Blanc was born on October 19, 1938, inLos Angeles,California. He is the only child of voice actorMel Blanc. Throughout Noel's childhood, adolescence and early adulthood, he worked with his father on theLooney Tunes cartoons, with Mel training him in the field of voice characterization.[2][3] In 1961, Noel performed some of Mel's voices, uncredited, when Mel was injured in a car crash.[4][5][6][7] On January 29, 1962, they formed Blanc Communications Corporation,[8][9] a media company which remains in operation.[10] Together, they produced over 5,000 public service announcements and commercials, appearing withKirk Douglas,Lucille Ball,Vincent Price,Phyllis Diller,Liberace, andThe Who. Kirk Douglas' son,Joel, served as one of the executives at Blanc Communications Corporation and helped to develop and produce commercials until the late 1980s.[11]
Blanc has been married three times; he first married Larraine Zax in 1967; they divorced in 1972. Blanc then married actressMartha Smith in 1977; the marriage lasted for nine years, until they divorced in 1986. Blanc married his third wife, Katherine Hushaw, at theWarner Bros. Studios on June 3, 1998.[15][16]
In February 1991, Blanc was injured in his personal helicopter when the aircraft collided with a small plane aboveSanta Paula Airport. Two other people were also injured, includingKirk Douglas, and two people in the plane were killed.[17] Blanc suffered multiple fractures to his right leg, five broken ribs, a bruised lung, and a bruised kidney. He was taken to the intensive care unit atSanta Paula Hospital.[18]
^Ohmart, Ben (November 15, 2012).Mel Blanc: The Man of a Thousand Voices.ISBN9781593932596. RetrievedNovember 23, 2023.According to one report, Noel, by then a fair imitator of his father's characters, was asked by Warner Bros. to loop a series of cartoons, ones which needed an extra phrase or word redone. He would still pinch-hit for Mel later on occasion too, but "about 99% of what the public hears is my dad. My voice is basically used in public service announcements and on Armed Forces broadcasts."
^"'May the century begin': History behind Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress". ClickOrlando. September 27, 2021. RetrievedSeptember 10, 2024.Since 1964, Uncle Orville has been voiced by the one and only Mel Blanc. Blanc originally voiced the cuckoo clock in the Carousel, and a few other odds and ends but those were re-voiced for 1993 by his son, Noel Blanc.
