7/26/2017 by
The legendary voiceover star played hundreds of other characters, including Natasha Fatale, Tweety’s owner Granny, Cindy Lou Who, Nell Fenwick and Wheezy Weasel.
June Foray, the famed “first lady of voice actors” whose repertoire of characters include Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Pottsylvanian spy Natasha Fatale, Tweety Bird’s owner Granny and a sinister talking doll, has died. She was 99.
Foray, who worked alongside such animated legends as Mel Blanc, Chuck Jones, Stan Freberg and Jay Ward during her unseen yet spectacular eight-decade career, died Wednesday according to close friend Dave Nimitz who posted a notice of her passing on Facebook.
Versatile in her intonations and cadence, Foray provided voices for an incredible range of characters, including the killer Talky Tina doll in the 1963 “Living Doll” installment of The Twilight Zone, an episode said to be inspired by Mattel’s enormously popular pull-string Chatty Cathy doll (she provided the voice for that, too).
Foray voiced Betty Rubble in The Flintstones pilot (when the family was known as the Flagstones) and was Peter Parker’s Aunt May in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. When little Ricky brought home a puppy on a 1957 episode of I Love Lucy, she voiced the dog. And speaking of pooches, she worked with Jerry Lewis on his “The Puppy Dog Dream” record in the 1950s.
Foray played the milkmaid on Fractured Fairy Tales, Lena the Hyena and the chain-smoking Wheezy Weasel in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Jokey Smurf and Mrs. Sourberry in the 1980s TV show The Smurfs.
The petite Foray specialized in old ladies and grandmothers: Granny and Witch Hazel in Looney Toons cartoons, Grandma Fa in Mulan (1998) and Grammi Gummi in TV’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears. For The Simpsons, she voiced the elderly woman who worked at the Baby Buggy Bumper Babysitting Service.
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As It Happens rebroadcast an old interview with this gifted lady. She regaled the guest host (Mary Hind) with various animated plus Tina the evil Doll (from Twilight Zone) impersonations. There’s apparently a gallery of her voiceovers on CBC.ca/AIH.
What an awesome career. She provided the voice for so many characters that I’ve been listening to since the 50s . I’m sorry that such a talent has passed but that voice will last forever. Rocky and Natasha my favorites