Will Ryan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Will Ryan (November 13, 1939) is a voice actor originally from Cleveland, Ohio.

Something of a prodigy, his music career began when, while still in high school, he signed the first of two recording contracts with CBS Records.

Leaving music for a while, he took over the job once held by R. Crumb at the American Greetings card company back in his native Cleveland.

Segueing into live comedy, he formed a team with Phil Baron and, as Willio and Phillio, they becams midwestern favorites, with radio shows and a regular gig on PM Magazine. He and Baron later paired up again voicing characters of best friends Teddy Ruxpin (Baron) and Grubby the Octopede (Ryan) in the Teddy Ruxpin book & tape series as well as the 1987 television show The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin

Willio and Phillio brought Ryan back into the field of music and after relocating to California, he began to write and record wacky songs for Disney, becoming one of its most popular and versatile voice actors. He provided the voice of Rabbit in the Disney Channel's Welcome to Pooh Corner and in many other Pooh cartoons. He also portrayed the voice of Barnaby the Dog on Dumbo's Circus among many others. Since 1988 he has provided the voice of Eugene Meltsner (and other characters: Harlow Doyle, Officer O'Ryan, Officer David Harley, etc.) for the Focus on the Family radio series Adventures in Odyssey. Recently Ryan completed two CD albums - songs on the ukulele by Eugene.

He also voiced Rabbit in Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore.

He is the current voice of Elmo Aardvark, who has been reputed, in a series of magazine articles and elsewhere, to have been created by his grandfather and to predate Mickey Mouse. There was a successful Internet cartoon series featuring the character, called Elmo Aardvark: Outer Space Detective and there have been several Elmo Aardvark CDs.