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Hokey Smoke! June Foray Dead at 99
Another piece of your childhood is gone. Voice actress June Foray has passed away at age 99.
Unlike her male counterpart, Mel Blanc, Foray was non-exclusive to any one studio. She did voices for Disney, Warner Brothers and Jay Ward. It was the latter where she became somewhat of a cult figure as the voice of both Rocky the Flying Squirrel and Natasha Fatale, female companion of diminutive spy Boris Badenov.
At Warner’s she provided the voice of Granny in the Sylvester and Tweety cartoons. This is where she first worked with animator Chuck Jones who cast her as Cindy Lou Who in The Grinch That Stole Christmas.
As noted in Variety this morning, Foray had an impressive list of fans. Film critic and historian Leonard Maltin wrote the forward to Foray’s 2009 autobiography “Did You Grow Up With Me, Too?” He wrote: “When I was fortunate enough to attend the Oscar nominees’ luncheon in 2007, I asked director Martin Scorsese who he was excited to have met that day, among the hundred-or-so contenders and Academy guests. He smiled and said, ‘June Foray.’ ”
She is one of the last actors to be able to peg the beginning of her career to American network radio and her last credit was for a Rocky and Bullwinkle theatrical short released in 2014. Her loss will create the demand for another “legacy” voice in animation, that is, someone who can imitate her and maintain the characters she originally brought to life. At last count it took more than a dozen voiceover artists to cover the loss of Blanc in 1989.
Wow. I’m embarrassed that I never knew her name.
Rocky, Natasha, Granny, and Cindy Lou were all one person? That’s range, baby!
I actually met her at a friend’s home at an informal party in Los Angeles that also included Disney animators Marc Davis and Ollie Johnston (two of the Disney Nine Old Men responsible for creating many of Disney’s animation classics). This was back in the mid-80s and June was in rare form running through a medley of her many voices. She was a bundle of energy. May she Rest In Peace.
Awwww, nuts! May she rest in peace and joy…
I met her just a few years before Brian did. 1979, I think, at Filmex, the former name of the Los Angeles film festival. Back then broadcast TV was starting to cut back on children’s Saturday programming. I asked June where her work would be heard next. She was energetic and optimistic. “Cassettes! Satellites! God knows what they’ll invent next!”
EJ is right to point out the little known fact that the end of big time, old time radio meant that a lot of voice artists went from radio to animation. TV had a great demand for new cartoons. Compared to classic era Disney or Warner Bros., they had to be turned out quickly and much more cheaply (all of us of a certain age recall Hanna-Barbera TV cartoons where Huckleberry Hound, Ruff n’ Reddy, or Quick Draw McGraw would run past the same tree every three seconds).
UPA cartoons (Gerald McBoing-Boing, Mr. Magoo) were widely praised for making minimalist virtue out of financial necessity. Jay Ward (Rocky and Bullwinkle) took a slightly different approach. He farmed out the animation, much of it to Mexico, and mostly paid attention to how his characters sounded and what they said–the gags were almost all verbal. It’s a heck of a lot easier and cheaper to write jokes than to draw visual ones. June Foray fit right in to this method.
On my social media feed, someone quoted Chuck Jones when asked if June Foray was the female Mel Blanc. His reply was no way, Mel Blanc was the male June Foray.
Very talented woman.
Gary, as an adult with some historical awareness, Rocky and Bullwinkle is still watchable for me. Jay Ward wrote on two levels…Kinda time-release commentary, no?
She was “Talky Tina.”
Well, she got her three-score years and ten, and another 29 years in change. A well-lived life.
Memory Eternal!
Seawriter
I was just recently reminded of Rocky and Bullwinkle, one of my favorites, when last weeks Russia outrage featured Donald Trump Jr. and that Russian lawyer. Wasn’t her name Natasha?
I loved Gerald McBoing-Boing when I was a kid, and Mr. Magoo. My Dad was an ad-man, and he told me all about Mel Blanc. I didn’t know about June Foray. May she rest in peace (and laughter-just think what she’s bringing to Heaven).
You’ll get carpal tunnel syndrome scrolling through her IDMB credits.
There is a reason I have the avatar I do. This is a sad day.
EJ,
Hokey Smoke Bullwinkle!
Regards,
Jim
That was grrreat @profdlp! Thanks.
Natalia, I believe.
I have to give some grudging credit to RT, the Russian news network, for droll self-deprecating wit: they apparently tried to license the use of Boris and Natasha as spokes-characters for a promotional campaign, a wink-and-a-nod acknowledgment of Russia’s image in western media. Whoever Jay Ward’s estate sold the rights to wouldn’t play along.
Wow. I am also ashamed to say I had never heard of her (or Bill Scott), though my avatar also comes from that show. Thanks for the clips — no wonder I have such fond feelings for those cartoons.
Truly RIP, June Foray.
Everyone is saying these nice things, but she was Lucifer, I tell you! (The cat in Cinderella.)
Another early fan of Rocky the Flying Squirrel, that voice is endearing and enduring.
And Timmy’s mom in “Ricki-tikki-tavi”.
Maybe it is in mourning.
Seawriter
I thought of that too–can’t believe nobody else mentioned it. Is it just that’s too long ago,
or is it that the country right now has no sense of humor?
Reminds me of one of the episodes where Bullwinkle makes a literary reference and says to Rocky,
you get it?
I get it, Bullwinkle.
Thousands won’t!
In case you missed it I wrote about the voice of the boy Sherman back in 2013.
Sidebars of History: The Uncredited Edition
Just trying to be funny…guess I should try harder.
She can be heard frequently on Sirius/XM’s Radio Classics, especially as a regular on Stan Freberg’s summer replacement program. The host will probably work up a special for her next week.
YES! Hoping so…
Last week Andrew Klavan used Boris and Natasha for one of his opening monologues concerning the Russian meet-up with Donald Jr., so great minds evidently think alike! RIP, June; as @ejhill so aptly puts it, another piece of my childhood is gone.
No, it is Natasha….and “Boris Badenov”–wonder how many people ever got that….
oh and what about ” the ruby yacht of Omar Khayam” ?
Or the Kerwood Derby.
I remember when I got to be old enough to realize that half of the things in the show that amused me had gone way over my head. I have thoroughly enjoyed going back and watching as many of them as I can find in order to catch all the little jokes that made me wonder why my mom liked Rocky & Bullwinkle way more than the other cartoons I watched.
*Her* name is Natalia – even though she’s using Natasha Fatale’s playbook… :-)