Paul Frees
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| Paul Frees | |
 a rare onscreen appearance in The 27th Day (1957) |
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| Birth name | Solomon Hersh Frees |
| Born | June 22, 1920 Chicago |
| Died | November 2, 1986 |
| Notable roles | Boris Badenov, Ludwig Von Drake and many more |
Paul Frees (June 22, 1920 - November 2, 1986) was an American voice actor.
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[edit] Biography
Born Solomon Hersh Frees in Chicago, he began his acting career in 1942, and remained active for over forty years. During this time, he was involved in more than 250 films, cartoons, and TV appearances; like many voice actors, his appearances were often uncredited.
Frees' early radio career was cut short when he was drafted into World War II where he was at Normandy on D-Day. He was wounded in action and was returned to the United States for a year of recuperation. He attended the Chouinard Art Institute under the G.I. Bill. His first wife's failing health forced him to drop out and return to radio work. He appeared frequently on such Hollywood radio series, including Escape, playing lead roles and alternating with William Conrad as the opening voice, Suspense as the opening announcer in the late 1940s, and parts on Gunsmoke and Crime Classics. One of his few starring roles in this medium was as Jethro Dumont in the 1949 series The Green Lama, as well as a syndicated mystery series The Player (1948), in which Frees narrated and played all of the parts.
Frees was often called upon in the 1950s and 1960s to "re-loop" the dialogue of other actors, often to correct for foreign accents, lack of English proficiency, or poor line readings by non-professionals. These dubs extended from a few lines to entire roles. This can be noticed rather clearly in the film Midway where Frees reads for Toshiro Mifune's performance as Admiral Yamamoto. Frees also dubbed the entire role of Eddie in the Disney film The Ugly Dachshund (1966), replacing actor Richard Wessel, who had died after completion of principal photography.
While most voice actors settled down with one major studio for their career, Frees spent major parts of his career working with at least nine of the major animation production companies of the 20th century: Walt Disney Studios, Walter Lantz Studios, UPA, Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, MGM Studios, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, Jay Ward Productions and Rankin/Bass.
Frees was active right up until his sudden death at 66 from heart failure on November 2, 1986. He was living in Tiburon, California at the time of his passing.
[edit] Career highlights
[edit] Disney
Some of Paul Frees' most memorable voices were for various Disney projects. Frees voiced Disney's Professor Ludwig Von Drake in many episodes of the Disney anthology television series, beginning with the first episode of the newly-renamed Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color on September 24, 1961. The character also appeared on many Disneyland Records. Von Drake's introductory cartoon, An Adventure in Color, featured The Spectrum Song, sung by Frees as Von Drake. A different Frees recording of this song appeared on a children's record, and was later reissued on CD.
Frees narrated a number of Disney cartoons, including the Disney educational short film Donald in Mathmagic Land. This short originally aired in the same television episode as Von Drake's first appearance.
Frees also provided voices for numerous characters at Disney parks, including the unseen "Ghost Host" (also known as Master Gracey) in the Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, and several audio-animatronic pirates, including the Auctioneer, in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Disney eventually issued limited edition compact discs commemorating the two rides, featuring outtakes and unused audio tracks by Frees and others. Frees also provided narration for the Tomorrowland attraction Adventure Thru Innerspace (1967-1985). Audio clips from the attractions in Frees' distinctive voice have even appeared in fireworks shows at Disneyland. A computer-animated singing bust in Frees' likeness appeared in the 2003 film The Haunted Mansion as an homage. For his contributions to the Disney legacy, Frees was honored posthumously as a Disney Legend on October 9, 2006.[1]
His other Disney credits, most of them narration for segments of the Disney anthology television series, include the following:
- The "Man in Space" series of shows (TV, 1954)
- From Aesop to Hans Christian Andersen (TV, 1955)
- The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca (TV miniseries, 1958)
- Tales of Texas John Slaughter (TV miniseries, 1958)
- The Absent-Minded Professor (film, 1961)
- Moochie of Pop Warner Football (TV, 1960)
- The Monkey's Uncle (film, 1965)
[edit] Jay Ward Productions
Frees was a regular presence in Jay Ward cartoons, providing the voices of Boris Badenov, Inspector Fenwick (from Dudley Do-Right), the Ape Named Ape in George of the Jungle and the Hoppity Hooper narrator, among numerous others.
[edit] Rankin/Bass
Frees is well-remembered for many characters in Rankin/Bass cartoons and stop-motion animated TV specials, including the central villain Burgermeister Meisterburger and his assistant Grimsby in Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (1970). He was also the traffic cop, ticket-taker, and Santa Claus in Frosty the Snowman in 1969. He was several voices, including Aeon the Terrible, in Rudolph's Shiny New Year in 1976. In 1968, he appeared as Captain Jones in the Thanksgiving special The Mouse On The Mayflower, and that Christmas he appeared as the father of the Drummer Boy, Ali, and as the three Wise Men in The Little Drummer Boy. He provided the voices for several J. R. R. Tolkien characters (most notably the dwarf Bombur) in Rankin/Bass animated versions of The Hobbit and The Return of the King. He also voiced King Haggard's wizard Mabruk in The Last Unicorn.
[edit] Other voice work
Frees voiced all characters, except the lead role, in the US versions of Belvision's The Adventures of Tintin cartoons, based on the books by Hergé.
For the 1962 Christmas special Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, produced by UPA, Paul Frees voiced several characters, including Fezziwig, the Charity Man, two of the opportunists who steal from the dead man (Eyepatch Man and Tall Tophat Man)[1] and Mister Magoo's Broadway theatre director. He subsequently provided numerous voices for further cartoons in the series that followed, The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo.
Frees provided the voices of both John Lennon and George Harrison in the 1965 cartoon series based on The Beatles, and of The Thing in the 1967 series based on the Fantastic Four. , He played several roles--narrator, Chief of State, the judges and the bailiff--in the George Lucas / John Korty animated film, Twice Upon a Time.
In TV commercials, he was the voice of the Pillsbury Doughboy, the 7-Up bird Fresh-Up Freddie, Froot Loops spokesbird Toucan Sam (previously voiced by Mel Blanc, later voiced by Maurice LaMarche), and the elf who called out to the Jolly Green Giant, "Hey, Green Giant, what's new besides ho-ho-ho?"
Frees narrated many live action movies and television series, including Naked City (1958-1963). Frees also provided the voice of the eccentric billionaire John Beresford Tipton, always seated in his chair with his back to the viewer while talking to his employee Michael Anthony (Marvin Miller), on the dramatic series The Millionaire.
[edit] Other credits
Although Frees is primarily known for his voice work (like Mel Blanc, he was known in the industry as "The Man of a Thousand Voices"), he was also a songwriter and screenwriter, his major work being the little-seen 1960 film The Beatniks, a Reefer Madness-esque screed against the then-rising Beatnik counterculture.
On rare occasions, Frees appeared on camera in minor roles. He played a psychiatrist in The Shaggy Dog, a scientist in The Thing from Another World, and French fur trader McMasters in The Big Sky. In Jet Pilot, Frees plays a menacing Soviet officer whose job is to watchdog pilot Janet Leigh, but instead manages to eject himself out of a parked jet, enabling Leigh to rescue John Wayne and fly back to the West.
More significantly, he played the Orson Welles soundalike radio reporter in The War of the Worlds, where he is seen dictating into a tape recorder as the military prepares the atomic bomb for use against the invading Martians. Memorably, Frees' character says that the recording is being made for "future history (if any)." The War of the Worlds producer George Pál put Frees to work again in the 1960 fantasy film Atlantis, the Lost Continent and doing the opening voice-over narration for his 1975 Doc Savage film.
Miscellaneous Frees credits include:
- The Peter Lorre voice in the Spike Jones version of the song My Old Flame.
- The Orson Welles soundalike narrator in Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America Vol. 1. When Vol. 2 came out after his death, he was replaced by Corey Burton.
- Yet again, as an Orson Welles soundalike narrator in the 1967 film The St. Valentines Day Massacre.
- The uncredited voice of the sentient supercomputer Colossus in the movie Colossus: The Forbin Project.
- Narrator of the pre-show for Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln at the Illinois Pavilion of the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair. The exhibit was produced by Disney, and later moved to Disneyland.
- The shrouded figure of "Death" in the Woody Allen movie Love and Death.
- The voice-over in the original advance teaser trailer for Star Wars (1977), and the narration for the spoof short film Hardware Wars (1977), which was itself styled as a mock movie trailer.
- Voice of KARR in "K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R." - a 3rd season episode of Knight Rider
- Voice of "Josephine" (the female persona of Tony Curtis' character Joe) in the Billy Wilder film Some Like it Hot*[2]
- The voice of Italian actor Aldo Giuffrè the Alcoholic Union Captain in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly".
- The voice of Dr. Who in the English language version of King Kong Escapes
- The voices of "Antoine" and "Alecto" in the English language version of Atoll K (aka Utopia).
- The voice of the hermit crab "Crusty" in The Incredible Mr. Limpet, a Warner Brothers feature that mixed live action with animation.
- Intro voice for "Bradbury 13," a series of thirteen radio dramas featuring Ray Bradbury short stories, originally produced for National Public Radio by Michael McDonough at Brigham Young University, 1984.
[edit] References
- ^ Howe, Tom (2002). Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and Scrooge. Featured CED VideoDisc No. 26 - Fall 2002. CED Magic. Retrieved on 2006-12-25.
- ^ Erickson, Glenn (1999). Some Like It Hot and the Legendary Paul Frees. DVD Savant. Kleinman.com Inc.. Retrieved on 2006-12-25.
