About Mel Blanc
Melvin Jerome Blanc (né Blank; May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over sixty years. Referred to as "The Man of a Thousand Voices", he is widely regarded as the greatest and most influential voice actor of all time. Blanc is best known for providing voices for Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons released by Warner Bros. during the golden age of American animation. Blanc began his career during the Golden Age of Radio when he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for comedy radio programs, including those of Jack Benny, Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen, The Great Gildersleeve, Judy Canova and his own short-lived sitcom. He later expanded to animation, providing the voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety, Sylvester the Cat, Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote, Speedy Gonzales, Marvin the Martian, Foghorn Leghorn, the Tasmanian Devil, Pepé Le Pew and numerous other characters from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoons. Blanc also voiced the characters Porky Pig and Elmer Fudd after replacing their original performers, Joe Dougherty and Arthur Q. Bryan, respectively, although he occasionally voiced Elmer during Bryan's lifetime as well. Blanc later voiced characters for Hanna-Barbera's television cartoons, including: Barney Rubble and Dino on The Flintstones, Mr. Spacely on The Jetsons, Secret Squirrel on The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show, the title character of Speed Buggy, and Captain Caveman on Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels and The Flintstone Kids. He was also the voice of Gideon's hiccups in Pinocchio, one of his two appearances at Disney. Blanc was also the voice of Woody Woodpecker in the first four animated shorts from 1940 to 1941, his only appearance at Universal Pictures. He also provided the vocal effects for Tom and Jerry in the short films from 1963 to 1967, in 34 short films directed by Chuck Jones, and voiced Heathcliff in Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats. Blanc is best known for providing voices for Looney Tunes cartoons by Warner Bros. during the golden age of American animation. Blanc began his radio career at the age of 19 in 1927, when he made his acting debut on the KGW program The Hoot Owls, where his ability to provide voices for multiple characters first attracted attention. The first role came from a mishap when the recording of the automobile's sounds failed to play on cue, prompting Blanc to take the microphone and improvise the sounds himself.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.