The Cartoon Queen

Background:

An American voice actress who started her career on radio before branching out to films in the 1940s, June Foray is well-recognized as the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel on the classic television cartoon series “The Bullwinkle Show” (1961-1964) and its installment, “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle” (2000). For voicing Granny in the series “The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries” (1995), she was handed two Annie Awards. Other TV shows in which she has lent her voice to include “George of the Jungle,” “The Simpsons,” “The Flintstones,” “Looney Tunes,” “The Bugs Bunny,” “Smurfs” and “Duck Tales,” to name a few. She also has done voice work in such movies as “Cinderella” (1950), “Thumbelina” (1994), and “Mulan” (1998) and “Mulan II” (2004), and “The Legend of Sasquatch” (2006), among others.

Thanks to her fame as a voice actress and her long-standing love for animation, she has been labeled the “Queen of Cartoons” and was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2000. She has also traveled throughout the world to give speeches on the art form. Some countries that she has been visited include Russia, France, Croatia, Japan, England, Australia and New Zealand. “I talk about animation and my career in animation and the success that animation has finally become. Instead of being second class citizens in this world of show business, we are now attaining a dignity that should have been affording us many years ago,” she stated.

Foray was married to Hobart Donavan from 1954 until his death on December 3, 1976.

L.A. Immigrant

Childhood and Family:

June Foray was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, on September 18, 1917, to artistic parents. She started her career in voice-over work when she was 12. At age 17, she and her family moved to Los Angeles where she had more opportunities to work on her career.

June married writer Hobart Donavan in 1954. Her husband died on December 3, 1976, at age 71.

The Bullwinkle Show

Career:

Springfield, Massachusetts, native June Foray had her first taste in the voice field at age 12 when her speech teacher and mentor added young Foray to the cast of her local radio show. By age 15, she was doing regular radio voice work. Two years later, Foray relocated to Los Angeles, California, and immediately emerged as a well-liked popular voice actress on radio there. At age 19, she even wrote and provided voices in her own show for children called “Lady Makebelieve.” She worked steadily in radio during the 1930s, 1940s and the 1950s, during which time she had the opportunity to work with the likes of Jimmy Durante and Danny Thomas.

Already popular on radio, Foray started to branch out to movies in the 1940s. Her first animation voice gig arrived when she was hired by Paramount to supply vocals for a live action short called “Speaking of Animals,” in which she dubbed voices for real on-screen animals. This project produced a number of records for children and launched her as a hot commodity among casting agents for cartoon voice work. Subsequently, Foray found herself working for numerous big names in animation.

Foray opened the 1950s by working with Disney for their animated feature “Cinderella” (1950), in which she provided the voice of Lucifer the Cat, and then worked for then again, three years later, for 1953's Peter Pan,” where Foray voiced Indian Squaw. Foray also caught the eye of Warner Brothers who recruited her to voice several female characters for their “Looney Tunes” and “Merrie Melodies” cartoons. She was also the voice of Granny in the “Sylvester and Tweety” cartoons, but since Mel Blanc's contract called for exclusive voice credit on these shorts, she never earned credit for all the voices she had done. Thanks to the growth of television in the 1950s, which opened a new market for cartoons, Foray's career received a significant boost. Following an encounter with writer/producer Jay Ward in 1957, she landed the popular roles of Rocket J. Squirrel and the villainess Natasha Fatale on the classic television cartoon series “Rocky and His Friends,” which later in 1961 evolved into “The Bullwinkle Show.” The series ran for 5 years from 1959 to 1964. Foray also provided the voice of sweet-natured Nell Fenwick on the show's side series “Dudley Do-Right.”

Foray also kept busy by doing voice work for series like “The Bugs Bunny Show, (1960, as Granny, Witch Hazel and other characters), “The Yogi Bear Show” (1961), and “The Alvin Show” (1961), among others. She also did occasional work on “The Flintstones” during 1959-1964. After the demise of “The Bullwinkle Show,” Foray and Ward worked again on “George of the Jungle” (1967), in which she voiced Ursula/Marigold. A year before, in 1966, she made occasional appearances in front of the camera with a dramatic turn as Jenny in the TV adaptation of “Death of Salesman.”

Foray also tried her hand at puppetry in the early 1970s. She became the voice of a giraffe, an elephant and an aardvark on “The Curiosity Shop” (1971). Around the same period, she recorded a variety of voices for the road shows of “Disney on Parade,” which toured the United States and Europe for many years. Other credits in the 1970s included the TV series “These Are the Days” (1974), “The Sylvester & Tweety Show” (1976), “Fabulous Funnies” (1978) and “The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show” (1978).She also worked on the TV films “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” (1975), “Fright Before Christmas” (1979) and “Raggedy Ann & Andy: The Pumpkin Who Couldn't Smile” (1979). Her voice could also be heard in such movies as “The Phantom Tollbooth” (1970), “Flush” (1977), and “The Great Monkey Rip-Off” (1979).

During the 1980s to 1990s, Foray remained one of Hollywood's most prolific vocal talents despite she was at the age most actresses would consider retirement. She provided dozens of voices, including that of Jokey Smurf and Mother Nature in “Smurfs” (1981), Grandma in “Teen Wolf” (1986-1988), Magica De Spell in “Duck Tales” (1987-1988), Happy Little Elf in “The Simpsons” (1990), Mona in “Garfield Gets a Life” (1991), Granny in “Tiny Toon Adventures” (1990-1991) and was heard in “The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries” (1995), to name a few. For her bright work in the latter, she won two consecutive Annie awards in 1997 and 1998 for Best Individual Achievement Voice Acting by a Female Performer in a TV Production and Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Female Performer in an Animated Television Production, respectively. She also provided the voices of Grandmother Fa in Disney's animated “Mulan” (1998), a role she later reprised for the 2004 sequel “Mulan II.” Other movie credits include “Thumbelina” (1994, as Queen Tabitha), “Space Jam” (1996, as Granny), and “Father of the Bird” (1997, as Cornbread).

In 2000, Foray recreated the role of Rocky for the live-action/animated “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle.” She went on to work in many other animation projects, and in 2006, she voiced Momma Sasquatch in the animated movie “The Legend of Sasquatch,” which also featured the voices of William Hurt, John Rhys-Davies, Jewel Restaneo and Blaire Restaneo.

Awards:

• Annie: Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Female Performer in an Animated Television Production, “The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries,” 1998

• Annie: Best Individual Achievement Voice Acting by a Female Performer in a TV Production, “The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries,” 1997

• June Foray: Became the first recipient of the award named after her, 1995, Winsor McCay: 1982