Voiceover Actor Allen Swift, father of Lewis Stadlen, passes away

[catlover79]

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/classic/a...1924-2010.html

Gene Deitch just informed us of the passing of his long-time personal friend Allen Swift. Swift (born Ira Stadlen) was best known for voicing numerous cartoon characters including Simon Bar Sinister (in Underdog), Odie on King Leonardo and most of the voices for the 1960’s underwater puppet show Diver Dan. Swift was also well-known for hosting the Popeye cartoon show (September 10, 1956 to September 23, 1960) on WPIX in New York City. Swift did the majority of the voices in Rankin/Bass’s Mad Monster Party, and supplied character voices for the NBC Howdy Doody Show. He was Tooter Turtle and Clint Clobber. He did voices in Richard Williams’ Raggedy Ann and Andy and John Dilworth’s Courage The Cowardly Dog, as well as in Gene Deitch’s 1960-61 group of Tom and Jerry cartoons (especially memorable in Dickie Moe).
In tribute we re-post the Deitch-Pintoff Terrytoon classic Flebus, with all voices by Allen Swift (above) and one of Swift’s Popeye children’s records (as Captain Allen Swift), below.
Gene Deitch writes:

Maxime Stadlen, Allen Swift’s daughter phoned me the terrible news that Allen has died. Allen Swift, who did the voices of Howdy Doody and the other characters, who did all of the voices on PUMP TROUBLE and DEPTH STUDY, which you will soon be showing, and who has been by best personal friend for 58 years, is gone. He was they last of my American buddies. Even though here for 50 years, hardly a year went by without a visit to his 54th Street apartment, nor a day go by without email and most recently Skype visits. It’s a devastating loss. I felt something awful must be happening, because just as the Howdy Doody film was about to go online, I was unable to reach him or his wife or anyone in his family. This even is something we have been talking about for the past few months and weeks, as the story of the film’s recovery evolved. I’m crushed. We were both born in 1924, thus just a few months difference in age, but Allen has been suffering with a series of health calamities for several years, since he fell and broke his hip while walking his dog. From that moment, one thing led to another…
And now, “the man of a thousand voices” who used many, many of them in my films, is silenced. To further the pain, no planes are flying from Europe, and the airports are jammed with people waiting in vain to go where they need to go. So, I must grieve from here…
We grieve with you Gene. We lost one of the greats today.

http://forum.bcdb.com/forum/Allen_Sw...ister_P108339/

Actor and children's TV show host Allen Swift, the voice of villain Simon Bar Sinister in the 1964-67 superhero spoof Underdog, has died at 86, the Cartoon Brew site announced Sunday.

Swift was "my best personal friend for 58 years" and "the last of my American buddies," said director Gene Deitch, who directed several early '60s Tom and Jerry cartoons for Rembrandt Films in which the voice actor was heard (as Tom's owner and other characters).

Allen had been "suffering with a series of health calamities for several years, since he fell and broke his hip while walking his dog. From that moment, one thing led to another," he told the site.

"Even though here for 50 years, hardly a year went by without a visit to his 54th Street apartment, nor a day go by without e-mail and most recently Skype visits," added Deitch, an American expatriate living in the Czech Republic.

On Underdog, Swift voiced Bar Sinister as an imitation of a joyful Lionel Barrymore. He also portrayed gangster Riff Raff and various alien invaders.

In New York City, Swift was known as Captain Allen Swift, the first host of WPIX 11's Popeye Show on weekday evenings from Monday, September 10, 1956, to Friday, September 23, 1960. The gig led to him playing himself and Popeye on records and filling in for Jack Mercer in occasional commercials.

He was Odie Cologne, Itchy Brother, Tootle Turtle, Duke, Earl and the Narrator in The King and Odie and Tooter Turtle, both segments of Total Television's King Leonardo And His Short Subjects.

For Rankin/Bass, Swift supplied most of the voices in the 1967 feature film Mad Monster Party. These included Felix Flankin (sounding like Jimmy Stewart), the Invisible Man (similar to Sydney Greenstreet), Yetch, Dracula, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Born Ira Stadlen in New York City on January 16, 1924, he took his professional name from the surnames of two of his favorite satirists, Fred Allen and Jonathan Swift.

His early voice work came on the live-action puppet show Howdy Doody in 1952, when host "Buffalo" Bob Smith fired several performers in a salary dispute. Swift ended up playing Mayor Phineas J. Bluster, Inspector John J. Fadoozle and Captain Windy Scuttlebutt. When Smith was off the show for months following a 1954 heart attack, Swift replaced him as the voice of Howdy.

Deitch used Swift's voice in nearly all of his series at Terrytoons, including Gaston Le Crayon and Clint Clobber as the respective title characters.

Often a voice in animated commercials, Swift was heard as the Frito Bandito (although Mel Blanc offered the main voice) and the original 1970s version of the Burger King. In the 1970s Hostess dessert cake commercials, he voiced Twinkie The Kid, Captain Cupcake and Chief Big Wheel. He was also a peanut in M&M ads.

Movie roles included Maxi-Fixit in Richard Williams' Raggedy Ann And Andy (1977). He was Gadzooks the bear in that year's Rankin Bass special The Easter Bunny Is Comin' To Town.

In 2000, he provided a guest voice on the Courage the Cowardly Dog episode "Revenge of the Chicken from Outer Space"/"Journey to the Center of Nowhere."

Also in recently years, he guested on Kate and Allie and Law & Order. As recently as 2007, he was doing narration and ADR for TV documentaries.

Allen Swift is survived by his daughter, Maxime Stadlen, and by his son, Broadway actor, mimic and singer Lewis J. Stadlen. His son voiced several roles in the English-language version of the 1995 cartoon feature film Die Schelme von Schelm (Aaron's Magic Village).

[BensonFan]

Thanks, Monika. Sorry to hear it. All my best to Lewis and the family.

[catlover79]

Indeed. God bless the family at this rough time, and may Mr. Swift .