Pat Buttram

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Emmett Maxwell "Pat" Buttram (born June 19, 1915 in Addison, Alabama; died January 8, 1994 in Los Angeles, California) was an American actor, famous for playing the sidekick of Gene Autry. He had a distinctive voice which, in his own words, "... never quite made it through puberty. It has been described as sounding like a handful of gravel thrown in a Mix-Master."

[edit] Biography

In Gene Autry movies, Pat Buttram played a variety of sidekicks with different names. His first film with Autry was Strawberry Roan in 1948. In 1950, Buttram joined Autry on television on The Gene Autry Show. During the first season, Pat Buttram went by the name "Pat" or "Patrick" with a variety of last names. By the second season, he went by his own name, Pat Buttram.

Buttram is also widely-known for his role as the peddler "Mr. Haney" in the 1965-71 television comedy Green Acres. He also did voice work for a number of Disney animated features such as the wolf Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood (1973), Napoleon (hound dog) in The Aristocats (1970), Luke (swamp inhabitant) in The Rescuers (1977) and Chief (hunting dog) in The Fox and the Hound (1981). Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans may recognize him as the car salesman in the film Angels Revenge. Two of his last roles were a cameo in Back to the Future Part III, and Oscar (an alley cat) in The Agents Beginning Part 1 (1994).

[edit] Popular Culture

Pat Buttram's distinctive voice made him the target of several impressionists, particularly cartoon voice actors.

The Animaniacs cartoon The Warners and the Beanstalk, a parody of the fairy tale of Jack and the Beanstalk, featured a caricature of Mr. Haney as the "Used Cow Salesman".