American actor (–)
Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft (; February 6, &#;&#;&#;May 22, ) was an American actor and bass singer. He was well known as one of the booming voices behind Kellogg'sFrosted Flakes animated spokesman Tony the Tiger for more than five decades. He was also the uncredited vocalist for the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" from the classic Christmas television specialDr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas![1]
Ravenscroft did voice-over work and singing for Disney in various films and Disneyland attractions (which were later featured at Walt Disney World), the best known including The Haunted Mansion, Country Bear Jamboree, Mark Twain Riverboat, Pirates of the Caribbean, Disneyland Railroad, and Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room.
His voice-acting career began in and lasted until his death in at age [2]
Ravenscroft left his native Norfolk, Nebraska, in for California, where he studied at Otis Art Institute. In , he joined a singing group formed by tenor Bill Days called The Sportsmen: Days, Johnny Rarig, Max Smith, and Ravenscroft. They served as backup singers to vocalist Marie Greene on the Okeh record label (credited as "Marie Greene and Her Merry Men"). The quartet also contributed to a Disney feature, Pinocchio (), singing "Honest John". This was deleted from the film, but can still be heard in the supplements on the DVD.
The group, billed as The Four Merry Men, appeared in three-minute musical films, produced in by the Featurettes company, for coin-operated jukeboxes.[3] That same year the Four Merry Men left Featurettes for the more successful Soundies company, and made more jukebox musicals; they were now billing themselves as "The Four Sportsmen".[4] They were also very popular on radio and in live nightclub appearances.
In , Thurl Ravenscroft left the Sportsmen quartet to serve in the armed forces. He served as a keeper navigator contracted to the U.S. Air Transport Command, spending five years flying courier missions across the north and south Atlantic. Among the notables carried on board his flights were Winston Churchill and Bob Hope. As he told an interviewer: "I flew Winston Churchill to a conference in Algiers and flew Bob Hope to the troops a couple of times. So it was fun."[5]
When he returned from the service, he found that his place in The Sportsmen had been taken by bass singer Gurney Bell, and Bell was unwilling to relinquish the job to Ravenscroft. Undaunted, Ravenscroft formed his own quartet, The Mellomen.[6] The Mellomen contributed to other Disney films, such as Alice in Wonderland and Lady and the Tramp. The group appeared on camera in a few episodes of the Disney anthology television series; in one instance recording a canine chorus for Lady and the Tramp and in another as a barbershop quartet that reminds Walt Disney of the name of the young newspaper reporter Gallagher. Ravenscroft sang bass on Rosemary Clooney's "This Ole House", which went to No.&#;1 in both the United States and Britain in , as well as Stuart Hamblen's original version of that same song. He sang on the soundtrack for Ken Clark as "Stewpot" in South Pacific, one of the top-selling albums of the s. He also backed The DeCastro Sisters on their top 20 hit, "Boom Boom Boomerang."[7] He sang "King of the River," as the character Mike Fink, on a Golden Record released in [8] Singing with the Johnny Mann Singers,[9] his distinctive bass can also be heard as part of the chorus on 28 of their albums that were released during the s and s. He was also the bass singer on Bobby Vee's Liberty hit record "Devil or Angel". Andy Williams' recording of "The 12 Days of Christmas" features him as well. His work with Spike Jones included singing "(I Was a) Teenage Brain Surgeon" for the album Spike Jones in Stereo.
He sang the opening songs for the two Disney serials used on The Mickey Mouse Club, Boys of the Western Sea and The Hardy Boys: Mystery of the Applegate Treasure.
He sang the "Twitterpatter Song" and "Thumper's Song" on the Disneyland record Peter Cottontail and other Funny Bunnies.
On the Disneyland record All About Dragons, he both provided the narration and sang the songs "The Reluctant Dragon" and "The Loch Ness Monster".[10]
His voice was heard during the Pirates of the Caribbean ride as well as The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland as Uncle Theodore, the lead vocalist of the singing busts in the cemetery near the end of the ride.[11] He also played the Narrator in The Story and Song From the Haunted Mansion. Ravenscroft is also heard in the Enchanted Tiki Room as the voice of Fritz the Animatronics parrot, as well as the tree-like Tangaroa tiki god in the pre-show outside the attraction. He was also the voice of the Disneyland Railroad in the s. Further roles include that of The First Mate on The Mark Twain Riverboat, a spokesalien for Tokyo Disneyland's Pan Galactic Pizza Port restaurant, and the American bison head named Buff at The Country Bear Jamboree.[12]
One of Ravenscroft's best-known works is as the vocalist for the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch". He was accidentally uncredited, leading the song to be misattributed to Boris Karloff and Tennessee Ernie Ford.[1] The song, now credited to Ravenscroft, peaked on the U.S. Billboard Hot chart at number 32 for the week ending January 2, [13]
Ravenscroft sang "No Dogs Allowed" in the Peanuts animated motion picture Snoopy Come Home.
For more than 50 years, he was the uncredited voice of Tony the Tiger for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes. His booming bass gave the cereal's tiger mascot a voice with the catchphrase "They're g-r-r-r-eat!!!!".[14]
Various record companies, such as Abbott, Coral, Brunswick, and "X" (a division of RCA) also released singles by Ravenscroft, often in duets with little-known female vocalists, in an attempt to turn the bass-voiced veteran into a pop singer. These efforts were commercially unsuccessful, if often quite interesting. He was also teamed up with the Andrews Sisters (on the Dot Records album The Andrews Sisters Present) on the cover of Johnny Cymbal's "Mr. Bass Man". The Mellomen released some doo-wop records under the name Big John & the Buzzards, a name apparently given to them by the rock-and-roll-hating Mitch Miller.
A devoted Christian, he appeared on many religious television shows such as The Hour of Power. In , he recorded an album called Great Hymns in Story and Song, which featured him singing 10 hymns, each prefaced with the stories of how each hymn came to be, with the background vocals and instrumentals arranged and conducted by Ralph Carmichael.
In the s and s, Ravenscroft was narrator for the annual Pageant of the Masters art show at the Laguna Beach, California, Festival of the Arts.
Ravenscroft married June Seamans in and they had two children. June died in
Ravenscroft died at his home on May 22, , from prostate cancer, at the age of He was buried at the Memorial Gardens at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California.[2]
In the June 6, , issue of the advertising industry journal Advertising Age, Kellogg's ran an advertisement commemorating Ravenscroft, the headline reading: "Behind every great character is an even greater man."
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Baby Huey Show | General Does-Little | Voice; ep. "TargetHuey!" |