Profile: Bill Scott

[tv star collector]

Bill Scott may be forever associated first and foremost as the man who provided the nasal baritone for the obtuse moose Bullwinkle, but Scott was not just a top-of-the-line voice talent who supplied the vocal life to a diverse group of characters, including Mr. Peabody, Dudley Do-Right, George of the Jungle, Super Chicken, and Tom Slick. The former animator and story man has justifiably been described as the "soul" of Jay Ward productions, not only voicing Ward's characters but eventually assuming the mantle as head writer and co-producer for his partner and close friend.

Born William John Scott on Aug. 2, 1920, in Philadelphia and raised in Trenton, N.J., Scott found his career calling at the early age of four. In the 2000 book THE MOOSE THAT ROARED, he characterized himself as an "animator from the word go." He said he was dazzled by the silent Felix the Cat cartoons which ran on early TV. The obsession followed him even through his young adulthood. Stricken with tuberculosis at 15, he relocated with his family to Denver, Colorado, for the change of climate, where the recovered teenager then spent years immersed in as much of the entertainment industry as Denver had to offer.

By the time he graduated with a B.A. in theater and minor in English, Scott had built a formidable resume as a freelance radio performer, working on local stations KOA, KLZ, and KVOD. At 18, he joined the Denver Children's Theatre, where he met his future wife, Dorothy Williams. Yet he continued
to toy with the idea of animation.

While Scott longed to be a commercial artist, he doubted he had the ability, and it took a profound and most unlikely chain of circumstances to bring him to his intended vocation. Scott was drafted for WWII and--with his prior photographic experience--was assigned to be a photographic lab technician at the Peterson Field Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. Then transferred to California, he arrived at the commandeered Hal Roach studios to find that his new crew--the First Motion Picture Unit, which was responsible for making instructional films for the enlisted men--had already shipped out.

Far from being a setback, this freed Scott to delve into the other activities going on at the studio. The wide-eyed young man from Denver first reported for duty--shocked to find that the personnel officer he was addressing was film star Ronald Reagan. And exploring the building, he was even more shocked to find that it contained an animation unit which encompassed employees of Disney, Fleischer, and MGM. There, Scott met Warner Bros. and MGM cartoon veteran Rudy Ising, who was the acting commanding officer of the unit. Ising was able to transfer Scott to the unit, and Scott began his career in animation as a cel washer for the air force. He then spent WWII performing a range of creative jobs; promoted to painter, then inker and "in-betweener" while doing storyboards and layouts, he desperately struggled to improve his drawing skills until ending his military tenure as an assistant animator.

At the end of the war, in 1945, although he had studied under venerable animators such as one of Disney's famous "nine old men" Frank Thomas, Scott had some trouble getting established in Hollywood. Staying in the army reserve for the next ten years, Scott had approached his former CO Rudy Ising but had no leads until an army buddy from his unit recommended him as new talent for Warner Bros.

The 1940s were a hectic time for Scott. He spent 1946 to 1947 at Warners, where he felt privileged to work as a story man with many of his early heroes like Mike Maltese, Tedd Pierce, and Warren Foster. In 1947, he moved to Paramount to write for the the talking animal shorts, the Oscar-winning Speaking of Animals, and it was there that he first met future ROCKY & BULLWINKLE collaborator June Foray, who supplied some of the voices.

After spending 1948 acting on Broadway, Scott was offered a position writing for Bob Clampett's national TV series, TIME FOR BEANY. Although the writer enjoyed the creative leeway the crew was given, when it became a success, there was some animosity among the production staff because actors Stan Freberg and Daws Butler were reportedly making twice the writing staff salaries. Scott--who drew the metaphorical short straw to ask for a raise from Clampett--did so and was unceremoniously fired, to the shock of the rest of the crew.

UPA was the next stop for Scott in 1950, after being recommended by old army cohorts Phil Monroe and Bill Hurtz. Teamed with another writer, they worked on Mr. Magoo theatrical features and shorts.

Finally, in 1957, Scott was contacted to help write Hanna-Barbera's first TV series--RUFF & REDDY--and it was there that he was introduced to future partner Jay Ward.

ROCKY & BULLWINKLE were already looming on the horizon when Ward had a falling out with Hanna-Barbera's animator Shamus Culhane over production methods; this left Ward swearing that he would only work for himself. But, enthused over the prospect of working on an animated series, Ward retrieved an old concept, THE FROSTBITE FALLS REVIEW, which he had been unable to sell. Although Ward brought Scott on board as a writer for the program, he was delighted to discover that Scott had an amazing vocal ability as well, and Ward asked him to be the voice of Bullwinkle (whose off-beat name Ward swiiped from a Berkley car dealership) and later the creator and voice of bespectacled Mr. Peabody to Walter Tetley's "boy" Sherman.

After the pilot was sold, the voice-acting team was fleshed out with the addition of June Foray as Rocky and Natasha, Paul Frees as Boris Badenov and William Conrad as the breathless narrator.

The world was introduced to Scott's love of puns, wordplay, and subversive satire when ROCKY & HIS FRIENDS debuted in 1959. TV's first animated anti-heroes had fast-paced high-brow verbal humor and leftist political satire which helped earn the show a sizable adult following and did well enough in the weekday afternoon time slot (on ABC) to earn a spot on the Sunday night prime-time schedule (on NBC, in the fall of 1961).

The show ended production in 1964 and has since proven to be a classic in syndication and later on video and DVD. Scott passed away on Nov. 29, 1985--having worked only for Disney doing voices for THE WUZZLES and (with old friend and colleague June Foray) THE GUMMI BEARS after Jay Ward studios closed down in mid-1984. Perhaps Daws Butler had the last word on his impressive talent and versatility. In DAWS BUTLER, VOICE MAGICIAN, a PBS documentary taped in 1987, the actor (who worked on ROCKY uncredited because his sponsor, Kellogg, rivaled Ward's sponsor, General Mills) lauded Scott as one of the most talented voice artists in town: "His dialects, his characters, the top of his voice, the bottom of his voice, and such inventive ideas. He had a sense of humor all his own."

[THE MAGIC BEHIND THE VOICES, by Tim Lawson & Alisa Persons (2004)]

For further reading: THE MOOSE THAT ROARED, by Keith Scott (no relation).

[comedyfreak]

I liked all the Jay Ward cartoons.