Probably the most famous of Rich Little’s voice impersonations was his redition of President Richard M. Nixon….and in this video clip…he “really puts on the shine”….as he gives a wonderful portrayal of Tricky Dick in this skit in the video herewith…..with the skit being overlayed by the music from Mission Impossible….for this “man of a thousand voices” gave so much more than just an awesome impersonation of the former President’s voice….cuz his facial transition and mannerisms presented were eerily similar to the those of The Pres.
Since I have many video clips with Rich Little’s talent being displayed….I want to focus on his guest on this show, Frank Welker, who is one of America’s best voice actors of all time….cuz he deserves his place in Imasportsphile history for future generations to enjoy.
Welker’s first voice role came in 1969, as Fred Jones in the Scooby-Doo franchise…for since 2002, he has provided the voice of both Fred Jones and Scooby-Doo….and tell me this….who of my viewers isn’t familiar with Fred and Scooby….but who knew the actor that was providing the voices !?!….for Welker has voiced Fred in every series and incarnation of the Scooby-Doo animated franchise except in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. His next major character voice was for Wonder Dog….which by the way was inspired by Scooby-Doo….and Marvin White on the 1973 series Super Friends….which like Scooby-Doo and Wonder Dog was also produced by Hanna-Barbera.. That same year, he played Pudge and Gabby on DePatie-Freleng Enterprises’ animated series Bailey’s Comets. Welker would continue to provide voices for many characters for Hanna-Barbera for several years…which include Jabberjaw, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, and the Shmoo in The New Fred and Barney Show and its spin-off, The Flintstones Comedy Show. Frank Welker described the voice he used for the Shmoo as “a bubble voice”….which is the one he would later use for Gogo Dodo in Tiny Toon Adventures.
In 1978, he played the title character on Fangface….and later in its spin-off, Fangface and Fangpuss….and also voiced Heckle and Jeckle and Quackula on The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle….along with Droopy on The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Welker became a very busy actor by providing the voice for many popular cartoon characters in multiple series…including Brain, Doctor Claw and M.A.D Cat on Inspector Gadget; Mister Mxyzptlk, Darkseid….and Kalibak on Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show; Wild Bill, Dreadnok Torch and various G.I. Joe heroes and villains…and Ray Stantz and Slimer in The Real Ghostbusters….the villainous Dr. Jeremiah Surd on The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest; Bubba the Caveduck and 2 of the Beagle Boys (Bigtime & Baggie) on DuckTales,…plus multiple voices on The Smurfs, including Hefty Smurf, Poet Smurf, and Peewit.
He also voiced various characters on The Simpsons, such as Santa’s Little Helper, Snowball II and various other animals from 1991 to his departure from the show in 2002. Welker provides both the speaking voice and animal sounds for Nibbler on Matt Groening’s Futurama. He provided the voices for Mr. Plotz, Runt, Ralph the Guard, Buttons and other characters on Animaniacs, Gogo Dodo, Furball, Beeper and others on Tiny Toon Adventures, Pepé Le Pew on The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries and McWolf the main antagonist to Droopy and his nephew Dripple on Tom and Jerry Kids Show and Droopy, Master Detective.
Welker has also created the vocal effects for many animals & creatures in films….including the monkey Abu in Aladdin (1992), its two sequels, and the television series, Arnold the Pig in the television film Return to Green Acres (1990), the Martians in Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! (1996), and the penguins in Mr. Popper’s Penguins (2011). He performed as voice double for Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and voiced The Thing in The Golden Child (1986), Jinx the robot in “SpaceCamp” (1986), Totoro in the English version of Studio Ghibli’s 1988 film My Neighbor Totoro, Alien Sil in Species (1995), Malebolgia in Spawn (1997), and Gargamel’s cat Azrael in Sony Pictures Animation’s live action/animated film versions of The Smurfs.
In 2006, he began voicing George in the popular children’s series Curious George. He also voiced George in the animated film of the same name that same year. In 2007, Welker became the new voice of Garfield, succeeding the original actor Lorenzo Music, who died in 2001….as Welker and Music had previously worked together on The Real Ghostbusters and the original Garfield and Friends….as Welker voiced Garfield in Garfield Gets Real (2007), Garfield’s Fun Fest (2008), Garfield’s Pet Force (2009), and also on the new series The Garfield Show, which has been running from 2008 to present. In 2011, he provided the voice of Batman in a Scooby-Doo crossover segment of the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode, “Bat-Mite Presents: Batman’s Strangest Cases!”. In the same episode, he also voiced Batboy, the classic Mad Magazine Batman spoof, originally created by Wally Wood.
Welker has also provided voices for many video game characters, most notably Disney’s Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and The Shadow Blot in Epic Mickey and its sequel Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two….as well as Zurvan, also called the Ancient One, on StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. He also provided the voice of the mad mage Xzar for the Baldur’s Gate video game series, and reprised his role from Avengers Assemble as Odin for Lego Marvel’s Avengers.
Simply put, along with Mel Blanc of Looney Tunes fame….Frank Welker has been one of the world’s best voice actors for the betterr part of 50 years….and our viewers get to see this “voice genius” perform in the video clip herewith….which makes this video a real treasure….cuz you get to see Welker’s mastery at work recorded live and in color.
