A Tribute to Donald Messick: The Voice Behind Your Favorite Cartoons

Story by Mitchell Smith

Hello everybody today I’m taking a look at voice actor Donald Messick. Many of you may not know the name or face but you certainly know some of his many characters he voiced over the years. Messick was born in Buffalo in 1926 and worked right up till he passed away in 1997. Messick started out as a ventriloquist and did radio shows. One of his first characters he voiced was Andy from “The Raggedy Ann show”. In 1949 Messick got his first gig on television and spent the fifties honing his voice and acting. When the sixties came around there was a new vibe in America.

It was an experimental time and many great cartoons were created. Messick was the voice of familiar characters like Scooby Doo, Boo-Boo, Ranger Smith, and Bam-Bam. In the seventies he continued with his signature characters and worked on shows like “Inch High Private Eye”, Hong Kong Phooey, “Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch” and was the voice of Jabberjaw. When the eighties rolled around Messick was doing voices for “ Captain Caveman”, “Heathcliff”, and added Scrappy Doo. Messick did one of the professors on a GI Joe episode and he voiced Ratchet and Gears on Transformers. Back when we had to wake up early to watch Saturday morning cartoons one of his biggest rolls in the eighties came to us as Papa Smurf.

Messick also voiced Dreamy and Azrael the cat on the Smurfs. In the nineties Messick reprised many of his rolls including Dr. Benton from Johnny Quest, Muttley from Wacky Racers, and Astro from the Jetsons, but was also Hampton J. Pig from Tiny Toons. He had so many different voices and so many popular characters over the years. It was a sad day when he passed but his legacy will live on forever in characters he helped to create. Have a great week everyone.