Earl Hammond

Earl Hammond, born Erwin Saul Hamburger on June 17, 1921, in New York City, was an American actor whose career spanned radio, stage, television, and voice work. He died on May 19, 2002, in New York City, of heart failure, survived by a son and a daughter.

Hammond's family relocated to Buffalo, New York when he was a toddler, and he began performing in radio at the age of seven. Following his 1938 graduation from Bennet High School in Buffalo, he worked in radio skits produced by Fred and Ethel Dampier on WGR, a major Buffalo radio station. He subsequently moved to California, where he studied acting at Los Angeles City College, graduating in 1941 alongside future stars Donna Reed and Alexis Smith. He was then drafted into the U.S. Army for service in World War II.

After his discharge, Hammond settled in New York City and worked through the late 1940s in radio dramas, summer theater, and off-Broadway productions. During that decade he held a recurring role as a young lawyer on a radio soap opera. He later appeared in numerous episodes of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater, including productions of The Red Badge of Courage, The Man Without a Country, Three Tales of Hans Anderson, and They Called Him Slim, all broadcast in May 1977.

His television career began in the early 1950s. He played Sergeant Lane, a recurring character on the DuMont police drama Inside Detective, and became the first of three actors to portray the title role in the ABC science-fiction series Buck Rogers, which aired from April 15, 1950, to January 30, 1951. In the mid-1950s he took on the role of Hal Soames, the married love interest of the widowed title character, in the daily CBS television soap opera Valiant Lady.

Hammond appeared on Broadway between 1957 and 1959, accumulating three credits during that period. He performed in the musical Livin' The Life, the drama Compulsion, and the musical Juno.

His subsequent television work included appearances on Bronco, Maverick, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, 77 Sunset Strip, The Gallant Men, and Directions, among other series. He also provided voices for several dubbed Japanese productions, including The Space Giants, Ultraman, and Star Blazers. His film appearances included Satan in High Heels in 1962 and Tecnica di un omicidio in 1966.

Hammond became particularly well known for his voice work on 1980s animated television series. He voiced Mumm-Ra, Jaga, and additional characters across 130 episodes of ThunderCats, and portrayed the villain Mon*Star in SilverHawks. He also voiced the Transformers villain Megatron in a series of children's read-along books. Additional voice credits included The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, The Comic Strip, and the film Thundercats, Ho: The Movie.

In 1994, Hammond was chosen from several hundred auditioning actors to voice Pope John Paul II on the audiotape edition of the Random House book Crossing the Threshold of Hope. According to the publisher, the pope personally made the selection.