Jackson Beck | |
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| Born | July 23, 1912 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | July 28, 2004 (aged 92) New York City, U.S. |
| Years active | 1931–2001 |
| Known for | the voice of Bluto |
Jackson Beck (July 23, 1912 – July 28, 2004) was an American actor best known as the announcer on radio's The Adventures of Superman [1] and the voice of Bluto in the Famous era Popeye theatrical shorts.
Beck was born on July 23, 1912, in New York City. [2] Beck's father, Max Beck, was an actor on stage and in silent film. His grandfather Joseph immigrated from Saxony, Germany and founded the distillery Joseph Beck & Sons. [3]
Beck's early radio experience included work at WINS and WHN, [2] both in New York City. Beginning in 1931, he worked on Myrt and Marge , among other roles. In 1934, he was the announcer for The Adventures of Babe Ruth on the radio. In 1943, he took over as narrator of radio's The Adventures of Superman ; it was Beck who intoned the familiar prologue "strange visitor from another planet..." He also had recurring roles, voicing an occasional tough guy and also portraying Beany Martin, the Daily Planet's teenage copy boy. On Superman episodes featuring Batman, he played Bruce Wayne's butler, Alfred Beagle.
He also impersonated Joseph Stalin and other world leaders for The March of Time radio series, starred as The Cisco Kid on radio from 1942 to 1945 and sleuth Philo Vance in a syndicated series from 1948 to 1950, starred in the dramatic anthology Brownstone Theater on Mutual, [4] and served as narrator for the radio adventures of Tom Corbett, Space Cadet . [5]
Beck also co-starred in several episodes of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater .
Beck portrayed Perry White, Clark Kent's boss in Filmation's The New Adventures of Superman animated series and was narrator as well. He was the announcer for the first season of Tom Corbett, Space Cadet on television.
In 1966, Beck dubbed the English voice of the judge listing Tuco's many crimes before sentencing him to death by hanging in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly , and used his deep, dramatic, modulated voice as the narrator of Woody Allen's Take the Money and Run in 1969. He also narrated the cult comedy film Cry Uncle! in 1971, and was one of the players in National Lampoon's first comedy album Radio Dinner in 1972. He was prominent as well in Allen's 1987 film Radio Days , dubbing the voice of the on-the-spot newsman.
Beck had a prolific career in animation, becoming one of the regular voice actors at Famous Studios in the mid-1940s. He voiced Bluto in the Popeye cartoons, Little Lulu's father, the fox in the Baby Huey cartoons, and Buzzy the Crow, who was a foil for Katnip the Cat in a number of cartoons. Beck used a black dialect for the voice of Buzzy. He was also the voice of King Leonardo in the 1960s TV cartoon series of the same name. He also had a part in the Peanuts 1977 film Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown as the snickering cat, Brutus. He narrated the 1980s G.I. Joe animated TV series. His other voice work included network TV promos (he did a series of promos for NBC's NFL coverage for much of the 1980s), narration for sketches on Saturday Night Live , movie trailers, and commercials for everything from toys to shampoo (one of Beck's very last commercials was for Infusium Shampoo).
Beck also served as a pitchman for products from Combat Roach Killer to Little Caesars Pizza (he was Caesar Jr.) In 1999, he narrated a dramatization of L. Ron Hubbard's Dr. Methuselah for NPR's radio series 2000X . Beck also did few onscreen acting roles. A notable one was as mobster Willie Saffire in the crime-based daytime soap opera The Edge of Night from 1968 to 1969.
Beck was featured announcer on the 1972 comedy record album "National Lampoon Radio Dinner".
Beck had also done some voice work for MTV, mostly for their contest advertisements. [6] [7]
Beck also recorded voices for children's records such as The Little Engine That Could from Diplomat Records. [8]
In 1990, he told Newsday “My job is to sell a carload of whatever the hell it is,” he told Newsday in 1990, “to clean out the supermarket shelves, and get them replenished. … I’m an advertising man, and I treat my voice as a business. People who treat it as art don’t make money.” [9]
In 1994, Beck voiced Darrel the Fifth Fish, Hunter #2, Wickersham Guard #2, the Sneetches and Greedy Ape in Storybook Weaver , and later in 2004, remade as Storybook Weaver Deluxe (his last voice).
Beck died of a stroke on July 28, 2004, five days after his 92nd birthday. [10] He is buried in Brooklyn's Mount Hope Cemetery.
Olive Oyl is a cartoon character created by E. C. Segar in 1919 for his comic strip Thimble Theatre. The strip was later renamed Popeye after the sailor character that became the most popular member of the cast; however, Olive Oyl was a main character for a decade before Popeye's 1929 appearance.
Bluto, at times known as Brutus, is a cartoon and comics character created in 1932 by Elzie Crisler Segar as a one-time character, named "Bluto the Terrible", in his Thimble Theatre comic strip. Bluto made his first appearance on September 12 of that year. Fleischer Studios adapted him the next year (1933) to be the main antagonist of their theatrical Popeye animated cartoon series.
The Fleischer Superman cartoons are a series of seventeen animated superhero short films released in Technicolor by Paramount Pictures and based upon the comic book character Superman, making them his first animated appearance.
Gary Owens was an American disc jockey, voice actor, announcer and radio personality. His polished baritone speaking voice generally offered deadpan recitations of total nonsense, which he frequently demonstrated as the announcer on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Owens was equally proficient in straight or silly assignments and was frequently heard on television and radio as well as in commercials.
Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor is a 1936 two-reel animated cartoon short subject in the Popeye Color Specials series, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on November 27, 1936, by Paramount Pictures. It was produced by Max Fleischer for Fleischer Studios and directed by Dave Fleischer, with the title song's music composed by Sammy Timberg and lyrics written by Bob Rothberg. The voice cast includes Jack Mercer as Popeye, Gus Wickie as Sindbad the Sailor, Mae Questel as Olive Oyl and Lou Fleischer as J. Wellington Wimpy.
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.
The New Adventures of Superman is a series of six-minute animated Superman adventures produced by Filmation that were broadcast Saturday mornings on CBS from September 10, 1966, to September 5, 1970. The 68 segments appeared as part of three different programs during that time, packaged with similar shorts featuring The Adventures of Superboy and other DC Comics superheroes.
The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure is a Saturday morning Filmation animated series that aired on CBS from 1967 to 1968. Premiering on September 9, 1967, this 60-minute program included a series of six-minute adventures featuring various DC Comics superheroes.
The Batman/Superman Hour is a Filmation animated series that was broadcast on CBS from 1968 to 1969. Premiering on September 14, 1968, this 60-minute program featured new adventures of the DC Comics superheroes Batman, Robin and Batgirl alongside shorts from The New Adventures of Superman and The Adventures of Superboy.
August Wicke, also known as Gus Wicke and Gus Wickie, was an American bass singer, and stage and voice actor. He was one of the voices of Bluto in the animated series, Popeye the Sailor, by Fleischer Studios.
Popeye the Sailor is an American animated television series produced for King Features Syndicate TV starring Popeye that was released between 1960 and 1963 with 220 episodes produced. The episodes were produced by multiple animation studios and aired in broadcast syndication until the 1990s.
The All New Popeye Hour is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and King Features Entertainment. Starring the comic strip character Popeye, the series aired from 1978 to 1983 Saturday mornings on CBS. Despite the series' mixed reception, it was a hit for King Features Entertainment.
Popeye the Sailor is an American animated series of short films based on the Popeye comic strip character created by E. C. Segar. In 1933, Max and Dave Fleischer's Fleischer Studios, based in New York City, adapted Segar's characters into a series of theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. The plotlines in the animated cartoons tended to be simpler than those presented in the comic strips, and the characters slightly different. A villain, usually Bluto, makes a move on Popeye's "sweetie", Olive Oyl. The villain clobbers Popeye until he eats spinach, giving him superhuman strength. Thus empowered, Popeye makes short work of the villain.
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.
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.
Popeye the Sailor is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar. The character first appeared on January 17, 1929, in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre. The strip was in its tenth year when Popeye made his debut, but the one-eyed sailor quickly became the lead character, and Thimble Theatre became one of King Features' most popular properties during the 1930s. Following Segar's death in 1938, Thimble Theatre was continued by several writers and artists, most notably Segar's assistant Bud Sagendorf. The strip continues to appear in first-run installments on Sundays, written and drawn by R. K. Milholland. The daily strips are reprints of old Sagendorf stories.
Alice of Wonderland in Paris or Alice in a New Wonderland is a 1966 Czech-American animated film directed by Gene Deitch and produced by William L. Snyder in extreme limited animation.
Ancient Fistory is a 1953 American animated short film directed by Seymour Kneitel and starring Jack Mercer in multiple roles. The film was released by Paramount Pictures on January 30, 1953. It was based on a gender-reversed parody of the fairy tale Cinderella and a possible inspiration for the 1960 film Cinderfella starring Jerry Lewis.
Events in 1912 in animation.
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