Thurl Ravenscroft

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Ravenscroft's 1970 gospel album Great Hymns in Story and Song

Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft (February 6, 1914 – May 22, 2005) was an American voice actor and singer with a deep, booming voice. For 53 years, he was best-known as the voice of Tony the Tiger in more than 500 television commercials for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes (also known as Frosties). After his death, Lee Marshall went on to replace him as the voice of Tony the Tiger in Kellogg's Frosted Flakes commercials.

Ravenscroft was also the vocalist of the song "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" in the Christmas television special based on the Dr. Seuss classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, although his name was accidentally left off of the credits, leading many to believe (erroneously) that the cartoon's narrator, Boris Karloff, sang the song. He also sang No Dogs Allowed in the Peanuts animated motion picture Snoopy Come Home.

His voice is also heard in many Disneyland and Walt Disney World attractions. He is the voice of "Buff," the buffalo head on the Country Bear Jamboree; lead vocalist on the theme song Grim Grinning Ghosts in the Haunted Mansion and Phantom Manor (his face is on the singing bust that many people have mistaken for Walt Disney); "Fritz," the German-accented parrot in the Enchanted Tiki Room; Narrator on the Disneyland Railroad (not the voice that announces the train boarding or departing); the original voice of the First Mate on the Mark Twain Riverboat; several singing (and drunk) pirates in the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction; and one of the bass voices in the chorus of "it's a small world". He is sometimes mistaken for Paul Frees, who provides the 'Ghost Host' narration for The Haunted Mansion attraction, due to the fact that Ravenscroft was the narrator on Disney's The Story and Song from the Haunted Mansion vinyl record. He also provided narration on the original Pirates of the Caribbean vinyl recording, as well as singing several pirate-themed songs.

One of the computer-animated singing busts in the 2003 film The Haunted Mansion was modelled after his features; another was made to resemble Paul Frees.

Ravenscroft also provided the voice of Kirby in The Brave Little Toaster and voiced the animated pig in the "Jolly Holiday" sequence of Mary Poppins.

Ravenscroft left his native Norfolk, Nebraska for California in 1933. He achieved early success as part of a singing group called The Mellomen. The Mellomen can be heard on many popular recordings of the Big Band Era, including backup for Bing Crosby, Frankie Laine, Jo Stafford and Rosemary Clooney.

During World War II, Ravenscroft served as a civilian navigator contracted to the U.S. Air Transport Command, spending five years flying courier missions across the north and south Atlantic. Among the notables carried on board his flights were Winston Churchill and Bob Hope.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Ravenscroft's distinctive bass can be heard as part of the chorus on 28 albums of The Johnny Mann Singers that were released during this period. In the 1980s and 1990s, Ravenscroft was narrator for the annual Pageant of the Masters art show at the Laguna Beach, California Festival of the Arts.

He died in his home on May 22, 2005 from prostate cancer at the age of 91. He was laid to rest at the Memorial Gardens at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California.

In the June 6, 2005, issue of the ad-industry journal Advertising Age, Kellogg's ran an ad commemorating Ravenscroft. The headline read: "Behind every great character is an even greater man."