Alan Young
| Alan Young | |
|---|---|
 Young in 1944 | |
| Born |
Angus Young November 19, 1919 North Shields, Northumberland, England, UK |
| Occupation | Actor, voice actor, comedian, radio host, television host, personality |
| Years active | 1939–present |
| Agent | TGMD Talent Agency |
| Known for |
Wilbur Post in Mister Ed The voice of Scrooge McDuck |
| Spouse(s) |
Mary Anne Grimes (m. 1941–1947; divorced) Virginia McCurdy (m. 1948–1995; divorced) Mary Chipman (m. 1996–1997; divorced) |
| Children |
With Grimes: 2 With McCurdy: 2 |
| Awards | Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actor |
| Website | http://web.archive.org/web/20040206120636/http://mister-ed.tv/ |
Alan Young (born November 19, 1919) is an English-Canadian-American actor, voice actor, comedian, radio host, television host and personality best known for his role as Wilbur Post in the television comedy series Mister Ed[1] and as the voice of Scrooge McDuck in Disney films, TV series and video games.[2] During the 1940s and 1950s, he starred in his own shows on radio and television.[1]
Biography
Early life
Young was born (as Angus Young) on 19 November 1919 in North Shields, Northumberland England to John Cathcart Young, a shipyard worker, and Florence Pinckney, whose ancestors included a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. The family moved to Edinburgh, Scotland when Young was a toddler, and to West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada when he was six years old. Young came to love radio when bedridden as a child because of severe asthma.
Near the start of his radio career, during World War II, Young served in the Royal Canadian Navy.
Career
Young had his own comedy radio series on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1944, he moved to American radio with The Alan Young Show, NBC's summer replacement for Eddie Cantor's show. He switched to ABC two years later, then returned to NBC.
Young's film debut was Margie (1946), and he was featured in Chicken Every Sunday (1949).[3]
In 1950, the television version of The Alan Young Show began. By 1951, the series had garnered not only praise but also several Primetime Emmy awards, including "Outstanding Lead Actor" for Alan Young.[4]
After its cancellation, Young continued acting in films, among which Androcles and the Lion (1952) and Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), and two George Pal films, tom thumb (1958) and The Time Machine (1960).
He is best known, however, for Mister Ed (1961–66), a CBS television show, in which he starred as Wilbur Post, the owner of Mr. Ed, a talking horse that would talk to no one but him, thus causing hilarious situations for Wilbur Post with his wife, neighbours and acquaintances.
He also starred as Stanley Beamish in the unaired 1966 pilot episode of Mr. Terrific, but apparently declined to appear in the broadcast series in 1967 that followed.
He appeared in the episode "Thin Ice" of the NBC espionage drama Five Fingers, starring David Hedison. Young's television guest roles include Gibbsville, The Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote, St. Elsewhere, Coach, Party of Five, The Wayans Bros., USA High, Hang Time, ER, Maybe It's Me and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch where he played Zelda's love interest in the episode "Sweet Charity".
In the late 1960s, he retired from acting for several years. During that time, he founded a broadcast division for the Christian Science Church.
Since 1974, he has voiced Scrooge McDuck in numerous Disney films and in the popular series DuckTales (1987-1990). In Mickey's Christmas Carol, he portrayed the character's miserly namesake. He also plays Scrooge in video games that he appears in, such as the Kingdom Hearts series and most recently in DuckTales: Remastered in 2013 and the Mickey Mouse cartoon "Goofy's First Love" released in 2015.
During the 1980s, Young became active in voice acting. Apart from Scrooge McDuck, his other prominent roles are Farmer Smurf on The Smurfs, 7-Zark-7 and Keyop in Battle of the Planets and Hiram Flaversham in The Great Mouse Detective. He also guest starred on The Incredible Hulk, The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.
In 1991, Alan Young returned to the stage, starring as Cap'n Andy Hawkes in The California Music Theatre's adaptation of Show Boat. He had been called for the role after Van Johnson, who was initially cast in the part, was hospitalised.[5] He had also appeared in the plays A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and The Girl With the Freudian Slip.
In 1993, he recreated his role as Filby for the mini-sequel to George Pal's The Time Machine, reuniting him with Rod Taylor, who had played George, the Time Traveller. It was called Time Machine: The Journey Back, directed by Clyde Lucas. In 2002, he had a cameo as the flower store worker in Simon Wells' remake of The Time Machine and in 2010, he read H.G. Wells's original novel for 7th Voyage Productions, Inc.
In 1994, Young co-starred in the Eddie Murphy film Beverly Hills Cop III. He played the role of Uncle Dave Thornton, the Walt Disney-esque founder of the fictional California theme park Wonderworld, and in that same year, Young played the role of Charlie in the television movie, Hart to Hart: Home Is Where the Hart Is.
Since 1994, he has played at least eight characters, most notably antique dealer Jack Allen on the popular radio drama Adventures in Odyssey. In 1997, he did the voice of Haggis McMutton in the PC game The Curse of Monkey Island. His recent guest roles in animated series include Megas XLR, Static Shock, House of Mouse, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Duckman, Batman: The Animated Series and TaleSpin.[6]
Personal life
Young was married twice: He and Mary Anne Grimes were married from 1941 to 1947 and had two children. He was married to Virginia McCurdy from 1948 until her death in 2011 and had two children as well. Young currently lives in Woodland Hills, California.[7]
Filmography
Radio
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1939 | Stag Party | Himself | |
| 1940–1944 | The Alan Young Show | Alan | Canadian version |
| 1944–1949 | The Alan Young Show | Alan | U.S. version |
| 1945 | The Old Gold Comedy Theater Known also as The Harold Lloyd Theater |
Bob Bennett | "Nothing But the Truth"[8] |
| 1947 | Hedda Hopper's This is Hollywood | Roy Hornsdale | "Margie" |
| 1947–1948 | Texaco Star Theater | Himself | |
| 1948–1949 | The Jimmy Durante Show | Co-host | |
| 1949–1950 | Family Theater | Johnny the Leprechaun, Donald | "The Leprechaun Who Didn't Listen" "The Lion Tamer" "My Terminal Moraine" |
| 1950 | The Jack Benny Program | Himself | |
| 1952 | Hollywood Star Playhouse | Ernie | "Nor Gloom of Night" |
| 1979 | Sears Radio Theater | Harry Silverman, Otto Glitch, Steve | "The Care and Feeding of a Sex Symbol" "The Terrible Dream of Mr. Glitch" "A Very Nice Couple" |
| 1994–2012 | Adventures in Odyssey | Jack Allen |
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1946 | Margie | Roy Hornsdale | |
| 1949 | Chicken Every Sunday | Geoffrey Lawson | |
| 1949 | Mr. Belvedere Goes to College | Avery Brubaker | |
| 1952 | Androcles and the Lion | Androcles | |
| 1952 | Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick | Aaron Slick | |
| 1955 | Gentlemen Marry Brunettes | Charlie Biddle, Mrs. Biddle, Mr. Henry Biddle | |
| 1958 | Tom Thumb | Woody | |
| 1960 | The Time Machine | David Filby, James Filby | |
| 1976 | Baker's Hawk | Paul Carson | |
| 1978 | The Cat from Outer Space | Doctor Winger | |
| 1983 | Mickey's Christmas Carol | Scrooge McDuck (voice) | Animated short |
| 1985 | The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal | Himself | Documentary |
| 1986 | The Great Mouse Detective | Hiram Flaversham (voice) | Animated film |
| 1987 | Alice Through the Looking Glass | White Knight (voice) | Animated film |
| 1990 | DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp | Scrooge McDuck (voice) | Animated film |
| 1993 | Disney Sing-Along Songs | Scrooge McDuck (voice) | "The Twelve Days of Christmas" |
| 1994 | Beverly Hills Cop III | Dave Thornton | |
| 1996 | The Flintstones Christmas in Bedrock | Additional voices | |
| 1999 | Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas | Scrooge McDuck (voice) | Direct-to-video film |
| 2002 | The Time Machine | Flower Store Worker | |
| 2004 | Em & Me | Grandfather | San Diego Film Festival Award for Best Actor Monaco International Festival Best Actor Award |
| 2004 | Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas | Scrooge McDuck (voice) | Direct-to-video film |
Television series
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950–1953 | The Alan Young Show | Alan | Television version Lead Role Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (1951) Nominated - Primetime Emmy for Most Outstanding Personality (1951) |
| 1954 | General Electric Theater | Alan Parker | "Wild Luke's Boy" |
| 1955 | Screen Director's Playhouse | Ernest Stockhoeffer/Vernon Hathaway | "The Life of Vernon Hathaway" |
| 1955–1956 | Studio One | George Abernathy, Timothy | "The Man Who Caught The Ball at Coogan's Bluff" "This Will Do Nicely" |
| 1956 | Chevron Hall of Stars | Robinson | "I Killed John Harrington" |
| 1956 | Matinee Theatre | "Ask Me No Questions" | |
| 1956 | Studio 57 | Hector Tutwilder | "Swing Your Partner, Hector" |
| 1956–1958 | The Steve Allen Show | Himself | 5 episodes |
| 1958 | Alan Young (TV series) | Alan | 3 episodes |
| 1959 | Five Fingers | Carl | "Thin Ice" |
| 1959 | Encounter | Wilbur Bowser | "The Last of the Hot Pilots" |
| 1960 | Startime | Clarence | "Tennessee Ernie Ford Meets King Arthur" |
| 1961–1966 | Mr. Ed | Wilbur Post | Lead Role 143 episodes |
| 1962 | Death Valley Days | John Batterson Stetson | "The Hat That Won the West" |
| 1966 | Mr. Terrific | Stanley Beamish | TV pilot |
| 1976 | Gibbsville | Kanzler | "Saturday Night" |
| 1978–1980 | Battle of the Planets | 7-Zark-7, Keyop | English dub |
| 1978, 1983 | The Love Boat | Ross, Phil Sharp | 2 episodes |
| 1981 | Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends | Mr. Frump (voice) | "The Fantastic Mr. Frump" |
| 1982 | The Incredible Hulk | Cyclops (voice) | "The Cyclops Project" |
| 1982–1989 | The Smurfs | Farmer Smurf (voice) Miner Smurf (voice) Scaredy Smurf (voice) |
49 episodes |
| 1983 | Alvin and the Chipmunks | Grandpa Seville (voice) | "Grandpa and Grandma Seville" |
| 1983 | The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show | Gaggy Rogers (voice) | "Wedding Bell Boos!" |
| 1984 | Robo Force | S.O.T.A. | TV Movie |
| 1984 | Down to Earth | Alistar Coogan | "Everything Old Is New Again" |
| 1986 | Murder She Wrote | Floyd Nelson | "Keep the Home Fries Burning" |
| 1987 | St. Elsewhere | Knox | "A Coupla White Dummies Sitting Around Talking" |
| 1987–1990 | DuckTales | Scrooge McDuck (voice) | Lead Role 100 episodes |
| 1988–1989 | Coming of Age | Ed Pepper | 15 episodes |
| 1990 | Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color | Scrooge McDuck (voice) | "A DuckTales Valentine" |
| 1990 | TaleSpin | Doctor Cooper (voice) | "The Old Man and the Sea Duck" |
| 1990 | City | Donald | "Just a Passing Dad" |
| 1991 | Earth Angel | Norman | TV movie |
| 1992 | Raw Toonage | Scrooge McDuck (voice) | "The Treasure of The Sierra Marsdre" |
| 1993 | Doogie Howser, M.D. | Doctor Emmitt Randall | "Eleven Angry People...and Vinnie" |
| 1993 | Coach | Ranger Farley | "One for the Road" |
| 1993 | A Flintstone Family Christmas | Mr. Gravelberry (voice) | TV Movie |
| 1994 | Batman: The Animated Series | Tod Baker (voice) | "Baby-Doll" |
| 1994 | Party of Five | Jack Gordon | "Homework" |
| 1994–1995 | The Ren & Stimpy Show | Haggis McHaggis (voice) | 4 episodes |
| 1995 | Duckman | Wilbur Nelson (voice) | "America the Beautiful" |
| 1995 | Maybe This Time | Arthur | "Gracie Under Fire" |
| 1995 | The Wayans Bros. | Reverend Benton | "Loot" |
| 1997 | Sabrina the Teenage Witch | Mr. Berry | "Sweet Charity" |
| 1997 | USA High | Mr. Phipps | "Goodbye, Mr. Phipps" |
| 1998 | Kelly Kelly | Great Uncle Billy | "The Kilt Show" |
| 1998 | The Spirit of Mickey | Scrooge McDuck (voice) | |
| 1998 | The Tony Danza Show | Doctor Harris | "Mini-pause" |
| 1999 | Mickey Mouse Works | Scrooge McDuck (voice) | 2 episodes |
| 2000 | Rude Awakening | Priest | "Truth Don't Fail Me Now" |
| 2000 | Hang Time | Mr. McHenry | "That '60s Show" |
| 2000 | ER | Archie Mellonston | "Benton Backwards" |
| 2001 | God, the Devil and Bob | Wilbur Post (voice) | "God's Girlfriend" |
| 2001 | FreakyLinks | Henry | "Subject: Sunrise at Sunset Streams" |
| 2001 | Maybe It's Me | Abe Lasky | "The Hair Episode" |
| 2002 | House of Mouse | Scrooge McDuck (voice) | 3 episodes |
| 2004 | Static Shock | Dr. McDonald | "Now You See Him" |
| 2004 | Megas XLR | Jax (voice) | 2 episodes |
| 2015–2016 | Mickey Mouse | Scrooge McDuck (voice) | "Goofy's First Love" "No" |
Video games
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | The Curse of Monkey Island | Haggis McMutton |
| 2008 | Disney Think Fast | Scrooge McDuck |
| 2009 | Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep | Scrooge McDuck |
| 2013 | Disney Magical World | Scrooge McDuck |
| 2013 | DuckTales: Remastered | Scrooge McDuck |
References
- 1 2 "Alan Young". The New York Times.
- ↑ Stevens, Christopher (2010). Born Brilliant: The Life Of Kenneth Williams. John Murray. p. 368. ISBN 1-84854-195-3.
- ↑ Thomas, Bob (June 10, 1959). "Comic Alan Young Critical of TV". The Milwaukee Sentinel.
- ↑ "Alan Young In Mister Ed". The Gettysburg Times. March 18, 1961. Retrieved 2014.
- ↑ Sylvie Drake (September 16, 1991). "Stage: 'Show Boat' Afloat Without Its Star". Retrieved 2014.
- ↑ Alan Young's voiceography. Behind the Voice Actors.com – check mark indicates BTVA has verified the entries using screenshots of credits and other confirmed sources
- ↑ http://reelingback.com/articles/a_bottom-line_scrooge
- ↑ "Radio's Golden Age". Nostalgia Digest 40 (1): 40–41. Winter 2014.
http://www.today.com/popculture/disney-launching-ducktales-reboot-2017-t5356
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alan Young. |
- Official website
- Alan Young at the Internet Movie Database
- Kliph Nesteroff interview with Alan Young
- Alan Young Show on Way Back When
- Alan Young interview on "The Joe Cook Program" July 2006
- Alan Young interview video at the Archive of American Television
- Internet Archive: The Alan Young Show (four 1945-46 episodes)
- Interviewed about Mister Ed, June, 2014
- Zoot Radio, Free Alan Young radio show downloads
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