Photo by Dave Nimitz
Today is the 95th birthday of the First Lady of Cartoon Voices, June Foray. It's still a little fuzzy as to when she started doing that. She used to tell all who asked that her first job in animation was speaking for Lucifer, the cat in Cinderella, which came out in 1950, which would probably mean she recorded her part in 1949 or 1948. Historians have since found what seems to be June in a few earlier cartoons but that wouldn't (couldn't) make her body of work any more impressive.
And she is still working. She's playing Granny on The Looney Tunes Show. She occasionally guests in her Emmy-winning role as Mrs. Cauldron on The Garfield Show. She recently recorded the voice of Rocket J. Squirrel for an upcoming Rocky & Bullwinkle short. She's really amazing and is, of course, much loved by all who know who she is and what she's done.
I was trying to think of a great June Foray video I could put up here today…and I had many from which to choose: All her work for Jay Ward, all her work for Warner Brothers, all her work for Walter Lantz, etc. I settled on maybe the least impressive film to which she ever contributed…and I don't expect you to watch all or even most of this. I certainly never have. But at least watch the opening titles…