Is today’s image cheating? Possibly, though it’s at least as appropriate as when I used the same attraction for Leota Toombs. I hear Thurl Ravenscroft in any number of places—as do you, whether you know it or not—but he did a lot more voicework than on-screen appearances, and most of those he’s “bass singer in choir (uncredited)” or similar. Thurl Ravenscroft is one of the most distinctive voices of the twentieth century, and the way you’re most likely to know his face is in the broken bust of the Haunted Mansion. It is what it is.
Ravenscroft was, first and foremost, a singer. He’s a top-40 artist, albeit uncredited in the TV special in which his song appeared. Because it is he who sang “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” Apparently there was a consistent effort from various labels to get him to have a real recording career, and it never quite took off. He did, on the other hand, appear in a lot of songs that are well known to the average person. “Grim Grinning Ghosts,” obviously, but also “No Dogs Allowed” from Snoopy Come Home. He dubbed Ken Clark’s singing voice in South Pacific and was on a Rosemary Clooney song, “This Ole House.” He worked some with Spike Jones.
To a Disney person, any deep voice is assumed to be Ravenscroft until it’s proven not to be. He’s all over the parks—he’s Buff in Country Bears, Fritz and Tangaroa in the Tiki Room, the Bosun on the Mark Twain. His voice can be heard in the Haunted Mansion and in Pirates of the Caribbean. He was Brer Frog in Splash Mountain, and I’ll admit to hoping they can find a way to include him in the Princess and the Frog reskin. He was even in Adventures Thru Inner Space, admittedly as a chorus member—when it’s not Ravenscroft, it’s Paul Frees, after all.
He didn’t do as much acting, and his characters there were relatively minor. The knight who lets Wart have a go at pulling the sword in The Sword in the Stone. One of the card-painters in Alice in Wonderland. Captain the horse in One Hundred and One Dalmatians. The Spirit of Progress in a Donald Duck short about the wheel. Paul Bunyan himself. And, yes, all these are Disney characters, but that is kind of how it works—Disney used the same people, and voice actors stuck by their studios. Also Warners mostly just used Mel Blanc, and by the height of Ravenscroft’s career, options were relatively limited.
Though of course his most noteworthy role, for better or for worse, isn’t Disney. It’s Tony the Tiger. For literally decades of my life—Ravenscroft died in 2005—Frosted Flakes commercials involved that deep, mellifluous voice. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re still using at least part of the audio he recorded decades ago. Wouldn’t you? There’s no surpassing that voice. That’s why it’s stayed so noteworthy in all our lives for so long.
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