This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. (February 2022) |
Frank Lee Graham (November 22, 1914 – September 2, 1950) was an American radio announcer and voice actor.
Frank Graham | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Graham on CBS in the 1940s | |
| Born | Frank Lee Graham November 22, 1914 |
| Died | September 2, 1950 (aged 35) Hollywood, California, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Radio announcer, voice actor |
| Years active | 1936–1950 |
Biography
editGraham was born on November 22, 1914, in Detroit, Michigan, to Frank L. Graham and opera singer Ethel Briggs Graham. He later traveled with his mother on tour.[1]
He starred in Jeff Regan, Investigator[2] and co-developed the radio drama Satan's Waitin' with Van Des Autels. Graham was also The Wandering Vaquero, the narrator of The Romance Of The Ranchos radio series (1941–1942), also on the CBS network.
One of his few live-action roles was portraying the title character in the film Cosmo Jones, Crime Smasher (1943). He had also served as a writer for the radio program upon which the film was based.
Graham voiced numerous characters in animated films for Walt Disney, MGM, Columbia and Warner Bros. He voiced the Wolf in Tex Avery's Droopy cartoons, as well as the Mouse in King-Size Canary at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He provided the voices of the Fox and the Crow in the shorts of the same name at Columbia.
He was found dead at age 35 in his convertible in the carport of his home in Hollywood on September 2, 1950, with a photograph of Mildred Rossi by his side.[3][4] Rossi had ended a relationship with him weeks earlier.[5] A coroner declared he had committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.[6]
Filmography
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1941 | The Night Before Christmas | Narrator[7] | Voice, uncredited |
| 1942 | A Hollywood Detour | Narrator | Voice, uncredited |
| Horton Hatches the Egg | Narrator / Tall Hunter | Voice, uncredited | |
| Woodman, Spare That Tree | The Fox and the Crow | Voice, uncredited | |
| Foney Fables | Narrator / Wolf | Voice, uncredited | |
| Blitz Wolf | Narrator | Voice, uncredited | |
| Saludos Amigos | Himself | Uncredited | |
| The Early Bird Dood It! | Bird | Voice, uncredited | |
| Toll Bridge Troubles | The Fox and the Crow | Voice, uncredited | |
| 1943 | Slay It with Flowers | The Fox and the Crow | Voice, uncredited |
| Cosmo Jones, Crime Smasher | Professor Cosmo Jones | ||
| Dumb-Hounded | Wolf / Mayor[8] | Voice, uncredited | |
| Plenty Below Zero | The Fox and the Crow | Voice, uncredited | |
| Red Hot Riding Hood | Wolf / Storyteller / Nightclub MC / Cab Driver[8] | Voice, uncredited | |
| Tree for Two | The Fox and the Crow | Voice, uncredited | |
| Coming!! Snafu | Narrator[9] | Voice, uncredited | |
| A-Hunting We Won't Go | The Fox and the Crow | Voice, uncredited | |
| Reason and Emotion | Narrator / Reason | Voice, uncredited | |
| Sleepy Lagoon | Narrator | Uncredited | |
| Room and Bored | The Fox and the Crow | Voice, uncredited | |
| Way Down Yonder in the Corn | The Fox and the Crow | Voice, uncredited | |
| Chicken Little | Narrator / Foxy Loxy / Chicken Little / Cocky Locky / Turkey Lurkey / Additional Voices[10] | Voice, uncredited | |
| Rumors | Narrator – Soldier | Voice, uncredited | |
| 1944 | Ladies Courageous | Col. Andy Brennan | Voice, uncredited |
| The Weakly Reporter | Various | Voice, uncredited | |
| The Lady and the Monster | Narrator | Uncredited | |
| The Dream Kids | The Fox and the Crow | Voice, uncredited | |
| Going Home | Narrator | Voice, uncredited | |
| The Chow Hound | Narrator | Voice, uncredited | |
| Mr. Moocher | The Fox and the Crow | Voice, uncredited | |
| Big Heel-Watha | Narrator / Chief Rain-in-Face / Interpreter[8] | Voice, uncredited | |
| The Stupid Cupid | Narrator and Elmer Fudd | Voice, uncredited | |
| Be Patient, Patient | The Fox and the Crow | Voice, uncredited | |
| The Egg-Yegg | The Fox and the Crow | Voice, uncredited | |
| The Three Caballeros | Narrator | Voice | |
| 1945 | Tokyo Woes | Narrator | Voice, uncredited |
| The Shooting of Dan McGoo | Wolf / Bartender / Narrator | Voice, uncredited | |
| Jerky Turkey | Indian[11] | Voice, uncredited | |
| Something You Didn't Eat | Narrator | Voice, uncredited | |
| Ku-Ku Nuts | The Fox and the Crow | Voice, uncredited | |
| Swing Shift Cinderella | Wolf / Nightclub MC / Wolves[11] | Voice, uncredited | |
| Fresh Airedale | Narrator – Shep's Master | Voice, uncredited | |
| Treasure Jest | The Fox and the Crow | Voice, uncredited | |
| Phoney Baloney | The Fox and the Crow | Voice, uncredited | |
| Wild and Woolfy | Race Caller[11] | Voice, uncredited | |
| 1946 | Baseball Bugs | Baseball Commentator / Gas-House Gorilla[12] | Voice, uncredited |
| Springtime for Thomas | Jerry's Devil Conscience / Butch | Voice, uncredited | |
| Foxy Flatfoots | The Fox and the Crow | Voice, uncredited | |
| Unsure Runts | The Fox and the Crow | Voice, uncredited | |
| The Hick Chick | Bull[13] | Voice, uncredited | |
| The Eager Beaver | Narrator | Voice, uncredited | |
| Cagey Bird | Dog | Voice, uncredited | |
| Northwest Hounded Police | Wolf / Chief / Dr. Putty-Puss[13] | Voice, uncredited | |
| Mysto-Fox | The Fox and the Crow | Voice, uncredited | |
| Honesty Is the Best Policy | Professor J. Waldo Purrington / Fish Vendor[14] | Voice, uncredited | |
| 1947 | Slap Happy Lion | Mouse | Voice, uncredited |
| King-Size Canary | Mouse | Voice, uncredited | |
| 1948 | Lo, the Poor Buffal | Indian (saying "Yipe!")[15] | Voice, uncredited |
| 1949 | So Much for So Little | Narrator | Voice, uncredited |
| The House of Tomorrow | Narrator / Machine[16] | Voice, uncredited | |
| Each Dawn I Crow | Narrator | Voice, uncredited | |
| 1950 | Jerry and the Lion | Lion / Radio Announcer | Voice, uncredited |
| The Chump Champ | Announcer[8] | Voice, uncredited, final film role, released posthumously |
References
edit- ^ Gilmore, Art; Middleton, Glenn (1946). Radio Announcing. Hollywood, CA: Hollywood Radio Publishers. p. 113. "Frank comes by his talent naturally, having toured with his famous singing mother, Ethel Briggs Graham."
- ^ "Main Street" (PDF). Radio Daily. October 18, 1949. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
- ^ 'Radio Star Graham Commits Suicide', Los Angeles Times, September 4, 1950.
- ^ "Frank Graham" (PDF). Broadcasting. September 11, 1950. p. 82. Retrieved 3 August 2018.
- ^ O'Meara, Mallory (2019). The lady from the black lagoon : Hollywood monsters and the lost legacy of Milicent Patrick. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ISBN 9781335937803. OCLC 1080884379.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ "Graham Suicide Letter Interrupted by Friend: Filing of Will Discloses Last Writing by Radio Producer Resumed After He Had Caller". Los Angeles Times. September 19, 1950. p. A8. ProQuest 166134820.
The producer ended his life last Sept. 2 by inhaling monoxide gas in his automobile outside his home, 9115 Wonderland Ave.
- ^ "MGM's "The Night Before Christmas" (1941) With Tom & Jerry". cartoonresearch.com. 23 December 2015. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
- ^ a b c d ""Hello All You Happy Tax Payers": Tex Avery's Voice Stock Company". cartoonresearch.com. 10 February 2020. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
- ^ "Snafu Special: For the Boys". cartoonresearch.com. 27 October 2020. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
- ^ "Disney's "Chicken Little" Cartoon from 1943". cartoonresearch.com. 22 June 2016. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
- ^ a b c ""Pretty Long Wait, Wasn't It?": TEX AVERY'S VOICE ACTORS (Volume 3) |". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved 2021-10-07.
- ^ Beck, Jerry (2020). The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes. Insight Editions. p. 15. ISBN 978-1647221379.
- ^ a b Scott, Keith (3 October 2022). Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2. BearManor Media.
- ^ "Norm McCabe's "Honesty Is The Best Policy" (1946)". cartoonresearch.com. 20 August 2018. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
- ^ "The Endlessly Finicky Job of Revising "Cartoon Voices Of The Golden Age"". cartoonresearch.com. 8 October 2024. Retrieved 2024-10-23.
- ^ "AVERY.... Vol. 2??? WELL, IMAGINE THAT!". cartoonresearch.com. 7 December 2020. Retrieved 24 December 2020.