June Foray was certainly best known for her vocal portrayal of Rocket J. Squirrel in the classic Jay Ward cartoon series The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. So yes, as I said, Rocky was a girl. But she also did regular girl voices too, like Natasha in the same cartoon series. But the more I found out about other projects in which she has participated, the more I think that her career path has roughly followed the path of ‘things I like.’
For example, she provided the voice of Lucifer the Cat in Disney’s Cinderella, Grandma Fa in Mulan, the Talky Tina doll in The Twilight Zone, and even provided a voice in the Disneyland ride Pirates of the Caribbean. In addition, she provided her talents to some of my favorite Hanna-Barbera cartoons like The Flintstones, Scooby Doo Where Are You?, Tom and Jerry, and The Smurfs. And she was Granny, owner of Tweety and Sylvester in a host of Looney Tunes cartoons. Animator Chuck Jones once called her “the female Mel Blanc.”
At the time that I met her on October 4, 2008, she had just turned 91 years old. Although she didn’t quite look her age, she was rather quiet and reserved, timidly signing her photos and posing for photos with fans. It was well worth the $20 to add this magnificent piece to my collection, and an honor to get a photo with a cartoon legend.
Autographs and celebrities of the 2008 Hollywood Collectors Show will continue…
Leave a Reply