Len Weinrib

Leonard Weinrib was born on April 29, 1935, in the Bronx, New York, and died on June 28, 2006, following a stroke at a hospital near his home in Santiago, Chile, where he had retired in the 1990s. An actor, comedian, and writer, he built a career spanning live performance, television, film, and an extensive body of voice work in animation.

Weinrib began his career in show business working with Spike Jones before transitioning to stage work. In 1959 he appeared on Broadway in the musical Billy Barnes Revue, a credit that marked his entry into New York's theatrical world before he moved primarily into television and animation.

His live-action television work included recurring appearances on The Dick Van Dyke Show, where he played three separate loud, comedic characters across episodes in 1961, 1963, and 1965, under the names Jackie Brewster, Danny Brewster, and Phil Franklin respectively. He also appeared in a 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone titled "Miniature," guest-starred on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Burke's Law, The Munsters, and made appearances on Adam-12 in 1973 and 1974 as garage mechanic Tony. A 1974 episode of Emergency! cast him as Fred Gibson, an overweight and accident-prone character in the episode "Firehouse Four," and he appeared on Happy Days as Duke in 1974. He also charted nationally in 1962 with the comedy single "Prez Conference," which reached number 132 on the Music Vendor chart. His directing work consisted of three beach party genre feature films: Beach Ball for Paramount in 1965, and Wild Wild Winter and Out of Sight, both for Universal in 1966. He also co-wrote the 1963 joke book The Elephant Book.

Weinrib is perhaps most widely recognized for his voice acting. He voiced the title character of H.R. Pufnstuf throughout the series' entire run from 1969 to 1971, and also wrote every episode of the show. He reprised the role as a guest on The Dating Game at Christmas 1972 and in a 1977 episode of CHiPs. On The Krofft Supershow he played the title character in Magic Mongo. He was the original voice of Scrappy-Doo on Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo before Don Messick assumed the role, and he voiced multiple characters on The New Scooby-Doo Movies, including Davey Jones' Uncle Sedgwick, a hotel desk clerk, and Shaggy's Great-Uncle Nathaniel. In The New Adventures of Batman he voiced the Joker, Mr. Freeze, the Penguin, and Commissioner Gordon, among others. His Voltron: Defender of the Universe contributions included Hunk and the villain Prince Lotor in the Lion Voltron series, as well as Captain Newley and Cliff in the Vehicle Voltron series. He voiced Grimace in McDonaldland commercials and provided the voice of Timer in the "Time for Timer" educational spots broadcast on ABC in the early 1970s.

Additional animation credits include the title role in Inch High, Private Eye; Moonrock and Sergeant Boulder on The Flintstone Comedy Show; the title character on the CB Bears segment in 1977; Freddy Flintstone on The Flintstone Kids from 1986 to 1987 before Scott Menville replaced him; and Max the Mole on Yo Yogi! in 1991. He voiced both Roland and Ratfink in that series of cartoon shorts, provided dialogue for Jimmy Darrock on The Flintstones, and voiced a secretary bird and King Leonidas the lion in the animated sequence of the Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks. For Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears he voiced the sorcerer Zorlok, and he voiced Superman and Clark Kent for a 1972 episode of The Brady Kids as well as for a Sesame Street sketch in 1970. He voiced Bigmouth on The Smurfs and Cap'n Noah Smitty in Yogi's Ark Lark, and lent his voice to Lenny Warthog on the NBC series Kissyfur.

Woody Allen named his character in the 1995 film Mighty Aphrodite "Lenny Weinrib." When Seth MacFarlane sought to use Weinrib to voice Timer for a cutaway gag in the Family Guy episode "Petarded," Weinrib's declining health prevented him from completing the work, and MacFarlane ultimately voiced the character himself, as he explained on the Season 4 DVD commentary.