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{{Infobox actor
| name = Daws Butler
| image = Daws Butler (1976).jpg
| caption = Butler in 1976
| birthname = Charles Dawson Butler
| birthdate = {{birth date|1916|11|16|mf=y}}
| birthplace = [[Toledo, Ohio|Toledo]], [[Ohio]], [[United States|U.S.]]
| deathdate = {{death date and age|1988|5|18|1916|11|16|mf=n}}
| deathplace = [[Culver City, California|Culver City]], [[California]]
| restingplace =
| spouse = 
| children = 
| imdb_id = 
| awards = 
}}
{{Unreferenced|date=May 2008}}
'''Daws Butler''' ('''Charles Dawson Butler'''; [[November 16]], [[1916]] – [[May 18]], [[1988]]) was a [[voice actor]] born in [[Toledo, Ohio|Toledo]], [[Ohio]]. He originated the voices of many famous [[animated cartoon]] characters, including [[Yogi Bear]] and [[Huckleberry Hound]].

==Career==
===Earlier life===
One of his first voice roles was that of Snap, one of the [[Rice Krispies]] elf mascots [[Snap, Crackle, and Pop]]. His first major success, however, came in the mid-1940s at [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM]]. [[Tex Avery]] hired Butler to provide narration work for several of his cartoons. In many cartoons, there was a nameless wolf who 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 Dog]], a character that [[Bill Thompson (voice actor)|Bill Thompson]] regularly voiced. Butler performed the voice for a few cartoons, but he then told Avery about [[Don Messick]], another voice actor and Butler's life-long friend. Messick quickly became a voice actor.

In 1949, Butler landed a role in a televised [[puppet]] show created by former [[Warner Brothers]] cartoon director [[Bob Clampett]] called ''[[Time for Beany]]''. 33-year-old Butler was teamed up with 23-year-old [[Stan Freberg]], and together they did all the voices of the puppets. Butler voiced Beany Boy and Captain Huffenpuff. Freberg voiced Cecil and Dishonest John. An entire stable of recurring characters were seen. The show's writers were [[Charles Shows]] and [[Lloyd Turner (writer)|Lloyd Turner]], whose dependably funny dialog was still always at the mercy of Butler's and Freberg's [[ad lib]]s. ''Time for Beany'' ran from 1949 to 1954 and won several [[Emmy Award]]s. It was the basis for the cartoon ''[[Beany and Cecil]]''.

Butler briefly turned his attention to TV commercials, although he quickly moved to providing the voice to many nameless [[Walter Lantz]] characters for theatrical shorts later seen on the ''[[Woody Woodpecker]]'' program. His notable character was the penguin "[[Chilly Willy]]" and his sidekick, the southern-speaking dog Smedley (the same voice used for Tex Avery's laid-back wolf character). 

Also in the 1950s, Stan Freberg asked Butler to help him write comedy skits for his [[Capitol Records]] albums. Their first collaboration, "[[St. George and the Dragon-Net]]" (based on ''[[Dragnet (drama)|Dragnet]]''), was the first comedy record to sell over one million copies. Freberg was more of a satirist who did song parodies, but the bulk of his "talking" routines were co-written by, and co-starred, Daws Butler. Butler also teamed up again with Freberg and cartoon actress [[June Foray]] in a short-lived network radio series, ''[[The Stan Freberg Show]]'', which ran from July to October, 1957 on the CBS Radio Network. Freberg's box-set, ''Tip of the Freberg'' ([[Rhino Entertainment]], 1999) chronicles every aspect of Freberg's career except the cartoon voice-over work, and it showcases his career with Daws Butler.

In 1957, [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM]] closed their animation division, and producers [[William Hanna]] and [[Joseph Barbera]] found themselves unemployed. They quickly formed [[Hanna-Barbera|their own company]], and Daws Butler and Don Messick were on-hand to provide voices. The first, ''[[The Ruff & Reddy Show]]'', set the formula for the rest of the series of cartoons that the two would helm until the mid 1960s.

===Voice characters===
During the 1957–1965 era, Daws Butler gave voice to the following cartoon characters, among others:

*Reddy the dog (from ''[[The Ruff & Reddy Show]]'')
*[[Huckleberry Hound]]
*Yahooey (from ''[[Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey]]'')
*[[Yogi Bear]]
* Wolf (from the ''[[Droopy]]'' cartoons)

*[[Snagglepuss]]
*[[Quick Draw McGraw]]
*[[Baba Looey]] (from ''[[Quick Draw McGraw]]'')
*[[Loopy De Loop]]
*Dixie Mouse (of ''[[Pixie and Dixie]]'')
*[[Mr. Jinks]] (of ''[[Pixie and Dixie]]'') 
*[[Snooper and Blabber|Super Snooper and Blabber Mouse]]
*Fibber Fox (of ''[[Yakky Doodle]]'')
*Alfy Gator (of ''[[Yakky Doodle]]'')
*Aesop's Son (in the "Aesop and Son" segment of ''[[The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show]]'')
*[[J. Wellington Wimpy|Wimpy]] (from the ''[[Popeye]]'' cartoons)
*Smedley the dog (from the ''Chilly Willy'' cartoons)
*[[Chilly Willy]]
*[[Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy|Augie Doggie]]
*[[Hokey Wolf]]
*[[Wally Gator]]
*Ali Gator (in two [[Walter Lantz Productions|Lantz]] theatrical shorts)
*[[Peter Potamus]]
*[[Lippy the Lion]]
*[[The Jetsons|Elroy Jetson]]
*[[The Jetsons|Cogswell]]
*[[The Jetsons|Henry Orbit]]
*Captain Skyhook and Static (of ''[[The Space Kidettes]]'')
*[[Wacky Races|Rock Slag]]
*[[Wacky Races|Big Gruesome]]
*[[Wacky Races|Red Max]]
*[[Wacky Races|Sgt. Blast]]
*[[Wacky Races|Peter Perfect]]
*[[Wacky Races|Rufus Ruffcut]]
*Hair Bear (of ''[[Help%21..._It%27s_the_Hair_Bear_Bunch%21 | Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch]]'')
*[[The Funky Phantom]] 
*[[Scooby-Dum]]
*[[Bingo]] (of ''[[Banana Splits]]'')
*[[Carlos]] 

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 an old character actor named Charlie Butterworth (who was also the inspiration, with a Western twang added, for the voice of Quick Draw McGraw). In the [[1970s]] he was the voice of "Hair Bear" 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.

===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]].  Again, Butler redesigned these voices, making them his own inventions.  Huckleberry Hound was inspired many years earlier, in 1945, by the 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|Flintstones]]''. Butler remained somewhat low-key in the 1970s and 1980s, until a 1985 revival of ''[[The Jetsons]]''. 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.

===Death===
Daws Butler died of a [[Myocardial infarction|heart attack]] on [[May 18]], [[1988]] at age 71. Daws Butler is interred in Holy Cross Cemetery in [[Culver City, California|Culver City]], [[California]]. Many of his roles were assumed by [[Greg Burson]], who had personally studied with Butler for years.

Before his death Daws also began a friendship over the mail with [[Nancy Cartwright]], who would go on to a successful career as a voiceover artist, best known as the voice of [[Bart Simpson]] on ''[[The Simpsons]]''. In her autobiography Cartwright cites Butler as being her mentor and the greatest influence on her life.

==Media==
*The video ''Daws Butler: Voice Magician'' is a 1987 documentary of Butler's career from his pre-MGM days on up through his teaming with Freberg in 1949 and the teaming with [[Don Messick]] in 1957. It was originally seen as a PBS pledge-drive special.

*Former Butler protege [[Joe Bevilacqua]] hosts a radio series on XM Satellite Radio's Sonic Theater Channel called ''The Comedy-O-Rama Hour'' which features a regular segment called ''What the Butler Wrote: Scenes from the Daws Butler Workshop'' with rare scripts of Daws performed by his students, including [[Nancy Cartwright]], and rare recordings of Daws himself. Bevilacqua has also co-authored the authorized (with Ben Ohmart) biography book ''Daws Butler, Characters Actor'', and edited the book ''Scenes for Actors and Voices'' written by Daws Butler, both published by Bear Manor Media.

==External links==
*[http://www.dawsbutler.com The Official Daws Butler Website]
*[http://www.comedyorama.com Comedy-O-Rama and Scenes From the Daws Butler Workshop]
*[http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=23206 Daws Butler Gravesite]
*{{voice actor|id=1250|name=Daws Butler}}
*{{imdb name|id=0124889|name=Daws Butler}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Daws}}
[[Category:1916 births]]
[[Category:1988 deaths]]
[[Category:American voice actors]]
[[Category:People from Toledo, Ohio]]
[[Category:Yogi Bear]]

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