Don Messick

Donald Earle Messick (September 7, 1926 – October 24, 1997) was an American voice actor, best known for his performances in Hanna-Barbera cartoons.His best-remembered vocal creations include Scooby-Doo, Bamm-Bamm Rubble and Hoppy in The Flintstones, Astro in The Jetsons, Muttley in Wacky Races and Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines, Boo-Boo Bear and Ranger Smith in The Yogi Bear Show, Sebastian the cat in Josie and the Pussycats; Gears, Ratchet, and Scavenger in The Transformers, Papa Smurf and Azrael in The Smurfs, Hamton J. Pig in Tiny Toon Adventures and Dr. Benton Quest in Jonny Quest. 2Early life Messick was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of Binford Earl Messick, a house painter, and Lena Birch (née Hughes). He was raised by his maternal grandparents on Linden Avenue in the Bolton Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, where he received his early training as a performer at the Ramsay Streett School of Acting. 2Career 3Early work At first, Messick wanted to be a ventriloquist and even supported himself as one for a time. At age 15, Messick performed in front of the program manager and chief announcer at radio station WBOC in Salisbury, Maryland, and was given his own weekly show, for which Messick performed all of the character voices and sound effects.Messick moved back to Baltimore a year later, after graduating high school and approached radio station WCAO about getting his one-man show on the air. As Messick worked to reduce the Baltimore accent identified by the manager of WCAO as an impediment to his radio career, Messick's father was killed, along with two other men, in an accident at the Nanticoke School. He and two other workers were taking down a flagpole when it came into contact with electric power lines, electrocuting all three men.In 1944, Messick joined the U.S. Army, performing for troops as a part of the Special Services, Messick's first big break came when he was hired by the Mutual Broadcasting radio station in Los Angeles, where he played Raggedy Andy and Farmer Seedling on the radio series The Raggedy Ann Show.At MGM, Tex Avery was producing the Droopy cartoons. The regular voice actor Bill Thompson was not available. Avery hired Messick after Daws Butler, who voiced characters for MGM, suggested hi