Daws Butler
Butler in 1976
Born	Charles Dawson Butler (1916-11-16)November 16, 1916 Toledo, Ohio, U.S.
Died	May 18, 1988(1988-05-18) (aged 71) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City
Other names	Dawes Butler
Occupation	Voice actor
Years active	1935–1988
Notable work	Hanna-Barbera
Spouse	Myrtis Martin ​ (m. 1943)​
Children	4
Awards	Inkpot Award (1975)[1]

Charles Dawson Butler (November 16, 1916 – May 18, 1988) was an American voice actor. He worked mostly for theHanna-Barbera animation production company and theWalter Lantz cartoon studio. He originated the voices of many familiar Hanna-Barbera characters, including:Yogi Bear,Huckleberry Hound,Snagglepuss,Quick Draw McGraw andBaba Looey,Augie Doggie,Loopy De Loop,Wally Gator,Snooper and Blabber,Dixie and Mr. Jinks,Hokey Wolf,Lippy the Lion,Elroy Jetson,Lambsy,Peter Potamus,The Funky Phantom andHair Bear.^[2][3] While at Walter Lantz, he did the voices of:Chilly Willy,Smedley,Maxie the Polar Bear,Gooney andSam in theMaggie and Sam series.

Butler was born on November 16, 1916, inToledo, Ohio, the only child of Charles Allen Butler (1890–1972) and Ruth Butler (1899–1960). The family later moved from Ohio toOak Park, Illinois, where Butler became interested in impersonating people.^[4][5]

In 1935, Butler began performing as animpressionist, entering multiple amateur contests and winning most of them—not with the intention of showing his talent, but as a personal challenge to overcome his shyness. He subsequently won professional engagements at vaudeville theaters.^[5]

He then teamed up with fellow performers Jack Lavin and Willard Ovitz, forming the comedy trio The Three Short Waves. They played in theaters, on radio, and in nightclubs, with positive reviews from regional critics and audiences. They dissolved the act in 1941 when Butler joined theUnited States Navy as America enteredWorld War II. He subsequently met his wife-to-be Myrtis at a wartime function near Washington, D.C.^[6]

His first voice work for an animated character was in the animated shortShort Snorts on Sports (1948), produced byScreen Gems. At theMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio,Tex Avery hired Butler to provide the voice of a British wolf onLittle Rural Riding Hood (1949) and also to narrate several of his cartoons.^[5]

Throughout the late 1940s and mid-1950s, Butler had roles in many Avery-directed cartoons: the Fox inOut-Foxed, the narrator/cat inThe Cuckoo Clock, the Cobbler inThe Peachy Cobbler, Mr. Theeves andSpike (one line) inDroopy's Double Trouble, Mysto the Magician inMagical Maestro, John the Cab and John the B-29 Bomber inOne Cab's Family andLittle Johnny Jet, and Charlie inThe Legend of Rockabye Point.^[5]

Beginning withThe Three Little Pups, Butler provided the voice for a nameless wolf that spoke in aSouthern accent and whistled all the time (the tune wasHenry C. Work's "Kingdom Coming"). The character also appeared inSheep Wrecked,Billy Boy, and many other cartoons. At MGM, Avery wanted Butler to take on the voice ofDroopy, at a time whenBill Thompson was unavailable due to radio engagements. Butler did a few lines, then recommendedDon Messick, another actor and Butler's lifelong friend, who was better at imitating Thompson. Messick voiced Droopy in several shorts.^[5][7]

In 1949, Butler landed a role in a televised puppet show created by formerWarner Bros. Cartoons animation directorBob Clampett calledTime for Beany. He was teamed withStan Freberg, with whom he did all the puppets' voices: Butler voiced Beany Boy and Captain Huffenpuff, and Freberg voiced Cecil and Dishonest John. An entire stable of recurring characters were also seen. The show's writers were Charles Shows and Lloyd Turner, whose dependably funny dialog was still always at the mercy of Butler's and Freberg'sad libs.Time for Beany ran from 1949 to 1954, and won severalEmmy Awards.^[8]

In 1952, Butler starred in the live-action shortNice Try, Virgil.^[9]

He briefly turned his attention to writing and voicing TV commercials. In the 1950s, Freberg asked him to help him write comedy skits for hisCapitol Records albums. Their first collaboration, "St. George and the Dragonet" (based onDragnet), was the first comedy record to sell over a million copies. Freberg was more of a satirist who did song parodies, but the bulk of his dialogue routines were co-written by and co-starred Butler.^[10]

Butler teamed again with Freberg and actressJune Foray in a CBS radio series,The Stan Freberg Show, which ran from July to October 1957 as a summer replacement for Jack Benny's program. Freberg's box set,Tip of the Freberg (Rhino Entertainment, 1999), chronicles every aspect of Freberg's career except the cartoon voice-over work, and showcases his career with Butler. InMr. Magoo, theUPA theatrical animated short series forColumbia Pictures, Butler played Magoo's nephew Waldo (also voiced byJerry Hausner at various times).^[10] In Freberg's "Green Chri$tma$" in 1958, a scathing indictment of the over-commercialization of the holiday, Butler soberly hoped instead that we'd remember "whose birthday we're celebrating".

Butler provided the voices of many namelessWalter Lantz Productions' characters for theatrical shorts later seen on theWoody Woodpecker program. His characters included the penguinChilly Willy and his best friend Smedley, a Southern-accented dog (the same voice used for Tex Avery's laid-back wolf character and forHanna-Barbera'sHuckleberry Hound).^[8]

In 1957, when MGM had closed their animation unit, producersWilliam Hanna andJoseph Barbera quickly formedtheir own company, and Butler and Don Messick were on hand to provide voices. The first,The Ruff and Reddy Show, with Butler voicing Reddy, set the formula for the rest of the series of cartoons that the two helmed until the mid-1960s. He played the title roles inThe Huckleberry Hound Show,The Quick Draw McGraw Show, andThe Yogi Bear Show, and portrayed a variety of other characters.^[11][8][5]

Some of the characters voiced by Butler from 1948 to 1988 included:

Butler voiced most of these characters for decades, in both TV shows and in some commercials. The breakfast cereal mascotCap'n Crunch became an icon of sorts onSaturday morning TV through many commercials produced byJay Ward. Butler played Cap'n from the 1960s to the 1980s. He based the voice on that of character actorCharles Butterworth. In 1961, whileMel Blanc was recovering from a road accident, Daws Butler substituted for him to voiceBarney Rubble in five episodes ofThe Flintstones (The Hit Songwriter,Droop-Along Flintstone,Fred Flintstone Woos Again,The Rock Quarry Story,The Little White Lie). Butler had previously voiced the characters of Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble in the 90 second pilot for the series (when it was calledThe Flagstones).

In 1964, Butler was featured asHuckleberry Hound on a 45rpm record, "Bingo, Ringo", a comedic story combiningThe Beatles' drummerRingo Starr andLorne Greene's hit record "Ringo".

InWacky Races, Butler provided the voices for a number of the racers, Rock Slag, Big Gruesome, the Red Max, Sgt. Blast, Peter Perfect, and Rufus Ruffcut. He voiced a penguin and a turtle in the movieMary Poppins, his only known work forDisney. Along withStan Freberg,Paul Frees andJune Foray, Butler also provided voices for children's records featuring recreations of several successful Disney cartoons and films.

This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(July 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Butler based some of his voices on popular celebrities of the day. Yogi Bear began as anArt Carney impression; Butler had done a similar voice in several ofRobert McKimson's films at Warner Brothers, and on Stan Freberg's comedy record "The Honey-Earthers". However, he soon changed Yogi's voice, making it much deeper and more sing-songy.

Hokey Wolf began as an impression ofPhil Silvers, and Snagglepuss asBert Lahr. When Snagglepuss began appearing in commercials forKellogg'sCocoa Krispies in 1961, Lahr threatened to sue Butler for "stealing" his voice. As part of the settlement, the disclaimer "Snagglepuss voice by Daws Butler" was required to appear on each commercial, making him the only voice actor ever to receive credit in an animated TV commercial. Huckleberry Hound was inspired by aNorth Carolina neighbor of Butler's wife's family; he previously used the voice forTex Avery's laid-back wolf andWalter Lantz's Smedley.

In the 1970s, Butler was the voice of "Hair Bear" onHelp!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch! and a few characters in minor cartoons such asC.B. Bears. OnLaff-a-Lympics, he was virtually the entire "Yogi Yahooey" team. He also played the title character inThe Funky Phantom, and Louie and Pug onThe Pink Panther Show. In 1977, he guest-starred as Captain Numo and his lackey Schultz on theWhat's New, Mr. Magoo? episode "Secret Agent Magoo".

Apart from specials and commercials, Butler was less prolific in the 1970s and 1980s until a revival ofThe Jetsons and Hanna-Barbera's crossover seriesYogi's Treasure Hunt, both in 1985. In 1983, he voiced the title characterWacky WallWalker inDeck the Halls with Wacky Walls.

In 1975, Butler began an acting workshop which spawned such talents asNancy Cartwright,Corey Burton,Joe Bevilacqua,Bill Farmer,Pat Parris,Tony Pope,Linda Gary,Bob Bergen,Greg Berg,^[13]Greg Burson,Mona Marshall,Brian Cummings,^[14]Sherry Lynn,Joey Camen,Keith Scott,Sonny Melendrez,Charles Howerton,Hal Rayle, and writer Earl Kress.

In the year of his death,The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound was released, featuring most of his early characters.

Daws met and married Myrtis Martin in 1943 while he was in theUnited States Navy duringWorld War II.^[15][16] They had four sons, David, Don, Paul and Charles, and remained married until his death in 1988.^[17]

Butler died of aheart attack on May 18, 1988, atCedars-Sinai Medical Center at age 71. A few months before he died, he contractedpneumonia, and had suffered astroke a few months before that.^[11][16] The television specialHanna-Barbera's 50th: A Yabba Dabba Doo Celebration was dedicated to him. Many of his roles were assumed byGreg Burson, whom Butler personally trained until his death.^[18]

Myrtis Mayfield Martin Butler (born January 13, 1917,Stanly County, North Carolina) died on November 15, 2018, inBeverly Hills, California at the age of 101. She was buried next to Daws inHoly Cross Cemetery, Culver City.^[19]

Butler trained many voice actors, including:Nancy Cartwright (the voice ofBart Simpson),Corey Burton (the voice ofCount Dooku in several animatedStar Wars series, as well as Dale inChip 'n' Dale),^[20]Bill Farmer (the current voice ofGoofy,Pluto, andHorace Horsecollar),Bob Bergen (the voice ofPorky Pig),Joe Bevilacqua (whom Butler personally taught how to do all his characters),Sherry Lynn,Greg Burson (the voice of Yogi Bear andBugs Bunny) andMona Marshall (the voice of various characters inSouth Park). Butler's voice and scripts were a frequent part of Bevilacqua's now-defunct XM show.^[21]

Bevilacqua also wrote Butler's official biography, published by Bear Manor Media.^[22] A new book of cartoon scripts written by Butler and Joe Bevilacqua,Uncle Dunkle and Donnie: Fractured Fables, was scheduled for publication in the fall of 2009. A four-volume, 4½-hour audio set ofUncle Dunkle and Donnie was to be simultaneously released, with Bevilacqua performing all 97 characters in 35 stories. Butler also trainedHal Rayle, who ultimately determined that his best-known character of Doyle Cleverlobe fromGalaxy High School should sound like "Elroy Jetson after he finishedpuberty".^[23]

• The videoDaws Butler: Voice Magician is a 1987 documentary of Butler's career, from his pre-MGM days through his teaming with Freberg in 1949 and teaming withDon Messick in 1957. It was originally seen as aPBS pledge-drive special.
• Former Butler protégéJoe Bevilacqua hosted a radio series onXM Satellite Radio's Sonic Theater Channel calledThe Comedy-O-Rama Hour. It had a regular segment,What the Butler Wrote: Scenes from the Daws Butler Workshop, with rare scripts of Butler's performed by his students (includingNancy Cartwright) and rare recordings of Butler himself. Bevilacqua has also co-authored (with Ben Ohmart) the authorized biography bookDaws Butler, Characters Actor, and edited the bookScenes for Actors and Voices written by Butler, both published by Bear Manor Media.
• Butler was a contestant onGroucho Marx's quiz showYou Bet Your Life in 1960. The studio audience did not recognize him until he began speaking like Huckleberry Hound. He and his partner Marie Gómez split the top prize of $10,000.^[24]
• In 1985, Butler was interviewed about his career onDr. Demento's radio show.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toDaws Butler.

• Official website - NOTE: Domain expired and was purchased by another party (noted 2/1/‘22) -Last good capture at the Wayback Machine
• A rare dramatic role by Butler as Toby Dammit in Poe's story Never Bet the Devil Your Head
• Comedy-O-Rama and Scenes from the Daws Butler Workshop
• A Groucho Marx quiz show episode including Daws Butler
• Daws Butler atIMDb

• 1916 births
• 1988 deaths
• 20th-century American comedians
• 20th-century American male actors
• American impressionists (entertainers)
• American male radio actors
• American male voice actors
• Audiobook narrators
• Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City
• Comedians from Toledo, Ohio
• Era Records artists
• Hanna-Barbera people
• Huckleberry Hound
• Inkpot Award winners
• Male actors from Toledo, Ohio
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio people
• United States Navy personnel of World War II
• United States Navy sailors
• Walter Lantz Productions people
• Warner Bros. Cartoons people
• Yogi Bear

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from May 2023
• Articles with hCards
• Articles needing additional references from July 2022
• All articles needing additional references
• Commons category link is on Wikidata