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: Atom Ant.
Other Notable Roles: Jughead (on Filmation's Archie shows), Beetle Bailey, Mr. Peebles (owner of Magilla Gorilla), Jet Screamer (on The Jetsons), Wade Duck (on Garfield and Friends), The Gopher in the original Winnie the Pooh shorts, Flem (on Cow and Chicken) and hundreds of commercials including the Koala in a series of popular ads for Qantas Airlines and the Hamburglar and other denizens of McDonaldland.
What He Did Besides Cartoon Voices: Howie became famous as Sid Caesar's sidekick on Mr. Caesar's legendary comedy shows. He directed TV shows like Get Smart, Hogan's Heroes and The Dick Van Dyke Show, movies (including "Who's Minding the Mint?") and commercials. He guested on hundreds of TV shows and is probably best remembered as Ernest T. Bass, who appeared on five episodes of The Andy Griffith Show.
Why He's On This List: Howie was one of the most creative, spontaneous actors who ever voiced cartoons. Have him read a line five times and you got five different interpretations, each more colorful than the one before. Daws Butler used to cite him as a true comic actor who could find the "funny" in whatever lines you gave him.
Fun Fact: One of Howie's first animation voice jobs was doing all the major roles for "Munro," a 1960 theatrical short directed by Gene Deitch which won the Academy Award that year.