Donald Earle Messick was an American voice actor.
26 Facts About Don Messick
2.
Don Messick was best known for his performances in Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
3.
Don Messick's best-remembered vocal creations include Scooby-Doo, Bamm-Bamm Rubble and Hoppy in The Flintstones, Astro in The Jetsons, Muttley in Wacky Races and Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines, Boo-Boo Bear and Ranger Smith in The Yogi Bear Show, Sebastian the Cat in Josie and the Pussycats; Gears, Ratchet, and Scavenger in The Transformers, Papa Smurf and Azrael in The Smurfs, Hamton J Pig in Tiny Toon Adventures, and Dr Benton Quest in Jonny Quest.
4.
Don Messick was raised by his maternal grandparents in the Bolton Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, where he received his early training as a performer at the Ramsay Street School of Acting.
5.
At first, Don Messick wanted to be a ventriloquist and even supported himself as one for a time in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
6.
At age 15, Don Messick performed in front of the program manager and chief announcer at radio station WBOC in Salisbury, Maryland, and was given his own weekly show, for which Don Messick performed all of the character voices and sound effects.
7.
Don Messick moved back to Baltimore a year later, after graduating high school, and approached radio station WCAO about getting his one-man show on the air.
8.
In 1944, Don Messick joined the US Army, performing for troops as a part of the Special Services for 20 months.
9.
Don Messick was Ruff the cat and the Droopy-sounding Professor Gizmo, while Butler played the dog, Reddy.
10.
From 1958 to 1959, Don Messick played Tadpole in the animated television series, Spunky and Tadpole, produced by Beverly Hills Productions.
11.
From 1957 to 1965, Butler and Don Messick gave voice to a large number of characters.
12.
Don Messick was used primarily for his narration skills, which were heard on many of those cartoons in which Daws Butler starred.
13.
Don Messick was eventually featured as Ricochet Rabbit in Ricochet Rabbit, while Deputy Droop-a-Long was voiced by Mel Blanc.
14.
In 1966, Don Messick took over the roles of Atom Ant and Mr Peebles of The Magilla Gorilla Show from Howard Morris, who had left Hanna-Barbera.
15.
In outer-space cartoons, Don Messick created noises and sounds for weird space creatures and aliens.
16.
Don Messick voiced him through all of the various versions of Scooby-Doo: on television in numerous formats from 1969 until his retirement, including television films, and a number of commercials, as well.
17.
Don Messick reprised his roles of Boo-Boo and Ranger Smith from the 1970s until 1994 on Yogi's Gang, Laff-a-Lympics, Yogi's Treasure Hunt, and The New Yogi Bear Show.
18.
Don Messick played Papa Smurf on The Smurfs from 1981 to 1989 and Ratchet, Gears, and Constructicon Scavenger on The Transformers.
19.
In 1985, new episodes of The Jetsons were produced and Don Messick returned as Astro, RUDI, Mac, and Uniblab, a pesky robot that worked for Mr Spacely.
20.
Don Messick starred in the Masters of the Universe Golden Book video as He-Man.
21.
Don Messick played a live-action role on the MTM Enterprises sitcom Duck Factory, playing a cartoon voice actor named Wally Wooster.
22.
Don Messick said of his character on the show: "Wally was never quite sure whether he was Wally or Dippy Duck".
23.
Don Messick claimed that giving up smoking had robbed him of the rasp in the voice that he needed to voice him.
24.
In late September 1996, Don Messick retired from acting after he suffered a stroke at a recording session at Hanna-Barbera.
25.
Don Messick married Helen McHugh on October 10,1949, and they remained married until Don Messick's death on October 24,1997.
26.
Don Messick suffered a second stroke and died on October 24,1997, in Salinas, California.