Lionel Wilson

Lionel Wilson, born Lionel Lazarus Salzer on March 22, 1924, in New York, New York, was an American actor, voice actor, and author of children's books. He died on April 30, 2003. Over the course of a career spanning several decades, Wilson worked across stage, television, radio, and animation, accumulating credits in more than 25 professional stage productions and an extensive body of voiceover work.

Wilson's involvement in performance began early. His first professional stage appearance came in 1936, at the age of twelve, in a production of Dodsworth, in which he played a bellboy and a lost boy. In 1940 he appeared in Macbeth, taking on the roles of a witch and a messenger. In 1942 he was selected for the Barter Theatre Scholarship, which provided intensive training for aspiring stage actors. That same year he appeared in The Merry Widow as Nish, a role he would return to in 1955 and 1958.

Wilson's Broadway career ran from 1942 to 1954 and encompassed four productions. He played Scooper Nolan and Deadpan Hackett as a replacement in Janie during its 1943–44 run. In 1944 he appeared in the comedy Good Morning Corporal as Alvin Stacey. He joined Kiss and Tell as a replacement for Dexter Franklin during the 1945–46 season. His final Broadway credit was Fragile Fox in 1954, in which he played Corporal Jackson.

Beyond Broadway, Wilson maintained an active regional and touring stage career. His non-Broadway credits included The Male Animal in 1944, My Sister Eileen in 1945–46, Tenting Tonight in 1947, Joan of Lorraine in 1947, John Loves Mary in 1948, and High Button Shoes in 1954. In later years he took on leading roles, including Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey in 1956, Bud Frump in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying during 1965–66 and again in 1968, Henry Albertson in The Fantasticks from 1967 to 1969, Oscar Lindquist in Sweet Charity in 1968, and Francis Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1973. His stage work continued as late as 1984, when he played the devil in The Soldier's Tale.

Wilson studied Radio Production at New York University, a background that informed his parallel career in broadcasting and voiceover work. His first credited radio performance was in 1950 on the NBC program Top Secret, in which he voiced Admiral Strassner. To supplement his stage income, he expanded into television commercials and voiceover work through the 1950s. In 1957, animator Gene Deitch brought Wilson to Terrytoons to voice all characters in the cliffhanger cartoon series Tom Terrific, including Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog and the recurring antagonist Crabby Appleton. The series comprised 26 storylines, each told across five five-minute episodes.

Wilson's association with Terrytoons continued for more than a decade. He voiced characters in the John Doormat series of four episodes in 1957–58, the Clint Clobber Theatrical Series from 1957 to 1959, the Sidney the Elephant series of 19 episodes from 1958 to 1963, and the Deputy Dawg series from 1959 to 1972, in which he played Vincent Van Gopher and Possible Possum. One episode of the Sidney the Elephant series, Sidney's Family Tree, received an Academy Award nomination for best short subject in 1958. Wilson also voiced characters in the Possible Possum series of 37 shorts from 1965 to 1971, the Mighty Heroes series of 20 episodes from 1966 to 1967, and the Astronut Show from 1965 to 1970.

His voiceover work extended to projects outside Terrytoons. In 1962 he voiced the Jester, Royal Mathematician, and Royal Wizard in Many Moons for Rembrandt Films, a production later incorporated into the 1965 film Alice of Wonderland in Paris. In 1969 he voiced all characters across 52 episodes of a revival of Winky Dink and You. In 1984 he dubbed the voice of Jason Jetter in episodes 53 through 77 of Star Blazers, the English-language adaptation of the Japanese anime Space Battleship Yamato.

In 1999, at the age of 75, Wilson was cast as Eustace Bagge in the Cartoon Network animated series Courage the Cowardly Dog. He voiced the character in 33 episodes, each comprising two segments, and reprised the role in the Cartoon Network's Staylongers series in the summer of 2000. In 2001, Wilson retired from the role due to illness and was replaced by Arthur Anderson.

Wilson also appeared in supporting roles in several television productions during the late 1940s and 1950s. His credits included Martin Kane, Private Eye in 1949, Armstrong Circle Theatre in 1950, The Aldrich Family from 1952 to 1953, and Broadway Television Theatre in 1953, where he played three different roles across three episodes in a single season. On November 7, 1954, he appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in a scene from Fragile Fox.