Difference between revisions 104449288 and 104449289 on dewiki

{{Infobox person
| name = Daws Butler
| image = Daws Butler (1976).jpg
| caption = Butler in 1976
| birth_name = Charles Dawson Butler
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1916|11|16|mf=y}}
| birth_place = [[Toledo, Ohio]], U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1988|5|18|1916|11|16|mf=n}}
(contracted; show full)

In 1934, the future voice master started as an [[impressionist]], entering multiple amateur contests and winning most of them. He had entered them, not with the intention of showing his talent but as a personal challenge to overcome his shyness, with success. 
HoweverNonetheless, Butler also won professional engagements at vaudeville theaters. Later he teamed up with fellow performers, Jack Lavin and Willard Ovitz to form the comedy trio ''The Three Short Waves''. The team played in theaters, radio and nightclubs, generating positive reviews from regional critics and audiences. They disolved when in 1941, Daws Butler joined the U.S. Navy as America entered World War Two. Some time after, he met his wife Myrtis during a trip towartime function at [[North Carolina]].

His first voice work for an animated character came in 1948 at [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM]]. [[Tex Avery]] hired Butler to provide the voice of a British wolf on ''[[Little Rural Red Rididing Hood]]'' and also narration for several of his cartoons. In many of them, there was a nameless wolf that spoke in a [[Southern American English|Southern accent]] and whistled all the time. Butler provided the voice for this wolf. While at MGM, Avery wanted Butler to try to do the voice of [[Droopy]], a character that [[Bill Thompson (voice actor)|Bill Thompson]] regularly voiced. Instead he then told Avery about [[Don Messick]], another voice actor and Butler's life-long friend. Thus Mes(contracted; show full)
*[[Yogi Bear]]

Butler would voice most of these characters for many decades, in both TV shows and in some commercials. The breakfast cereal mascot [[Cap'n Crunch]] became an icon of sorts on [[Saturday morning cartoons|Saturday morning TV]] through many commercials produced by [[Jay Ward]]. Butler gave voice to the Cap'n from the 1960s to the 1980s. He based the voice on that of character actor [[Charles Butterworth (actor)|Charles Butterworth]]. 
In the 1970s he was the voice of "Hair Bear"When in 1961, [[Mel Blanc]] was recovering from a motor vehicle accident, Daws Butler stepped in to voice [[Barney Rubble]] in five episodes of ''[[The Flintstones]]'' (''The Hit Songwriter'', ''Droop-Along Flintstone'', ''Fred Flintstone Woos Again'', ''The Rock Quarry Story'', ''The Little White Lie''). In the 1970s he was the voice of "Hair Bear" on ''[[Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch!]]'' and a few characters in minor cartoons such as ''C.B. Bears''. On ''[[Wacky Races]]'', Butler provided the voices for a number of the racers, notably Rock Slag, Big Gruesome, the Red Max, Sgt. Blast, Peter Perfect, and Rufus Ruffcut. On ''[[Laff-a-Lympics]]'', Butler was virtually the entire "Yogi Yahooey" team.  He voiced a penguin and a turtle in the movie ''[[Mary Poppins (film)|Mary Poppins]]'', his only known film work for Disney. Along with [[Stan Freberg]], [[Paul Frees]] and [[June Foray]], Butler also provided voices for countless children's records featuring recreations of several successful Disney cartoons and films.

==Inspiration==
Butler based some of his voices on popular celebrities of the day. Yogi Bear began as an [[Art Carney]] impression; Butler had done a similar voice in several of [[Robert McKimson]]'s films at Warner Brothers and Stan Freberg's comedy record "The Honey-Earthers." However, Butler soon changed Yogi's voice, making it much deeper and more sing-songy, thus making it a more original voice.  Hokey Wolf began as an impression of [[Phil Silvers]], and Snagglepuss as [[Bert Lahr]]. In fact, when Snagglepuss began appearing in commercials for [[Kellogg's]] [[Cocoa Krispies]] in 1961, Lahr threatened to sue Butler for "stealing" his voice.  As part of the settlement, the disclaimer "Snagglepuss voice by Daws Butler" was required to appear on each commercial, making him the only voice actor ever to receive one in an animated TV commercial.  Again, Butler redesigned these voices, making them his own inventions.  Huckleberry Hound was inspired many years earlier, in 1945, by thea North Carolina neighbor of Daws's wife's family, and he had in fact been using that voice for a long time, for Avery's laid-back wolf and Lantz's Smedley.

==Later life==
When [[Mel Blanc]] was recovering from a motor vehicle accident, Butler stepped in to provide the voice of [[Barney Rubble]] (another rather Carney-esque voice) in four episodes of ''[[The Flintstones|FlinButler remained somewhat low-key in the 1970s and 1980s, until a 1985 revival of ''[[The Jetstones]]''. Butler remained somewhat low-key in the 1970s and 1980s, until a 1985 revival of ''[[The JetsonAlso in 1983, he voiced the title character, Wacky WallWalker in ''[[Wacky WallWalker|Deck the Halls with Wacky Walls]]''. In 1975, Butler began an acting workshop that spawned such talents as [[Nancy Cartwright (actress)|Nancy Cartwright]] (''[[The Simpsons]]''), [[Corey Burton]] (Old Navy, [[Disney]]), and [[Joe Bevilacqua]] ([[NPR]]).    

In the year of his death, ''[[The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound]]'' was released, a tour-de-force featuring most of his classic early characters.

==Personal life and death==
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*Butler once appeared as a contestant on [[Groucho Marx]]'s ''You Bet Your Life.''  The studio audience did not recognize him until he began doing Huckleberry Hound's voice.  Butler and his partner split the top prize of $10,000.

*In 1985, Daws Butler 
agreed and was interviewed about his career on radio by [[Dr. Demento]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Portal|Biography}}
*[http://www.archive.org/download/CBSRadioWorkshop/CBSrw_57-07-28_ep78-Never_Bet_the_Devil_Your_Head.mp3] A rare dramatic role by Butler as Toby Dammit in [[Poe]]'s story [[Never Bet the Devil Your Head]]
*[http://www.dawsbutler.com The Official Daws Butler Website]
*[http://www.comedyorama.com Comedy-O-Rama and Scenes from the Daws Butler Workshop]
*{{imdb name|id=0124889|name=Daws Butler}}
*{{Find a Grave|23206}}

{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
| NAME              = Butler, Daws
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES = 
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = Voice actor
| DATE OF BIRTH     = November 16, 1916
| PLACE OF BIRTH    = Toledo, Ohio, U.S.
| DATE OF DEATH     = May 18, 1988
| PLACE OF DEATH    = Culver City, California, United States
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Daws}}
[[Category:1916 births]]
[[Category:1988 deaths]]
[[Category:American voice actors]]
[[Category:American radio actors]]
[[Category:American impressionists (entertainers)]]
[[Category:Actors from Toledo, Ohio]]
[[Category:American Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:Yogi Bear]]
[[Category:Era Records artists]]
[[Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction]]
[[Category:Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City]]
[[Category:United States Navy sailors]]

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