Frank Graham (voice actor)

Frank Lee Graham (November 22, 1914-September 2, 1950) was an American radio announcer and cartoon voice actor.

Biography

Graham was born in Michigan to Frank L. Graham and opera singer Ethel Briggs Graham and travelled with his mother on tour.

He attended the University of California for one year and left to begin his acting career in Seattle, both on the stage and in radio. He was brought to Hollywood in 1937 to join KNX Radio. He had been married two years before to Dorothy Jack of Seattle. He was the star of Night Car Yarns over CBS from 1938 through 1942 and was the announcer of dozens of programs, including the Ginny Simms, Rudy Vallee and Nelson Eddy shows. He also starred in The Jeff Regan Show and co-developed the radio drama Satan’s Watin’ with Van Des Autels.

Graham created the voices of a number of cartoon characters in animated films for Walt Disney, MGM, Columbia and Warner Bros. studios. He was the voice of the wolf in several Tex Avery cartoons as well as the mouse in King Size Canary at Metro. He provided the voices of both the Fox and Crow in the eponymous-named shorts at Columbia.

He was found dead at age 35 in his convertible in the carport of his home in Los Angeles on September 2, 1950. A coroner declared he had committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.

References

  • Los Angeles Times, 'Radio Star Commits Suicide', September 4, 1950.

External links