History Creator / MelBlanc

Blanc died in 1989, and, to this date, it seems not many voice actors, if any at all, can really match his wide range of voices (the closest you get to a Mel Blanc-like voice actor today would be BillyWest, though that's debatable, as most fans will argue that other voice actors like JimCummings, TressMacNeille, KathSoucie, TomKenny are better than him, or will say that Mel Blanc was the best and everyone else is just a pale imitation). Warner Bros. now has a whole ''staff'' of voice actors to cover what was once done by a single man. Some of his roles include:

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blanc_8732.jpeg

Blanc died in 1989, and, to this date, it seems not many voice actors, if any at all, can really match his wide range of voices (the closest you get to a Mel Blanc-like voice actor today would be BillyWest). Warner Bros. now has a whole ''staff'' of voice actors to cover what was once done by a single man. Some of his roles include:

Blanc died in 1989, and, to this date, it seems not many voice actors, if any at all, can really match his wide range of voices. Warner Bros. now has a whole ''staff'' of voice actors to cover what was once done by a single man. Some of his roles include:

His wide range of work gave him the cool nickname, "The Man of a Thousand Voices", hence he is the TropeNamer (it should be noted that this is an exaggeration; he admitted in his autobiography that he's "only" done around 850 voices).

** According to ThatOtherWiki, he had a case of "[[IAmNotSpock I Am Spock]]" after a near-fatal car accident which left him in a coma for three weeks. After many attempts to wake him up from his coma, a doctor thought of saying, "How are you today, Bugs Bunny?" at which point he replied (obviously, in Characters/BugsBunny's voice).

* [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Elmer Fudd]] - The voice actor who made Elmer famous was Arthur Q. Bryan, but Blanc voiced Fudd in a few cartoons, (mostly) after Bryan's death. (He reluctantly did Elmer's one line in "WesternAnimation/TheScarletPumpernickel"; it was easier than bringing in Bryan for so little work.) This is why Elmer is not included in the "Speechless" lithograph.

[[caption-width:223:"Th-th-th-that's all, folks!"]]

----

Oh, yeah, this is his [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Mel_Blanc_4-15-05.JPG tombstone]]. The [[http://moralauthority.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/3_speechless.jpg "Speechless"]] lithograph was also made following his death

Needless to say, Blanc is a ''legend'' among voice actors. His voice work is considered the milestone that marks the Golden Age of animated comedy, and his characters' catchphrases are ''still'' remembered nearly a half-century later. It ought to also be remembered that Blanc essentially won voice actors the honor of being credited cast members. He had become so indispensable to Leon Schlesinger's studio that the only way the cheapskate could avoid giving into Blanc's demands for a raise was to guarantee him sole on-screen credit as a voice actor, which gave Blanc the notability to be sought after for work by name. Later, other voice actors followed suit, and within a few years it was unthinkable to not credit a voice actor.

Jerome Melvin Blanc, a.k.a Mel Blanc, a.k.a "The ManOfAThousandVoices" was one of the most prolific voice actors of all time, as well as one of the best. Originally working in commercials and radio shows, Blanc was hired by Warner Bros. in the late [[TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation 1930s]] to do voices for cartoons. And the rest, frankly, is history.

Blanc is most notable for voicing most of the cast of WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes (among other cartoons), often bringing up cases of TalkingToHimself. What's amazing is that most people probably wouldn't be able to tell that, most, if not ''all'' of the characters in each Looney Tunes short were being done by the same guy. (Leonard Maltin once put his talent into perspective by marveling that Tweety Bird and Yosemite Sam were the ''same man''.) He was ''that'' good. It even got to the point that his knack for doing many voices was [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in the Porky Pig short "Curtain Razor". He was also one of the only voice actors in his day to ever get a credit for his work in any theatrical shorts (which led to a variant of MisattributedSong when voices done by Creator/DawsButler, StanFreberg, or Arthur Q. Bryan were also assumed to be Mel).

His wide range of work gave him the cool nickname, "The ManOfAThousandVoices", hence he is the TropeNamer. (It should be noted that this is an exaggeration; he admitted in his autobiography that he's "only" done around 850 voices).

Needless to say, Mel Blanc is a ''legend'' among voice actors -- his voice-work is considered the 'milestone' that marks the Golden Age of animated comedy, and his characters' catch-phrases are ''still'' remembered nearly a half-century later. It ought to also be remembered that Blanc essentially won voice actors the honor of being credited cast members. He had become so indispensable to Leon Schlesinger's studio that the only way the cheapskate could avoid giving into Mel's demands for a raise was to guarantee him sole on-screen credit as a voice actor, which gave Mel the notability to be sought after for work by name. Later, other voice actors followed suit, and within a few years it was unthinkable to not credit a voice actor.

Mel Blanc died in 1989, and, to this date, it seems not many voice actors, if any at all, can really match his wide range of voices. Warner Bros. now has a whole ''staff'' of voice-actors to cover what was once done by a single man. Some of his roles include...

* WoodyWoodpecker: [[TooGoodToLast Only for the first three shorts, though.]]

* Characters/BugsBunny - He even chewed raw carrots to get the sound right... and immediately spat them back out, because he couldn't swallow them fast enough since he hated the taste of them. He admits in his autobiography, ''That's Not All, Folks.'' that they tried a myriad of other vegetables for him to crunch, but unfortunately nothing else sounds like a carrot. There is a popular urban legend that he was allergic to carrots, but [[http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/melblanc.asp this is false.]]

* [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Elmer Fudd]] - The voice actor who made Elmer famous was Arthur Q. Bryan, but Blanc voiced Fudd in a few cartoons, (mostly) after Bryan's death. (He reluctantly did Elmer's one line in "TheScarletPumpernickel"; it was easier than bringing in Bryan for so little work.) This is why Elmer is not included in the "Speechless" lithograph.

* [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Elmer Fudd]] - Blanc only voiced Fudd in a few cartoons following the death of Fudd's real voice actor, Arthur Q. Bryan.

Needless to say, Mel Blanc is a ''legend'' among voice actors -- his voice-work is considered the 'milestone' that marks the Golden Age of animated comedy, and his characters' catch-phrases are ''still'' remembered nearly a half-century later. It ought to also be remembered that Blanc essentially won voice actors the honor of being credited cast members. He had become so indispensable to Warner Brothers that they wrote into their contracts with him that he gain an on-screen credit. Other voice actors followed suit, and within a few years it was unthinkable to not credit a voice actor.

** According to ThatOtherWiki, he had a case of "[[IAmSpock]]" after a near-fatal car accident which left him in a coma for three weeks. After many attempts to wake him up from his coma, a doctor thought of saying, "How are you today, Bugs Bunny?" at which point he replied (obviously, in Characters/BugsBunny's voice).

* Characters/BugsBunny - He even chewed raw carrots to get the sound right... and immediately spat them back out, because he couldn't swallow them fast enough since he hated the taste of them. He admits in his autobiography, ''That's Not All, Folks.'' that they tried a myriad of other vegetables for him to crunch, but unfortunately nothing else sounds like a carrot.

** Truthfully, he was ''allergic'' to them. Indeed, that was quite ironic.
** According to ThatOtherWiki, he had a case of "[[IAmNotSpock I Am Spock]]" after a near-fatal car accident which left him in a coma for three weeks. After many attempts to wake him up from his coma, a doctor thought of saying, "How are you today, Bugs Bunny?" at which point he replied (obviously, in Characters/BugsBunny's voice).

Needless to say, Mel Blanc is a ''legend'' among voice actors -- his voice-work is considered the 'milestone' that marks the Golden Age of animated comedy, and his characters' catch-phrases are ''still'' remembered nearly a half-century later.

* Twiki on ''BuckRogersInTheTwentyFifthCentury''

Needless to say, Mel Blanc is a ''legend'' among voice actors -- his voice-work is considered the 'milestone' that marks the Golden Age of animated comedy, and his characters' catch-phrases are ''still'' remembered nearly a half-century later. One reason was that during salary negotiations with Warner Brothers, he agreed to have his name displayed alone as the voice actor in lieu of a raise. As such, he was only the voice actor of LooneyTunes known to the general public during the GoldenAgeOfAnimation and the choice paid off with him getting much more acting work.

Needless to say, Mel Blanc is a ''legend'' among voice actors -- his voice-work is considered the 'milestone' that marks the Golden Age of animated comedy, and his characters' catch-phrases are ''still'' remembered nearly a half-century later. One reason was that during salary negotiations with Warner Brothers, he agreed to have his name displayed alone as the voice actor in lieu of a raise. As such, he was only the voice actor of LooneyTunes known to the general public during GoldenAgeOfAnimation and the choice paid off with him getting much more acting work.

Needless to say, Mel Blanc is a ''legend'' among voice actors -- his voice-work is considered the 'milestone' that marks the Golden Age of animated comedy, and his characters' catch-phrases are ''still'' remembered nearly a half-century later.