Famous Like Me > Singer > R > Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft
Profile of Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft
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Name: |
Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft |
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Date of Birth: |
22nd May 1914 |
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Profession: |
Singer |
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From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft (February 6, 1914 – May 22, 2005) was an American voice actor and singer with a deep, booming voice. For over 50 years, he was best known as the voice of Tony the Tiger in Kellogg's Frosted Flakes television commercials (also known as Frosties). Ravenscroft was also the singer of the song "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" in the Christmas television special based on the Dr. Seuss classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, although his name was accidentally left off of the credits, leading many to believe, erroneously, that the cartoon's narrator, Boris Karloff, sang the song.
His voice is also heard in many Disneyland attractions. He is the voices of 'Buff'- the buffalo head on the Country Bear Jamboree, lead vocalist on the theme song "Grim Grinning Ghosts" in the Haunted Mansion (the bust that many people have mistaken for Walt Disney), "Fritz" the German accent parrot in the Tiki Room, Narrator on the Disneyland Railroad (not the voice that announces the train boarding or departing), the original voice of the First Mate on the Mark Twain Steamship and one of the bass voices in the chorus of "It's a Small World". He is sometimes mistaken for Paul Frees who provides the opening narration for The Haunted Mansion.
Other familiar cartoons include The Brave Little Toaster. He also provided the voice of the pig in Mary Poppins.
Ravenscroft left his native Norfolk, Nebraska for California in 1933. He achieved early success as part of a singing group called The Mellomen. The Mellomen can be heard on many popular recordings of the Big Band Era, including as backup for Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney.
During World War II he served as a navigator in 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.
In the '60s and '70s, Ravenscroft's distinctive bass can be heard as part of the chorus on 28 albums of The Johnny Mann Singers that were released during this period. In the '80s and '90s, Ravenscroft was narrator for the annual Pageant of the Masters Art Show at the Laguna, California Festival of the Arts.
He passed away in his home on May 22, 2005 from prostate cancer at the age of 91. He was laid to rest at the Memorial Gardens at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California.
In the June 6, 2005, issue of the ad-industry journal Advertising Age, Kellogg ran an ad commemorating Ravenscroft. The headline read: "Behind every great character is an even greater man."
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