Hollywood is mourning the passing of another icon of the 60's this weekend.
Actor, comedian, and radio personality Gary Owens left us at the age of 80. Gary is best remembered as the announcer on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, and as host-announcer for its daytime spin-off, Letters To Laugh-In, as well as for cartoon fans, the voice behind such characters as Roger Ramjet, Space Ghost, and the Blue Falcon, owner-partner of Dynomutt, Dog Wonder. Owens also hosted a syndicated radio oldies show, Gary Owens' Supertracks, during the 80's, insofar as I can recall. In addition to Laugh-In, his primetime credits included a recurring role as a TV newscaster on The Green Hornet.
Gary's last TV job was voicing Space Ghost one final time, on Cartoon Network's Batman: The Brave & the Bold, a 1-time only teaming of the Sentinel of the Spaceways and the Dark Knight.
Following is the very first Roger Ramjet cartoon, as Roger and his team meet Dr. Ivan Evilkisser. This video is also available over at Saturday Morning Archives.
Rest in peace, Gary.
4 comments:
I was saddened to hear of Owens' passing. His voice was so recognizable; like Mel Blanc and Casey Kasem, different generations had access to his talents. Some saw cartoons like SPace Ghost, others watched him broadcast from beautiful downtown Burbank on Laugh In. At least we got the wish list fulfilled of him voicing Space Ghost for the last time back on Brave & The Bold.
Amen to that, although as I said, he was in decline by the time of the BTB&TB gig.
And let's not forget that for a while he had a studio announcer's job at one of the networks, I think it was ABC, since he did voice-over sponsor tags on Bewitched, for example.
He was also the primary continuty announcer for classic TV diginet Antenna TV.
So I've read. Unfortunately, Antenna TV is not available in my area.
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