Voices of Tedd Pierce

[trevthetoonfan]

Since there's been a lot of talk about Mel Blanc's roles in WB cartoons and non WB cartoons, I thought it would be fun to talk about Tedd Pierce's voices. I know some cartoons he was in, particularly, Babbitt in the Babbitt and Catstello cartoons. He was Louie in French Rarebit. Was he the one in some cartoons that said, "I hope, hope hope hope"? What were some of the cartoons he did voice work for?

[Jaime_Weinman]

Among other things, he was Tom in "The Dover Boys," Monty in "Strife With Father," Sylvester the Dog in "Hare Force" and Quentin Quail.

I always wondered why he stopped doing voices for the WB cartoons, even though he remained at the studio. Mike Maltese, who also sometimes did voices (not as many as Pierce) stopped doing them around the same time as Pierce did.

[thornhill]

Pierce voices his self caricature (as does Maltese) in Wackiki Wabbit, and is part of the male chorus in The Unruly Hare.

He's Mr. Beetle in the Fleischer feature Mr. Bug Goes to Town as well.

[Matt the Y]

He's also the dopey Indian who goes hunting Bugs in "A Feather in His Hare" ("Me thank-um you heap much.....er, Ugh!"), Wentworth J. Whistlestop who phones in to "What's the Name of Your Name?" in "The Prize Pest", and the guy who goes "Naw, it ain't no boid, it's a dive bomber!" at the beginning of "Super-Rabbit". He's also the big, dopey bulldog who pursues Bugs in "A Hare Grows in Manhattan" and the stuffy big game hunter in "The Major Lied 'Till Dawn". And also the the husband of the female chicken Henery Hawks tries to drag home in "The Squawkin' Hawk", several apartment tenants who Porky tries to rescue in "Porky the Fireman" (including the man shouting "Get the net ready!" who does a blackface turn after falling through a smoke cloud), and the Big Bad Wolf who winds up getting malleted by Egghead in "Little Red Walking Hood". He's also all (That's right, ALL) the male voices in "A Star is Hatched" (including all of the celebrity voice impersonations).

In terms of non-WB voicework, he voiced Bluto in a few of the Max Fleischer Popeye shorts he worked on ("Many Tanks" for one) and a few of the incidental voices in the Superman shorts too, I believe.

[trevthetoonfan]

It sounds to me like Tedd Pierce started doing voices before he became a writer. His first voice job might have been Porky's Poultry Plant as the rooster football game announcer.

[trevthetoonfan]

Adding to that, Tedd Pierce also voiced the Peter Lorre caricature in Birth of a Notion. I know that because it's close to his Monty voice.

[Matt the Y]

Oh, another one I can't believe I forgot, Leo the lion who goes hunting Bugs in "Hold the Lion Please" ("Hey, sorry, I can't stay and kill you but.....")

The hotel manager who shouts "And stay out!" to Sylvester (after getting thrown out by said manager) in "Canary Row" is also Pierce.

By the way, regarding this topic, there's something I've been meaning to ask; is that Tedd Pierce as the voice of Sloppy Moe in "Wagon Heels"? It isn't Blanc (though Blanc did do Sloppy Moe in the original "Injun Trouble") but I'm not sure if it's Pierce or Bob Bruce who does the narrator in the short.

[trevthetoonfan]

Maybe. It sure sounds like Mel doing Sloppy Moe though in both Wagon Heels and Injun Trouble. Bob Bruce was the narrator in Wagon Heels.

[Matt the Y]

OMG, another Pierce voice favorite I can't believe I forgot to mention; the lead Gashouse Gorillas baseball player who combats Bugs in "Baseball Bugs" ("I say yer safe; If ya don't like it, ya can go to the showers!").

[Glowworm]

Wow-Tedd Pierce sure did a lot of voices-and they were all fantastic.

I looked him up on imdb-quite a lot of voices! A few more include the Tom cat from "Wacky Wildlife"(1940) "Hello,Bob.":D
Nick 'O Teen and Porky's mother(!) from "Wholly Smoke" and some of the rabbit thugs from "Tortoise Wins By a Hare"

[Jack G.]

Pierce & Maltese did the original voices for Hubie & Burtie.

I actually prefer them to Blanc & Freberg.

[J Lee]

Pierce also does the voice of the admiral in "The Mighty Navy", which will be coming out on Vol. 3 of the Popeye DVD. And he reportedly did the voice of Bluto in at least one of the Miami Fleischer shorts, though I haven't been able to match his voice with any specific cartoon ("Customers Wanted", "Ghosks Is The Bunk", "Stealin' Ain't Honest" and "Olive Oyl and Water Don't Mix" are the Miami Flieschers done while Tedd was at the studio that didn't feature either Pinto Colvig or Dave Barry as Bluto, but none of those really sound like Pierce, either).

It sounds to me like Tedd Pierce started doing voices before he became a writer. His first voice job might have been Porky's Poultry Plant as the rooster football game announcer.

He was doing voices before then for Warners. Tedd's Capt. Billy in "Go Into Your Dance" from 1935, and he also had a few incidental lines in other pre-Avery/pre-Tashlin WB shorts.

[trevthetoonfan]

Dave Barry was Bluto too? Which cartoons? I think I would know Dave's voice because he sounds like Humphrey Bogart.

[J Lee]

Dave Barry was Bluto too? Which cartoons? I think I would know Dave's voice because he sounds like Humphrey Bogart.

Barry was Bluto for most (but not all) of the WWII Popeyes, from "Kickin' the Conga Round" through "W'ere On Our Way to Rio", when the studio moved back to New York and Jackson Beck took over the voice.

[larriva9/11]

Pierce voices his self caricature (as does Maltese) in Wackiki Wabbit, and is part of the male chorus in The Unruly Hare.

Speaking of male choruses, would he have been in What's Up, Doc?