Profile: Don Messick

[tv star collector]

Ventriloquist, soldier, "Scooby-Doo"--Don Messick's long climb up the career ladder culminated in the voice of the world's most famous animated dog. Although it's been over 35 years since it was originally produced, SCOOBY-DOO is more popular than ever, airing 23 times a week in the U.S. and broadcast in 45 other countries, and with two live-action feature adaptations. Messick, who became a cartoon icon doing characters like THE JETSONS dog Astro, Boo Boo and Ranger Smith on YOGI BEAR, Pixie of Pixie & Dixie, Dr. Quest on JONNY QUEST, and Papa Smurf on THE SMURFS is considered almost as much a cornerstone of Hanna-Barbera as its famous
founders.

In the 1930s, the 12-year-old "country hick kid back in Maryland" discovered that his first love was radio, which he listened to during the summertime for 17 or 18 hours per day. Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen were his favorites, so, naturally, he couldn't resist the ad in POPULAR SCIENCE whose copy screamed, "Boys, throw your voice!" "When my voice changed, I discovered its flexibility, so it seemed to me that the most logical thing was to learn ventriloquism. After spending a quarter on the ventriloquism kit, Messick found that he couldn't make the mouthpiece work, but the instruction book was instrumental in developing his ventriloquist act. "I was a rather shy, introverted kind of kid, smaller than most for my age, and was picked on and teased a lot by my peers, so it was a surprise when all of a sudden I turned to doing my own radio show when I was fifteen."

"I had appeared on a [radio] talent show in Salisbury and I won first prize on that broadcast. And that led to my being called upon by the station, which acted as a talent agency. ... So, I started appearing and making five dollars here and seven dollars there all around the area, and that led to my first weekly radio program--a 15-minute thing on Monday nights on WBOC in Salisbury. I played the harmonica. I did about two harmonica duets with an organ and interspersed that with dialogue I wrote for my characters."

Over the two-year period that Messick did the program, he gradually dropped the harmonica and went to strictly writing and performing a one-man situation comedy show.

After high school, Messick moved to Baltimore to study acting. Unfortunately. World War II disrupted many plans, among them, Messick's burgeoning acting career. If the army did nothing else for Messick, it brought him to the West Coast. After about a year and a half in the military, Messick received his discharge in 1946 and decided to take his chances in Hollywood.

Messick's cartoon career finally began when friend Daws Butler put in a good word for him. "It's due to Daws that I got my first cartoon job. It was back in the '50s, and Tex Avery was looking for a voice. Daws recommended me to Tex while he was at MGM doing the Droopy the Dog theatrical cartoons. The actor [Bill Thompson, later Touche Turtle for H-B] who regularly did the voice of Droopy was not available for some reason or other and they needed to get this cartoon completed, so I wound up doing the voice of Droopy on two of the cartoons.

His success solidified in 1957 when William Hanna and Joseph Barbera decided that Messick and Butler should have the honor of breaking new ground with them. "Daws and I were the first voice men with the first series that Bill and Joe did on their own when they left MGM; that was, of course, RUFF & REDDY. I was the voice of Ruff, Professor Gizmo, and the narrator."

The series became a hit. From then on Messick was offered part after part as the studio and eventually came to see Hanna-Barbera as a second home. If pressed for an all-time favorite, Messick picked the most famous of Hanna-Barbera creations--Scooby-Doo. Messick helped create the character and performed the voice for the first 22 years that SCOOBY-DOO shows were in production.

He also found work on JONNY QUEST, the second actor to portray Dr. Benton Quest, opposit Tim Matheson as Jonny and Mike Road as Race Bannon. [They had decided that the first actor, John Stephenson, sounded too much like Mike Road.] He also replaced Howard Morris in the last six or eight episodes of ATOM ANT.

One of the highlights of Messick's career was his time spent as Bamm-Bamm, Arnold the paper boy, and various other characters on THE FLINTSTONES, a show he concisely describes as "one big pun well done." Among the talent he had the honor of working with was one of his childhood idols, Alan Reed, who voiced Fred Flintstone.

Messick's other voice credits include Snagglepuss' adversary Major Minor, Wally Gator's zookeeper Mr. Twiddle, Ricochet Rabbit (of THE MAGILLA GORILLA SHOW), and Muttley of DASTARDY & MUTTLEY IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES.

Messick had an opportunity for a rare on-screen role when he played Wally Wooster on the short-lived NBC sitcom DUCK FACTORY (1984).

One of the last characters Messick ever voiced was Hamton J. Pig on the Warner Bros. TV cartoon series TINY TOON ADVENTURES, beginning in 1990.

Sadly, after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease, Don Messick passed away on Oct. 24, 1997, at age 71, of a stroke. While Messick had respected Joe Barbera as a "perfectionist" and a "tough" director to work for at times, Barbera may have given Messick the most flattering tribute when summing up his work and that of his former partner, Daws Butler. "Daws and Don Messick--it was like a goldmine with those two guys. Between them, they could do almost every voice you could think of."

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

[comedyfreak]

I was wondering when you were going to get around to him, LOL. I liked his voice of Bamm-Bamm Rubble. I remember him being on the Duck Factory.