Creator / Don Messick

'"Don was one of the nicest people on the planet...and one of the true titans and legends of cartoon voices. At a recording session, I did once hear Don overlap the voice of Scooby and Scrappy — honestly — both voices came out of his mouth at the same moment. We had said that we'd need to overlap their dialog in post, and he said, "Don't bother." His Hamton was the single genuinely nice character in the Tiny Toons series...which fit perfectly for Don."

— Tom Ruegger

Donald Earl Messick (September 7, 1926 – October 24, 1997) was a famous voice actor, best known for voicing Hanna-Barbera characters from the late 1950s into the 1990s.

Some of his most famous roles were Scooby-Doo (arguably the role for which he is best remembered), Bamm-Bamm Rubble from The Flintstones, and Astro from The Jetsons. His characters often had a raspy dialect, which Messick attributed to decades of smoking. He eventually gave up tobacco use in 1995, but the loss of his rasp led to him leaving the role of Scooby.

Sadly, despite quitting, the damage from decades of tobacco use took a toll on his health. In 1996, Messick suffered a stroke while recording voices. He recovered, but decided to retire from voice-over to spend more time with his family. He died of a second one in 1997 at the age of 71. A year later, Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island was released in his memory.

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Notable Roles Messick Played:

• The Alvin Show: Various voices.
• Wacky Races and Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines: Muttley^note Archive audio of Messick's laughter as Muttley was reused in SCOOB!.
• The Perils of Penelope Pitstop: Dum Dum, Pockets, Snoozy, Zippy
• The Flintstones: Bamm-Bamm Rubble
• The Jetsons: Astro, RUDI, Uniblab
• Scooby-Doo: Scooby-Doo, Scrappy-Doo
• The Smurfs (1981): Papa Smurf, Dreamy Smurf, Azrael
• Yogi Bear: Boo Boo, Ranger Smith
• Snagglepuss: Major Minor
• Josie and the Pussycats: Sebastian and Bleep
• Hong Kong Phooey: Spot
• Jonny Quest: Dr. Benton Quest (taking over for John Stephenson), Bandit
• Tiny Toon Adventures: Hamton J. Pig
• The Transformers: Gears, Ratchet, Scavenger, Doctor Andrews
• King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow: Ali, Sense Gnomes
• Challenge of the SuperFriends: The Scarecrow
• Space Ghost: Blip, Zorak, Sisto, Moltar, Creature King
• Shazzan: Kaboobie
• Birdman (1967): Falcon 7, Avenger, additional voices
• The Galaxy Trio: Vapor Man
• Foofur: Pepe
• The Ruff & Reddy Show: Ruff, narrator, Salt Water Daffy, Professor Gismo
• Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch: Scrambles
• Drak Pack: Fly and Toad
• The Godzilla Power Hour: Godzooky
• Moby Dick: Moby Dick the Whale and Scooby the Seal
• Freakazoid!: Dr. Vernon Danger
• Sabrina and The Groovie Goolies: Harvey Kinkle
• Mr. and Mrs. J. Evil Scientist: Junior
• Charlotte's Web: Jeffrey, Lamb, Spectators, and Uncle
• Curiosity Shop: Flip the Hippo, Woodrow the Groundhog, Mr. Jones, and The Wizard of Id

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