Scatman Crothers

XERUS'S VOICE ARTIST FOCUS:

Today's V/A focus is the late Scatman Crothers. Scatman was a famous actor, comedian, singer, composer, and guitar player. And he had a familiar voice you could always recognize in cartoons. His most famous voice was that number one super guy, Hong Kong Phooey. Sadly, Scatman passed away in 1986, but I'll always remember that cool sounding voice of his.

THE ARISTOCATS: Scat Cat
BANJO THE WOODPILE CAT: Crazy Legs
BEANY AND CECIL: Wildman of Wildsville(second voice)
C.B. BEARS: Segment Title Narrator
THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS: George “Meadowlark” Lemon
HONG KONG PHOOEY: Hong Kong Phooey
LAFF-A-LYMPICS: Hong Kong Phooey
PAW-PAWS: Eugene the Genie
SCOOBY DOO MEETS THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS: George “Meadowlark” Lemon
THE SKATEBIRDS: Scat Cat
THE SUPER GLOBETROTTERS: Nate Branch/Liquid Man
TRANSFORMERS(ORIGINAL MOVIE AND SERIES): Jazz

He was great in The Shining, and had a memorable role in Twilight Zone: The Movie.

He was also the singer of the theme to Heathcliff and Marmaduke

Did any of you know that originally Louie Armstrong was going to voice Scat Cat? It worked out fine with Crothers, but I still thought it's be neat to have Armstrong do it. He died in 1970, so "Aristocats" would have been his last film.

I know of Scatman mostly from his work as Jazz on the Transformers. He had a great, distinctive voice (as did many of the voice actors on that show, such as the late, great Chris Latta, who did Starscream and Cobra Commander on the GI Joe series). I had read somewhere that he was initially going to be in the Transformers TV series after the 1986 movie, but since his voice was so closely matched with that character, Scatman's death meant that Jazz had to be written out of later episodes.

And don't forget his role in Ralph Bakshi's Coonskin.

Omega supreme, do your thing!

Hevn't seen Heathcliff and Marmaduke in a very long time!

karamazov80 said:

I know of Scatman mostly from his work as Jazz on the Transformers. He had a great, distinctive voice (as did many of the voice actors on that show, such as the late, great Chris Latta, who did Starscream and Cobra Commander on the GI Joe series). I had read somewhere that he was initially going to be in the Transformers TV series after the 1986 movie, but since his voice was so closely matched with that character, Scatman's death meant that Jazz had to be written out of later episodes.

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Yes, even though Jazz did make cameos in the Rodimus Prime episodes, Jazz did not have any lines at all.

I just wonder which voice artists of today can imitate Scatman's voice in case they ever want to revive any of his cartoon characters one day?

Boober_Gorg said:

And don't forget his role in Ralph Bakshi's Coonskin.

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I never heard of that film before.

Princeton said:

Did any of you know that originally Louie Armstrong was going to voice Scat Cat? It worked out fine with Crothers, but I still thought it's be neat to have Armstrong do it. He died in 1970, so "Aristocats" would have been his last film.

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Really, that would've been interesting to hear Louie voice a cartoon character.

Still, I thought Scatman Crothers and Phil Harris were great when Scat Cat and Thomas O'Malley sang together.