RIP - Hang On...

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

... to those Hat's and Glasses! This here's the Wildest Ride in the Wilderness!!

RIP Dallas McKennon

www.newsfromme.com reports:

We've lost another great cartoon voice actor. Dallas McKennon has died at the age of 89. He would have hit ninety this Sunday.

Dallas did so much that it's hard to list it all. He worked a lot for Disney in movies including Lady and the Tramp, 101 Dalmatians and Mary Poppins. He's heard all over Disneyland. When you get on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride, a recorded voice calls out, "Hold on to your hats and glasses! This here's the wildest ride in the wilderness!" That's Dallas McKennon. He also recorded voices for the Haunted Mansion and the Country Bear Jamboree and many other attractions. Or if you go to Epcot and you hear the animatronic figure of Benjamin Franklin...well, that's Dallas McKennon, too.

He was in a lot of Walter Lantz cartoons, usually playing villains like Buzz Buzzard or Wally Walrus. He was in a lot of George Pal productions, like The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao and Tom Thumb.

He was the voice of Archie Andrews (and several other characters) on Filmation's long-running Archie cartoon shows. He was the voice of Gumby.

Dallas also had a good career as an on-camera actor, usually playing an old prospector or cowboy. His most notable credit was in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. He was the cook who yells, "Don't throw that match!" in the gas station scene. He had a recurring role as Cinncinatus, the old storekeeper on the Daniel Boone TV series. He had a bit part in the Elvis Presley movie, Clambake, which explains the above photo.
For years, he also worked with studio audio departments developing sound effects, some of which were wholly or partially created in his throat. He did, without any audio trickery, an uncanny rooster crow that became a part of many studios' sound effects libraries and which has probably been used in thousands of TV shows and movies. He did it for years in commercials as the rooster on the Kellogg's Corn Flakes box and Dallas claimed, probably rightly, that it was his crowing that opened up the original Huckleberry Hound cartoon show each week.

He was a nice man...very generous with his talents and willing to lend them gratis to student films and to mentor others. A bunch of us spent a lovely, lively evening with him a few years ago when he was visiting from his home in Oregon. We were all very happy to meet him and I'm sure we think of that event whenever we hear his voice.