career spanned five decades in radio, film, and television, peaking in popularity when he starred in the detective series Cannon.
Peter Claver Cullen is a Canadian voice actor. He is notable for voicing Optimus Prime in the original 1980s Transformers animated series, later returning to the role in Transformers media in 2007, starting with the first live-action film. He has also voiced many other characters across a wide variety of popular media, including Eeyore in the Winnie the Pooh franchise, Monterey Jack in Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, the first voice of KARR in Knight Rider and the vocalizations of the title character in Predator.
Jackson Beck was an American actor best known as the announcer on radio's The Adventures of Superman and the voice of Bluto in the Famous era Popeye theatrical shorts.
George Watt Fenneman was an American radio and television announcer. Fenneman is best remembered as the show announcer and straight man on Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life. Marx, said of Fenneman in 1976, "There never was a comedian who was any good unless he had a good straight man, and George was straight on all four sides". Fenneman, born in Peking (Beijing), China, died from respiratory failure in Los Angeles, California, on May 29, 1997, at the age of 77.
Mason Adams was an American actor. From the late 1940s until the early 1970s, he was heard in numerous radio programs and voiceovers for countless television commercials, the latter of which he resumed in the 1980s and 1990s. In the early 1970s, he moved into acting and from 1977 to 1983 held perhaps his best-known role, that of Managing Editor Charlie Hume on Lou Grant. He also acted in numerous other television and movie roles, most prominently Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981) and F/X (1986).
Wallace Wingert is an American voice actor and former DJ. His roles include Almighty Tallest Red in Invader Zim, Renji Abarai in Bleach, Kotetsu T. Kaburagi / Wild Tiger in Tiger & Bunny, the Riddler in the Batman: Arkham series, Jon Arbuckle in The Garfield Show, and the mascot of H. H. Gregg.
Marvin Elliott Miller was an American actor. Possessing a deep baritone voice, he began his career in radio in St. Louis, Missouri before becoming a Hollywood actor. He is remembered for voicing Robby the Robot in the science fiction film Forbidden Planet (1956), a role he reprised in the lesser-known The Invisible Boy (1957).
Victor Herbert Perrin was an American radio, film, and television actor, perhaps best remembered for providing the "Control Voice" in the original version of the television series The Outer Limits (1963–1965). He was also a radio scriptwriter as well as a narrator in feature films and for special entertainment and educational projects, such as the original Spaceship Earth and Universe of Energy rides at Epcot at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
Ralph Livingstone Edwards was an American radio and television host, radio producer, and television producer, best known for his radio-TV game shows Truth or Consequences and reality documentary series This Is Your Life.
Richard Norton Tufeld was an American actor, announcer, narrator and voice actor from the late 1940s until the early 21st century. He worked constantly and continuously throughout this lengthy career and was one of the busiest announcers in television history. He was a well-known and well respected presence on television as an announcer on countless television shows, award shows, network promos, radio and movie promos but his most famous and beloved role was as the voice of the Robot in the television series Lost in Space and in the Lost in Space movies.
WKY is a commercial radio station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, owned by Cumulus Media. It is the oldest radio station in Oklahoma and among the oldest in the nation. WKY airs a sports format which is simulcast with its sister station WWLS-FM. The studios and offices are in northwest Oklahoma City.
KOKC is a commercial AM radio station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It is locally owned by the Tyler Media Group and airs a talk radio format. The studios and offices are located on East Britton Road in Northeast Oklahoma City. It is central Oklahoma's primary entry point station for the Emergency Alert System.
Ben Gage was an American radio singer and announcer, occasional off-screen film singer dubbing the voice of non-singing actors, and television actor active from 1937 to 1975. Born in Chicago, Illinois, his first wife was Esther Williams.
KFRU is a radio station located in Columbia, Missouri. Its programming format consists primarily of news, talk and sports. The station is licensed to Cumulus Media. The station is also audible on translator K255DJ 98.9 FM in Columbia.
Beau Weaver is an American voice actor in television and film, heard widely in trailers for feature films, network television promos, documentaries, national radio and television commercials and cartoons.
Charles Daniel Hanks Jr., better known as Chuck Riley, was an American voice actor. He was famous for recording hundreds of movie trailers, television commercials, network promotions, and children's audiobooks. In his earlier years as a radio DJ, he was known as Chuck Dann and Charlie Tuna.
Norman Rose was an American actor, film narrator and radio announcer whose velvety baritone was often called "the Voice of God" by colleagues. He was best known as the narrator's voice in the fictitious coffee grower's Juan Valdez Colombian coffee television commercials and the announcer-narrator of NBC's Dimension X.
Daniel Mark Pudi is an American actor and director. His roles include Abed Nadir on the NBC sitcom Community (2009–2015), for which he received three nominations for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and one nomination for the TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy. Since 2020 he has starred as Brad Bakshi in the Apple TV+ comedy series Mythic Quest. He was the voice of Huey Duck on the 2017 reboot of DuckTales.
Don Goddard was a radio and television announcer and newscaster who later became known for his work with geriatric alcoholism and other addictions.
Victor Mills Roby, Jr. was an American radio and television announcer, voice-over artist and public affairs show host, and served for years as a staff announcer with NBC.