Top 10 Best Looney Tunes Voice Acting Performances
#10: Paul Julian
The Golden Age “Looney Tunes” voice actors have all passed on, although one can still occasionally be heard through archival recordings. Paul Julian was a Warner Bros. background artist, mainly working on Tweety and Sylvester cartoons in director Friz Freleng’s unit. As an animator, Julian was known for his urban eye. Yet, his greatest contribution to the series would be two words. Actually, one word repeated twice: “beep beep.” While moving a painting, Julian did his best impression of a car horn to clear the way. Chuck Jones overheard the sound effect, incorporating it into 1949’s “Fast and Furry-ous.” With sound editor Treg Brown speeding his voice up, Julian delivered what might be the franchise’s most iconic performance with the least amount of dialogue.
#9: Stan Freberg
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As a consolation for not receiving a pay raise, Mel Blanc was given screen credit for his voice work in WB cartoons - a rarity at the time. While Blanc voiced most of the key Looney Tunes, several supporting players wouldn’t get recognition until much later. Stan Freberg is one such talent. Starting as a radio impressionist, Freberg was a natural fit for animation. Freberg shared roles like Hubie and Bertie and the Goofy Gophers with Blanc, but the bumbling Pete Puma was all his. Inspired by comedian Frank Fontaine’s characterizations, Freberg developed Pete into one of Bugs’ most enjoyably dense opponents. Freberg would continue to voice characters like Pete and the equally dim Junior Bear well into the new century until he died in 2015.
#8: Tress MacNeille
In the modern “Looney Tunes” era, Tress MacNeille has voiced classic characters like Penelope Pussycat and Miss Prissy. Her most significant role in the Looney-verse had to be Babs Bunny on “Tiny Toons.” Babs and Buster Bunny, voiced by Charlie Adler, captured two sides of their forerunner Bugs. Where Buster encompassed Bugs’ sly, smart-alecky nature, Babs brought out the eccentric side that could get out of any situation with a costume change. Babs’ onslaught of impressions and personas allowed MacNeille to demonstrate her range as an actress. It would’ve been easy to just make Babs a female Bugs Bunny, but MacNeille helped mold the character into a unique comedian. The role paved the way for MacNeille to voice other WB characters, such as Dot Warner.
#7: Bob Bergen
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Porky Pig was originally voiced by Joe Dougherty, who had a real stutter. As such, Dougherty’s recording sessions proved too long and expensive. Sound artist Count Cutelli filled in until Mel Blanc took over the role. Several actors have voiced Porky since Blanc’s passing, but Bob Bergen has been the go-to guy for over 30 years. While Bergen has also voiced Tweety, Marvin the Martian, and others, Porky demands the most from him. Not only is it easy to get tongue-tied, but Bergen needs to bring sincerity. Porky wouldn’t be a timeless character if it felt like his performer was making fun of people with speech disorders. Bergen is so genuine as Porky that his stutter is practically an afterthought, earning him multiple Emmy nominations.
#6: June Foray
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June Foray owes her tenure at Warner Bros. to her earlier work at Disney, most notably a 1952 Donald Duck cartoon entitled “Trick or Treat.” Taking notice of her Witch Hazel performance, Chuck Jones brought Foray to WB where she voiced another character named Witch Hazel. In case you were wondering, the name is a plant pun. In addition to Witch Hazel, Foray inherited the role of Granny from Bea Benaderet. Where Benaderet voiced the sweet yet hard-hitting Granny for about five years, Foray played her for more than five decades, winning two Annies for “The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries.” One of animation’s most influential voices, Foray gained a reputation as the female Mel Blanc, although to Chuck Jones, “Mel Blanc was the male June Foray.”
#5: Arthur Q. Bryan
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Elmer Fudd is perhaps the most prominent Looney Tune who wasn’t regularly voiced by Mel Blanc. While Blanc portrayed early incarnations of the character, Arthur Q. Bryan found Fudd’s distinct voice. Bryan tapped into his inner Fudd while voicing another character in 1939’s “Dangerous Dan McFoo.” Officially debuting in “Elmer’s Candid Camera,” Bugs met his most familiar yet not formidable foe. Although antagonistic, Bryan turned Fudd into a lovable sap who we empathize with even if we don’t root for him. Following Bryan’s death, Blanc added Elmer Fudd to his repertoire, albeit with hesitance. Several others later voiced Fudd, including Billy West, but the gullible hunter remains most closely tied to Bryan. The two even resemble each other, especially in shorts like “Wabbit Twouble.”
#4: Jeff Bergman
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While nobody could take Mel Blanc’s place, an assortment of talented actors kept the looney legacy alive after he died in 1989. Jeff Bergman was the first to take on the daunting task of voicing the tunes for another generation. Bergman had been impersonating the Looney Tunes since age 15 and even recorded some voices for “The Bugs Bunny Show” in 1986. Listening to recordings of Bergman and Blanc, WB president Edward Bleier couldn’t differentiate the two. Thus, Bergman officially inherited the mantle, lending his voice to specials like “Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue,” movies like “Gremlins 2,” and shorts like “Box-Office Bunny.” Bergman has played everybody from Bugs, to Daffy, to Porky, to Elmer across various media, giving the Looney Tunes their voices back.
#3: Eric Bauza
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Sharing many roles with Bergman, Eric Bauza is the most recent actor to regularly voice Bugs, Daffy, Tweety, and so on. Yet, he’s already established himself as a modern legend. Bauza started voicing Marvin the Martian in “The Looney Tunes Show.” He’d get to voice more characters in 2015’s “New Looney Tunes” and 2020’s “Looney Tunes Cartoons,” the latter of which won him his first Emmy. It was also the first Emmy for Bugs! Bauza picked up another Emmy for “Bugs Bunny Builders” and introduced Buster Bunny to a new class in “Tiny Toons Looniversity.” You can sense Bauza’s love for these characters in every line delivery, ensuring that they remain in good hands. Now if we could just hear Bauza in “Coyote vs. Acme.”
#2: Joe Alaskey
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Along with Bergman, the late Joe Alaskey was part of a new looney wave, picking up where Blanc left off. Even before Blanc passed, Alaskey could be heard as Yosemite Sam in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” Alaskey further showcased his abilities in “Tiny Toons.” In addition to voicing several Acme Looniversity staff members, Alaskey landed a main role as Plucky Duck. Just as Plucky was a student getting his toon degree, Alaskey was also just starting to leave his mark. The student became the master soon enough with Alaskey voicing the titular characters in “The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries” and “Duck Dodgers,” winning an Emmy for the latter. Also receiving an Annie nomination for “Looney Tunes: Back in Action,” Alaskey immortalized himself through these immortal characters.
Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
Bill Roberts
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Daws Butler
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Dick Beals
The OG Ralph Phillips
Greg Burson
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Kristen Wiig
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#1: Mel Blanc
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Mel Blanc’s career wasn’t limited to the Looney Tunes, but his decades with WB secured his reputation as The Man of a Thousand Voices. We can’t discuss all 1,000 of them, but it’s nothing short of astonishing that one person gave us Daffy’s looney laughs, Sylvester’s thick lisp, Foghorn’s Southern drawl, Sam’s hotheaded screams, Porky’s signature shutter, Taz’s gargling gibberish, Pepé’s French sentimentality, Speedy’s unbound energy, Tweety’s devious cuteness, and Bugs’ Bronx/Brooklyn accent, complete with carrot-chomping. A testament to his craft, Blanc didn’t care for carrots, spitting them out after takes. The torch has passed to numerous gifted voice artists, including his son, Noel Blanc. There’s still only one Mel Blanc, but as long as he continues to inspire, nobody can truly say, “That’s all, folks.”
Which Looney Tune do you think would be the hardest to voice? Let us know in the comments.
