Dallas McKennon

Dallas Raymond McKennon (July 19, 1919 – July 14, 2009), sometimes credited as Dal McKennon, was an American actor and voice actor, in a career lasting over 50 years.

Career
Born near La Grande, Oregon, McKennon's best-known voice roles were that of Gumby for Art Clokey, Archie Andrews in several different Archie series for Filmation, and the primary voice of Buzz Buzzard in the Woody Woodpecker cartoons. In the early 1950s, McKennon created and hosted his own daily kids TV wraparound show, Space Funnies/Capt. Jet, which was seen weekday mornings on KNXT (KCBS) TV Ch. 2 in Hollywood, California. Space Funnies was the first Los Angeles-based kids show to air reruns of The Little Rascals and Laurel & Hardy shorts. He was also the primary voice actor for the 1960 cartoon series Q.T. Hush. McKennon was also the voice of Hardy Boys sidekick Chet Morton in the 1969 animated mystery series.

McKennon also sang, and provided many character voices for Disney. His distinctive voice can be heard in movies such as Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Mary Poppins, and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. He also provided the voices for many Disney Attractions such as the famous Big Thunder Mountain Railroad safety spiel, a pair of laughing hyenas in the Africa Room portion of It's a Small World, Benjamin Franklin's voice in Epcot's The American Adventure and the voice of Zeke in the Country Bear Jamboree.

McKennon's best-known live action role is that of the innkeeper, Cincinnatus, in the Daniel Boone TV series starring Fess Parker. He also had a bit part as a chef in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds and a gas station attendant in the Elvis Presley film Clambake. His last movie was Gumby: The Movie, under the pseudonym of Charles Farrington, voicing Gumby, Fatbuckle, Lucky Claybert and Professor Kapp.

McKennon was an avid Oregon Trail historian. He worked at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center giving instructional speeches and put together songs, stories and informational documents leading up the Oregon Trail's sesquicentennial (150th anniversary).

He also worked with OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting) creating "The Pappenheimers", an instructional video series to help teach children German. His character lived in a Volkswagen Bus and would tell stories about relatives in Germany. Many of the episodes had clips of Germany as well as cartoons.

He is also known for his recording of a crazy laugh, used for the Hyena in Lady and the Tramp, and later in a horror film called Tourist Trap. His laugh was also used in three Crash Bandicoot games Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Team Racing as a sound effect for a boss in the game called Ripper Roo, and then in the Christmas film Elf.

Personal life and death
McKennon married his childhood sweetheart, Betty Warner, in Portland, Oregon in 1942. The marriage lasted until he died of natural causes on July 14, 2009, five days before his 90th birthday, at the Willapa Harbor Care Center in Raymond, Washington. The couple had six daughters and two sons. They lived in California until 1968, when they moved to Cannon Beach, Oregon, from where Dallas commuted for acting and voiceover roles.

Live-action

 * Ben Casey - Waco Martin
 * Cannon - Bucky Fosdick
 * Mystery Mansion (1983) - Sam
 * The Cat from Outer Space - Charlie Cooney
 * Bonanza - Jenkins
 * Clambake - Gas station attendant
 * The Andersonville Trial - First Guard
 * Hot Lead and Cold Feet - Saloon Man
 * Iron Horse - Gabe
 * Son of Flubber (1963) - 1st Juror
 * House of the Demned (1963) - Mr. Quinby
 * The Birds (1963) - Sam, the Cook (uncredited)
 * King Cole's Party - Crooked Man
 * Space Academy - Johnny Sunseed
 * The Misadventures of Merlin Jones - Detective Hutchins
 * Tom Thumb - Con-Fu-Shon (voice)
 * Mary Poppins (1964) - Fox, Penguin #2, Hunting Horse, Merry-Go-Round Operator (voice, uncredited)
 * Gunsmoke - Jake / Homesteader
 * Daniel Boone - Cincinnatus
 * The Andy Griffith Show - Brian Jackson
 * Wee Sing: Nursery Rhymes and Lullabies (1986) - Narrator/Crooked old man
 * Wee Sing: King Cole's Party (1987) - Crooked old man
 * Frozen Assets (1992) - Stud of the Year Octogenarian
 * Dundee and the Culhane - Al
 * Mr. Smith Goes to Washington - Jim Tolliver
 * Tourist Trap - Mask (archived recording of laugh)
 * Elf - Jack-in-the-Box (archived recording of laugh)

Animation

 * The Gumby Show - Gumby / Pokey / Prickle / Nopey / Gumbo (only in Chicken Feed) / Henry (re-dubbed voice) / Rodgy (re-dubbed voice) / Granny / Additional voices
 * Space Funnies - Captain Jet
 * Walter Lantz series - Inspector Willoughby
 * Come Out Party - Inspector Willoughby
 * Archie cartoon series - Archie Andrews
 * Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse cartoon series - Courageous Cat
 * Goof Troop - Old Man in Bathtub
 * Q.T. Hush series - Q.T. Hush/Shamus
 * Woody Woodpecker series - Buzz Buzzard
 * Hergé's Adventures of Tintin - Tintin / Professor Calculus
 * Lady and the Tramp (1955) - Toughy, Pedro, Professor, Hyena
 * Sleeping Beauty (1959) - Maleficent's raven, Vernon the owl
 * One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) - Additional voices
 * Sissy Sheriff - Sugarfoot / Dirty McNasty
 * Dinbad Jr. - Dinbad Jr. / Salty
 * The Archie Show - Archie Andrews / Hot Dog / Mr. Weatherbee
 * Archie's Funhouse - Archie Andrews / Hot Dog / Mr. Weatherbee
 * How the Grinch Stole Christmas - Max
 * The Adventures of Mark Twain - Jim Smiley
 * Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree - Bees
 * The Hardy Boys (1969 cartoon series) - Joe Hardy / Chubby Morton
 * Tom and Jerry short, Cat and Dupli-cat - Falsetto
 * Sabrina and the Groovie Goolies - Additional voices
 * Sabrina the Teenage Witch - Additional voices
 * Aesop's Fables (1971) - Hare, Old Turtle (voice)
 * Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) - Bear (voice)
 * The U.S. of Archie - Archie Andrews / Hot Dog / Mr. Weatherbee
 * Treasure Island - Captain Flint / Ben Gunn
 * Oliver Twist - Bookseller / Charlie Bates
 * The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat - Additional voices
 * The Puppetoon Movie (1987) – Additional voices including the character Gumby.
 * Gumby: The Movie - Gumby, Professor Kapp, Fatbuckle, Lucky Claybert, Nobuckle (credited as Charles Farrington)
 * Journey Back to Oz - Omby Amby

Video games

 * Crash Bandicoot - Ripper Roo (laugh only, uncredited)
 * Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back - Ripper Roo (laugh only, uncredited)
 * Crash Team Racing - Ripper Roo (laugh only, uncredited)
 * Crash Bash - Ripper Roo (laugh only, uncredited)
 * Disney's Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse - The Ghost (laugh only, uncredited)

Theme park attractions

 * Big Thunder Mountain Railroad - Safety spiel
 * Country Bear Jamboree - Zeke
 * The Hall of Presidents - Andrew Jackson
 * It's a Small World - Laughing hyenas
 * The American Adventure - Benjamin Franklin
 * The Haunted Mansion - Deaf Old Man

Albums

 * Donald Duck and his Friends - Scrooge McDuck