Billy Bletcher

Billy Bletcher
Background information
Born	William Bletcher September 24, 1894 Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Died	January 5, 1979 (aged 84) Los Angeles, California
Occupation	Actor, comedian, voice artist
Years active	1914 - 1971
Spouse	Arlyn Roberts

Billy Bletcher was an American actor, comedian, and voice artist, perhaps best known as the original voice of Spike the Bulldog in the Tom and Jerry cartoons.

Career

Bletcher ap­peared on-screen in films and later tele­vi­sion from the 1910s to the 1970s, in­clud­ing ap­pear­ances in sev­eral Our Gang and The Three Stooges come­dies.

He was most ac­tive as a voice actor. His voice was a deep, strong and boom­ing bari­tone. Bletcher pro­vided the voices of var­i­ous char­ac­ters for Walt Dis­ney An­i­ma­tion Stu­dios (Black Pete, Short Ghost and the Big Bad Wolf in Three Lit­tle Pigs and its spin-offs). He au­di­tioned to play one of the dwarfs in Dis­ney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). How­ever, Walt Dis­ney dis­ap­proved for fear that peo­ple would rec­og­nize Bletcher from the stu­dio's Mickey Mouse and Don­ald Duck short subjects.

His boom­ing voice can also be heard as "Don Del Oro" the Yacqi In­dian god in the 1939 Re­pub­lic se­r­ial, Zorro's Fight­ing Le­gion. He also pro­vided voice work for Ub Iw­erks as the Pin­cush­ion man in the 1935 an­i­mated short Bal­loon Land, as well as Owl Jol­son's dis­ci­pli­nar­ian vi­o­lin­ist fa­ther in the 1936 Warner Bros. short sub­ject based on the song I Love to Singa and the men­ac­ing spi­der in Bingo Cros­byana.

In 1939, Billy Bletcher and Pinto Colvig were hired to per­form ADR work for the Munchkins in The Wiz­ard of Oz. In MGM films, he voiced Spike the Bull­dog and on some oc­ca­sions even Tom and Jerry, in Tom and Jerry, and in Warner Bros. many char­ac­ters, most no­tably the Papa Bear of Chuck Jones' The Three Bears. He por­trayed the vil­lain­ous wolf in Lit­tle Red Rid­ing Rab­bit (1944).

Bletcher did voice act­ing for the 1944 Pri­vate Snafu World War II train­ing film "Gas", where Bletcher plays the vil­lain­ous Gas Cloud. Bletcher also played The Cap­tain in Cap­tain and the Kids with MGM car­toons.

In 1950, he played sev­eral char­ac­ters on The Lone Ranger radio pro­gram as well as ap­pear­ing in episode 27 of the TV se­ries.

In 1971, Bletcher played one of his final roles, Pappy Yokum in a tele­vi­sion adap­ta­tion of Lil Abner. In 1978, he was orig­i­nally hired to voice the Weed on The Plas­tic Man Com­edy/Ad­ven­ture Show, but had to drop out due to illness.

Filmography

Warner Bros.

• Cornered (1924) - The Groom
• The Patent Leather Kid (1927) - Fight Fan (uncredited)
• Loose Ankles (1930) - Mr. Berry from Logan (uncredited)
• Showgirl in Hollywood (1930) - Sign Man Scraping Names off Doors (uncredited)
• The Man Hunter (1930) - Buggs
• Dancing Sweeties (1930) - Bud (uncredited)
• Top Speed (1930) - Ipps (uncredited)
• Buddy of the Apes (1934) - Tribal Chief (voice, uncredited)
• Buddy's Bearcats (1934) - Mustached baseball player, Hotdog vendor, Customer (voice, uncredited)
• Service with a Smile (1934) - Lonesome Driver (uncredited)
• Buddy the Detective (1934) - Mad Musician (voice, uncredited)
• Viva Buddy (1934) - Pancho, "Caramba!" (voice, uncredited)
• Buddy the Dentist (1934) - Bozo (voice, uncredited)
• Buddy's Adventures (1934) - Policeman, King Sourpan (voice, uncredited)
• I Haven't Got a Hat (1935) - Beans, Ex (voice, uncredited)
• Buddy's Pony Express (1935) - Bad Guy, Dog Buying Whiskey (voice, uncredited)
• Buddy's Lost World (1935) - Bozo (voice, uncredited)
• Buddy's Bug Hunt (1935) - Judge, Spider (voice, uncredited)
• The Merry Old Soul (1935) - Old King Cole (voice, uncredited)
• Buddy the Gee Man (1935) - Otto B. Kinder, MachineGun Mike, Prisoners (voice, uncredited)
• A Cartoonist's Nightmare (1935) - Old Man, Demon Beast, Villains (voice, uncredited)
• Hollywood Capers (1935) - Studio Guard, Frankenstein Animatronic (voice, uncredited)
• Little Dutch Plate (1935) - Vinegar Bottle Landlord (voice, uncredited)
• Gold Diggers of '49 (1935) - Bandit (voice, uncredited)
• Billboard Frolics (1935) - Dave Rub-Em-Off (voice, uncredited)
• Plane Dippy (1936) - Sergeant, Inventor (voice, uncredited)
• Alpine Antics (1936) - Bully (voice, uncredited)
• Boom Boom (1936) - General Hardtack, General, Soldiers (voice, uncredited)
• When I Yoo Hoo (1936) - Additional Voices) (voice, uncredited)
• Bingo Crosbyana (1936) - Spider (voice, uncredited)
• Shanghaied Shipmates (1936) - Captain, Shipmate (voice, uncredited)
• Porky's Pet (1936) - Deliveryman, Train Conductor (voice, uncredited)
• I Love to Singa (1936) - Professor Fritz Owl, Singing Blackbird (voice, uncredited)
• Satan Met a Lady (1936) - Father of Sextuplets (uncredited)
• Milk and Money (1936) - Mr. Viper (voice, uncredited)
• Don't Look Now (1936) - Devil Cuckoo (voice, uncredited)
• Little Beau Porky (1936) - Ali-Mode, Le Commdandant (voice, uncredited)
• Porky in the North Woods (1936) - Jean-Baptise (voice, uncredited)
• Pigs is Pigs (1937) - Evil Scientist (voice, uncredited)
• Porky's Road Race (1937) - Borax Karoff (voice, uncredited)
• Picador Porky (1937) - The Bull (voice, uncredited)
• The Fella with the Fiddle (1937) - J. Field Mouse, Tax Assessor (voice, uncredited)
• Porky's Romance (1937) - "Time Munches On" Narrator (voice, uncredited)
• Porky's Duck Hunt (1937) - Guy from Upstairs, Drunken Fish (voice, uncredited)
• Ain't We Got Fun (1937) - Mouse in Checkered Cap (voice, uncredited)
• Uncle Tom's Bungalow (1937) - Simon Simon Legree (voice, uncredited)
• Porky's Building (1937) - Dirty Digg (voice, uncredited)
• Sweet Sioux (1937) - Native American (voice, uncredited)
• Egghead Rides Again (1937) - Egghead (saying "Because, because, because, because"), Broading Room Clerk (voice, uncredited)
• Porky's Railroad (1937) - Dirty Digg (voice, uncredited)
• Get Rich Quick Porky (1937) - Oil Truck Driver (voice, uncredited)
• A Sunbonnet Blue (1937) - Villain Mouse laughing (voice, uncredited)
• Speaking of the Weather (1937) - Public Enemy #1, Judge (voice, uncredited)
• Dog Daze (1937) - St. Bernard (voice, uncredited)
• I Wanna Be a Sailor (1937) - Father Parrot (voice, uncredited)
• The Lyin' Mouse (1937) - Lion, Cat Humming (voice, uncredited)
• The Case of the Stuttering Pig (1937) - Lawyer Goodwill (voice, uncredited)
• Porky's Phoney Express (1938) - Porky's Boss (voice, uncredited)
• Now That Summer Is Gone (1938) - Father Squirrel (voice, uncredited)
• Injun Trouble (1938) - Injun Joe (voice, uncredited)
• Porky in Wackyland (1938) - Roaring Goon (voice, uncredited)
• A Feud There Was (1938) - Weaver from Audience, McCoy at Cellar Door (voice, uncredited)
• You're an Education (1938) - Singing Tibetan, Thief of Baghdad (voice, uncredited)
• The Lone Stranger and Porky (1939) - Lone Stranger, Villain, Narrator, Pony Laughing (voice, uncredited)
• Porky's Tire Trouble (1939) - Porky's Boss (voice, uncredited)
• Porky's Movie Mystery (1939) - The Invisible Man (voice, uncredited)
• Polar Pals (1939) - I. Killem (voice, uncredited)
• Porky the Giant Killer (1939) - Giant (voice, uncredited)
• The Film Fan (1939) - Lone Stranger (voice, uncredited)
• Meet John Doughboy (1941) - Short Soldier (voice, uncredited)
• We, The Animals - Squeak! (1941) - Irish Mouse (voice, uncredited)
• The Bug Parade (1941) - Spider (voice, uncredited)
• Rookie Revue (1941) - General (saying "I'm a baaad general") (voice, uncredited)
• Saps in Chaps (1941) - Cactus Pete (voice, uncredited)
• Little Red Riding Rabbit (1944) - Big Bad Wolf (voice, uncredited)
• Tom Turk and Daffy (1944) - Tom Turk (voice, uncredited)
• Shine On, Harvest Moon (1944) - Vaudevillian (uncredited)
• Private Snafu vs. Malaria Mike (1944) - Malaria Mike (voice, uncredited)
• Gas (1944) - Gas Cloud (voice, uncredited)
• The Verdict (1944) - Gravedigger (uncredited)
• What's Brewin', Bruin? (1948) - Henry Bear (voice, uncredited)
• Rabbit Punch (1948) - The Crusher (voice, uncredited)
• Mississippi Hare (1949) - Colonel Shuffle (voice, uncredited)
• Night Unto Night (1949) - Man in Hotel (scenes deleted)
• The Bee-Deviled Bruin (1949) - Henry Bear (voice, uncredited)
• Bowery Bugs (1949) - Steve Brody (voice, uncredited)
• Bear Feat (1949) - Henry Bear (voice, uncredited)
• A Bear for Punishment (1951) - Henry Bear (voice, uncredited)
• Calamity Jane (1953) - Prospector (uncredited)

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

• The Wizard of Oz (1939) - Mayor, Lollipop Guild Member, The Munchkins (voice, uncredited)

Roles

Crusher
(Looney Tunes franchise)

Papa Bear
(Looney Tunes franchise)

Tom Turk
(Looney Tunes franchise)

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia page Billy Bletcher. The revision history lists the authors. The text on Warner Bros. Entertainment Wiki and Wikipedia is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (CC BY-SA).