In February of this year, the animation community and everyone who ever knew Joe Alaskey were saddened to hear of Joe's passing at the age of 64. As I wrote at the time…
Joe was an on-camera impressionist and comic actor but he achieved his greatest fame doing voices for animated cartoons, including the role of Grandpa Lou Pickles on Rugrats (following the late David Doyle) and many of the major Warner Brothers characters, especially Daffy Duck. Joe won his Emmy in 2004 for his portrayal of Daffy on the series, Duck Dodgers.
This afternoon, friends and family members gathered together at Joe's favorite restaurant out in Encino (this place) and told wonderful stories about him, then we ate wonderful food that Joe would have been happy to know his loved ones were eating. I was one of the speakers and like those who preceded and followed me, I spoke of a wonderfully talented man who was passionate about his work and who did it so well. (One of those who followed me was Bob Bergen, who speaks for Porky Pig usually and who did in the Duck Dodgers show. So you had Daffy's loyal assistant eulogizing Daffy…sort of.)
If I'd taken notes, I could maybe quote some of the great stories told but I'm a lousy reporter and I was enjoying myself too much to think about that. It was just plain great to spend a little more time with Joe and to hear others' experiences with him. Mine were all wonderful — like the time I had him on a Cartoon Voice Panel at Comic-Con. As I usually do, I asked all the panelists to tell us of some job they had for which they received no billing or attention…something we might be surprised to know they did.
Joe must have had thousands to pick from but he mentioned that he had looped (i.e., replaced the voice of) Jack Lemmon in a few scenes of the movie of Glengarry Glen Ross. I believe it was for the "laundered" version of the film for when it was shown on TV or airplanes or something. Anyway, he went in and imitated Lemmon and redid every line with a naughty word in it…which now that I think of it may have been half the movie. Then he demonstrated for us a flawless mimicking of Mr. Lemmon's voice.
We did not plan the follow-up. I remembered that the first time I'd seen Joe — he was doing stand-up on some TV show — I was impressed by an uncanny facsimile he did of the voice of Walter Matthau. I asked him if he ever did Lemmon and Matthau together, as heard in the film of The Odd Couple.
I don't know if the audience saw this but I sure saw Joe look for a moment like I'd thrown him a high inside slider curve. This was instantly followed by a twinkle of pleasure at the challenge and then I saw Joe's face scrunch like he was rapidly fast forwarding through his memory, running the whole damn movie so he could select a choice exchange. Less than five seconds after I'd asked, Joe performed about a six-line excerpt playing both Walter/Oscar and Jack/Felix. It was dead-on perfect and the audience gasped, then lustily applauded.
Audiences fake applause all the time. We applaud when someone is introduced even when we have no idea who that is. But we don't fake gasping. Three thousand people at that moment gasped aloud at the awesome talent of Mr. Joe Alaskey. And well they should.
It was a great party, Joe. Sorry you weren't there…but I guess, in a way, you were.