Dallas McKennon

Dallas Raymond McKennon, sometimes credited as Dal McKennon, was an American actor, voice director, and casting director. With a career lasting over 50 years, McKennon's best-known voice directing roles include Gumby for Art Clokey, Archie Andrews in several different Archie series for Filmation, and Buzz Buzzard in the Woody Woodpecker cartoons.

Early life and career

Born near La Grande, Oregon, Mckennon served during World War II in the Army Signal Corps in Alaska. His mother died when he was a child, so he lived on a farm with his aunt and uncle where he was fascinated with nature.
McKennon's best-known voice directing roles were Gumby for Art Clokey, Archie Andrews in several different Archie series for Filmation, and the primary voice of Buzz Buzzard in the Woody Woodpecker cartoons. In the early 1950s, McKennon created and hosted his own daily kids TV wraparound show, Space Funnies/''Capt. Jet, which was aired weekday mornings on KNXT (KCBS-TV) TV Ch. 2 in Los Angeles. It was the first Los Angeles–based kids show to air reruns of The Little Rascals and Laurel & Hardy shorts. He was also the primary voice actor for the 1960 cartoon series Q.T. Hush. McKennon was also the voice of the Hardy Boys' sidekick, Chet Morton, in the 1969 animated mystery series.
McKennon also sang and provided many character voices, mainly for Walt Disney Animation. He directed voice acting for Pinocchio, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Mary Poppins, and Bedknobs and Broomsticks; his laughter as a hyena in Lady and the Tramp was later recycled as a stock sound effect for the voice of Ripper Roo in the Crash Bandicoot video game series. He also provided the voices for many Disney attractions such as the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad safety announcement, a pair of laughing hyenas in the Africa Room portion of It's a Small World, Benjamin Franklin's voice in Epcot's The [American Adventure (Epcot)|The American Adventure], Epcot's WorldKey information kiosks, and Zeke in the Country Bear Jamboree.
McKennon's best-known live action role is the innkeeper Cincinnatus in Daniel Boone. He also had a bit part as a diner cook in The Birds and as a gas station attendant in Clambake. His final movie as a voice director was Gumby: The Movie under the pseudonym Charles Farrington. He voiced Gumby, Fatbuckle, Lucky Claybert, and Professor Kapp.
McKennon was an avid Oregon Trail historian. He visited schools around the Northwest lecturing children about Oregon history and worked at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center giving instructional speeches, and put together plays, skits, songs, stories, and informational documents leading up to the Oregon Trail's sesquicentennial.
He also worked with Oregon Public Broadcasting creating The Pappenheimers'', an instructional video series to help teach children German. His character lived in a Volkswagen Type 2 and would tell stories about relatives in Germany.

Personal life

In 1942, McKennon married his childhood love interest, Betty Warner, in Portland, Oregon. The couple had six daughters and two sons. They lived in California until 1968, when they moved to Cannon Beach, Oregon, from where McKennon commuted for voice acting and voiceover roles.

Death

McKennon died from natural causes aged 89 on July 14, 2009, at the Willapa Harbor Care Center in Raymond, Washington, five days shy of his 90th birthday.