This is an entry to Mark Evanier's list of the twenty top voice actors in American animated cartoons between 1928 and 1968. For more on this list, read this. To see all the listings posted to date, click here.
Most Famous Role: Scooby Doo.
Other Notable Roles: Boo Boo Bear, Ranger Smith, Papa Smurf, Astro and many supporting players on The Jetsons, Bamm-Bamm (baby version) and many supporting players on The Flintstones, Muttley, Mumbly, Dr. Benton Quest on Jonny Quest, Hamton J. Pig on Tiny Toon Adventures and dozens of others.
What He Did Besides Cartoon Voices: Not much. Messick started out as a ventriloquist and puppeteer and quickly found himself in so much demand for voiceover work that he did only that for the rest of his life. The one real exception was his on-camera role as a cartoon voice actor in the short-lived 1984 situation comedy, The Duck Factory.
Why He's On This List: Messick was the consummate professional and the guy who could do anything, including playing six roles in the same scene and doing it so well you'd never know all those voices were coming out of the same guy. He could even overlap himself. No one on this list or others to come could ever switch between voices so quickly and expertly. And no one who ever hired him ever regretted their selection.
Fun Fact: Messick believed in not doing imitations. Once in a while, Joe Barbera pressed him into mimicking a celebrity but he didn't like it and almost never based a voice on someone recognizable — an amazing fact given how many different voices he was called upon to invent throughout his career. He also usually refused to replicate another voice actor, especially if that actor was available to be hired for the job in question. He adopted this policy after an unpleasant incident. He'd agreed to imitate a Howie Morris character when Howie wasn't available to record a part in a Hanna-Barbera record based on a prime-time animated special of Alice in Wonderland. Howie didn't blame Don but was furious with Barbera, leading to a fight which led to Howie not working again for H-B for a few decades. Under pressure, Messick agreed to take over as Atom Ant and a few of Howie's other roles but turned down later requests to "do" others' characters. One exception was taking over as Scrappy Doo after Lennie Weinrib but in that case, Messick wasn't imitating Lennie.