One of the happiest places I've ever been was the workshop of one of the nicest and most talented men it has ever been my honor to know. I'm talking about Daws Butler, the great cartoon voice actor who put words in the mouth of — and I'm doing this from memory — Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Mr. Jinks, Dixie the Mouse, Hokey Wolf, Quick Draw McGraw, Baba Looie, Snooper, Blabber, Augie Doggie, Snagglepuss, Elroy Jetson, Wally Gator, Peter Potamus, Bingo (of the Banana Splits), Captain Crunch and probably a few hundred others.
One of the foundations of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon studio was Daws, not only because he voiced so many of their earlier characters but because he set the standard for voice acting for television animation. Mel Blanc was the guy who showed everyone how to do it for theatrical cartoons with full animation. Daws was the man who loaded his performances with so much personality that it made up for the fact that the characters didn't move so much and when they did, they all moved in pretty much the same way.
And he was a wonderful person. This video is Daws taking someone on tour of his workshop, which was in a guest house in the back of his home in Beverly Hills. There, he taught students, many of whom became very successful in the voiceover field. I was not his student in that sense. I have trouble sounding like me, let alone someone else. But he invited me to sit in on classes occasionally and he and I spent many hours in that studio just talking…and I think I learned something about writing by better understanding the craft of acting.
This video allows you to spend ten minutes with Daws. I'm sorry for your sake you couldn't spend more…