1. Ira W Meltcher, known by the stage name Mel Welles, was an American actor, voice artist and film director.
11 Facts About Mel Welles
1. 2.
Mel Welles was best known to for his work with filmmaker Roger Corman, most notably as hapless flower shop owner Gravis Mushnick in the original 1960 film version of The Little Shop of Horrors.
3.
Mel Welles had a prolific career as an English-language dubber, mainly in the Italian film industry.
4.
Mel Welles was raised in Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania and graduated from Mt.
5.
Mel Welles went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree from Penn State University, a Master of Arts degree from West Virginia University, and a Ph.
6.
Mel Welles did some stage work before traveling to Hollywood, where in 1953 he appeared in his first film, Appointment in Honduras.
7.
Reportedly, Mel Welles wrote gag material for Lord Buckley at some point in his career.
8.
In 1998, Mel Welles took to the stage in a community theater production of Little Shop of Horrors as Mushnik, the role he created in the original Roger Corman film.
9.
Mel Welles had never performed in the musical and was happy to be asked to do the role, which he described as a "mitzvah" for Scotts Valley Performing Arts.
10.
Jonathan Haze, who played Seymour in the original film, attended the opening, and Welles received a visit from Martin P Robinson, the designer of the Audrey II plant puppets used in the off-Broadway production.
11.
Mel Welles was working on a horror screenplay, tentatively titled House of a Hundred Horrors, at the time of his death on August 19,2005, at the age of 81.