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JUNE
FORAY
1917
legendäre Trickfilmsprecherin / legendary
voice of animation movies
Ms. Foray got started in the voice field at the
age of 12 (at a time when she was already doing old lady voices). She had
the good fortunate of having a speech teacher who also had a radio program
in the local Springfield, Massachusetts area. This teacher became her mentor,
and she added June to the cast of her show.
Eventually, June's family moved to California,
where she continued in radio. By the age of 15, she was already writing
her own show for children (in which she also provided voices): "Lady Makebelieve".
June dabbled in both on-camera/physical acting
and voice work, but she appeared to be particularly talented in voice characterizations,
dialects and accents. Just like Daws Butler (one of her later co-stars),
June was a "voice magician"! She worked steadily in radio in the 30s, 40s
and into the 50s.
In the 40s (and possibly even as early as the
30s), June branched out from radio and began providing voices for cartoons.
Sometime in the 40s, she also did some voices for a live action short called
"Speaking of Animals". In this project, she dubbed in voices for real on-screen
animals. She was to repeat this task, in the early 70s, on an episode of
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.
It was the 1950s, however, when June's star in
Animation not only began to rise, but soared! In the late 40s, she, Stan
Freberg, Daws Butler, Pinto Colvig (and many others) recorded hundreds
of children's and adult albums for Capitol Records. Her female characterizations,
on these records, ran the entire gambit: little girls, dowagers, middle-aged
hags, old ladies, witches, etc., etc. And no one seemed to be able to do
these same voices with the warmth, energy and sparkle that June did.
As a result of these albums, Disney sought June
out, and hired her to do the voice of Lucifer the cat in "Cinderella" (1950).
They were to use June many times, over the decades, into the 21st Century.
Warner Brothers also heard about her, and hired her to do all of their
Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts (they had previously been using
Bea Benaderet). June has done many incidental characters for Warners, but
her most famous voice has been that of Granny (in the Tweety and Sylvester
series). Unfortunately, since Mel Blanc's contract called for exclusive
voice credit on these cartoons, June never received credited for all the
voices that she did.
Finally in 1957, Jay Ward, famous for the Rocky
and Bullwinkle series (as well as "George of the Jungle" (1967) and "Hoppity
Hooper" (1964)), met with June, over cocktails. He explained to June what
he was looking for, regarding the voices of "Rocky the Flying Squirrel"
and the villainess, "Natasha Fatale". Two years later, on November 19,
1959, the showed debuted as "Rocky and His Friends" (1959) (and later changed
its name to "The Bullwinkle Show" in 1961). The series ran for 5 years
total.
Of course, June provided many other voices for
this show; especially for the show's "side shows", such as "Fractured Fairy
Tales" and "Aesop and Son". She did fewer voices for Rocky and Bullwinkle's
"Peabody's Improbable History" segment, but she did participate in at least
three of those episodes. After the show had been successful for a few years,
Jay Ward soon added one of this series most popular segments: "Dudley Do-Right
of the Mounties". June was a regular in this side show; namely as Dudley's
girlfriend, "Nell Fenwick".
Jay Ward showcased Ms. Foray's talent like no
other producer had before; mainly because he used her exclusively for nearly
all the female voices. With only a few exceptions, she did every single
female voice. June missed out on doing voices for three of the show's "Fractured
Fairy Tales" only because she was booked to do some recording work with
Stan Freberg, and could not reschedule it. Actress Julie Bennett filled
in for her, on those occasions. Also, there were a few times when Bullwinkle
co-producer Bill Scott's wife, Dorothy, did voices for "Peabody's Improbable
History".
After Rocky and Bullwinkle, Jay Ward produced
two other cartoon series: "Hoppity Hooper" (1964) and "George of the Jungle"
(1967). June was absent from the "Hoppity Hooper" series; Ward and Scott
relied on the talents of actress Chris Allen instead. However, June could
still be heard on this show, since recycled "Fractured Fairy Tales", "Dudley
Do-Right" and "Peabody" segments aired during its run. She soon returned,
however, on the "George of the Jungle" series, once again as the lone female
voice artist (included on this show were the side shows of "Super Chicken"
and "Tom Slick").
Jay Ward and Bill Scott made June incredibly famous,
and Rocky the Flying Squirrel being her signature voice. To this day, June
regularly wears a necklace, with the figure of Rocky attached to the chain.
June lost out to Bea Benaderet, in 1960, when
she auditioned to be the voice of "Betty Rubble" on "The Flintstones" (1960).
But, over the decades, the Hanna-Barbera studio has availed itself of June's
colorful characters many times. Animation "holiday special" powerhouse
Rankin Bass also called upon June, numerous times during the 60s (for shows
such as Frosty the Snowman (1969) (TV) and The Little Drummer Boy (1968)
(TV)). She was also occasionally used by Walter Lantz ("The Woody Woodpecker
Show" (1957)) and DePatie-Freleng (producers of "The Pink Panther" cartoon
series).
In the early 70s, Ms. Foray also tried her hand
at puppetry. She became the voice of an elephant, an aardvark and a giraffe
on "The Curiosity Shop". Around this same time, she also recorded various
voices for the road shows of Disney on Parade, which toured the United
States and Europe for several years.
In the 60s and the 70s, June's voice was used,
many times, to dub in voices for full-length feature live action films.
Recent work includes Disney's animated Mulan films
(1998 and 2004) as "Grandma Fa", and The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle
(2000). See her filmography with the Internet Movie Data Base for more
of her 21st Century work. At this writing, her most recent credit is a
guest spot on "Duck Dodgers" (2003), on 21 January 2005.
Cartoons:
Red Hot Riding Hood (43) The Lonesome Stranger
(46) Cinderella (50) Trick or Treat (52) Peter Pan (53) Pet Peeve (54)
International Woodpecker (57) Rocky and His Friends (59-60) The Bullwinkle
Show (61) The Bugs Bunny Show (60-62) Beetle Bailey (63) The Flintstones
(59-64) The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo (64) How the Grinch Stole Christmas
(66) The Pink Panther Show (69) The Dudley Do-Right Show (69) Scooby Do,
Where Are You (69) Disneyland (72) Mowgli's Brothers (76) Hans in Luck
(78) Beauty and the Beast (81) Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (81)
Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island (83) The Incredible Hulk (83) Teen
Wolf (86-88) Duck Tales (87-89) Tiny Toon Adventures (91) Garfield Gets
a Life (91) Garfield and Friends (90-93) Thumbelina (94) Mulan (98) Donald
Duck Goin' Quackers (00)
Total über 250 Filme
Original-signiertes Grossfot im Format A4
Price in Euro 35.-- (Rarität |
