News: "Magilla Gorilla" Voice Actor Dies

[PudgieDParrot]

Allan Melvin, voice of Magilla Gorilla, passed away Thursday (1/17/08) of cancer at the age of 84. He was also known as the actor who played Sam the Butcher on The Brady Bunch. Just thought some of you would like to know. We will all miss him.

http://news.aol.com/entertainment/television/tv-news-story/ar/_a/the-brady-bunch-butcher-dies/20080119111209990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

[Matt the Y]

Allan Melvin, voice of Magilla Gorilla, passed away Thursday (1/17/08) of cancer at the age of 84. He was also known as the actor who played Sam the Butcher on The Brady Bunch. Just thought some of you would like to know. We will all miss him.

http://news.aol.com/entertainment/television/tv-news-story/ar/_a/the-brady-bunch-butcher-dies/20080119111209990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

He was also the voices of Sgt. Snorkel and Pvt. Zero in those old Beetle Bailey cartoons of the 1960's (I didn't care for his Sgt. Snorkel voice very much but I did love his Zero voice; "Duh, huh-huh; I nevuh been in a tunnel o' love before!"; from "Psychological Testing").

And, in terms of other non-animation roles, he gave a memorable performance opposite Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker's "fighting" pal Barney Hefner on the long-running 70's sitcom All in the Family. Nobody could dish it out back to ol' Arch better than Barney!

R.I.P. Allan. Thanks for your work.

[Fibber Fox]

Allan Melvin, voice of Magilla Gorilla, passed away Thursday (1/17/08) of cancer at the age of 84. He was also known as the actor who played Sam the Butcher on The Brady Bunch. Just thought some of you would like to know. We will all miss him.

Thanks for the note, Pudgie. I love the old Bilko shows and he played a great straight man. I guess he played essentially the same character on Dick Van Dyke. But I always recognised him from cartoons.

F. Fox

[Ray Pointer]

While the announcement came from Los Angeles, I understand he was living in Traverse City, Michigan.

[TheBlueHombre]

He was a fun actor to watch on TV and listen to in cartoons. He will be missed.

[Mark J]

A great fixture on TV comedies from the 50's to the 80's - my favorite was Cpl. Henshaw on the Phil Silvers Show/Sgt. Bilko. He will be missed.

[Tom Stathes]

Aw, what a shame. My favorite role of his was Barney on All in the Family. Rest in peace, Allan.

[Dell Comics Fan]

I'm glad that he lived long enough to appear in the interview on the Magilla

Gorilla DVD. It was my favorite extra on that DVD. Yes, he will be missed.

[cpdavison]

HERE (http://learning2share.blogspot.com/2008/01/allan-melvin-1923-2008.html) is a nice blog post, courtesy of the "I'm Learning To Share" blog.

Enjoy...

Craig D.