Alan_Young

Thank you, my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that November 19 is the anniversary of the birth of Scottish-Canadian-American actor, voice actor, comedian and radio and television host Alan Young (born Angus Young) "whom TV Guide called "the Charlie Chaplin of television". He was best known for his role as gentle Wilbur Post in the television comedy series, Mister Ed (1961–1966). "
Rest in peace Alan Young.


The Many Voices of Alan Young (Scrooge McDuck & many others) a HD High Quality Tribute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4PqqWDxFxI

Images:
1. Alan Young as David Filby in The Time Machine (1960)
2. Alan Young reads from the racing form as the minister at a wedding between Bamboo Harvester and Rosita in the episode Ed the Bridegroom in 1965.
3. Alan Young 'We had some marvelous outtakes, but the producer had destroyed them all.'
4. Alan Young, the voice actor for Scrooge McDuck

Biographies
1. theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/may/22/alan-young-obituary
2. imdb.com

1. Background from theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/may/22/alan-young-obituary
"To be remembered principally for playing straight man to a talking horse may not seem the greatest of show-business legacies, but it was one that Alan Young, who has died aged 96, was very happy to live with. For five years, between 1961 and 1966, Young starred in the extremely popular television sitcom Mister Ed opposite the titular horse. Part of the jaunty opening jingle ran: “A horse is a horse, of course, of course / And no one can talk to a horse of course / That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mister Ed.”

The programme’s unvarying format was established in the first episode, in which an absent-minded architect, Wilbur Post (Young), and his wife, Carol (Connie Hines), buy a home in the country. The previous tenants have left their horse behind. Carol wants to get rid of it, but Wilbur is delighted. Alone with the horse, he wistfully recalls how, as a young boy, he had longed for a pony. “Ah,” he says. “But it’s been a long time since I was a boy.” “It’s been a long time since I was a pony,” says the horse.

Mister Ed, the horse, refuses to talk to anyone but Wilbur, which results in endless gags of the “Wilbur, who are you talking to?” variety. However, the deft comic timing and charm of the two principals, Young and the horse (Bamboo Harvester, voiced in a deep, caustic manner by Allan “Rocky” Lane), and some witty lines, made the show immensely enjoyable.

Young had other important confrontations with animals in his career. In Androcles and the Lion (1952), the film version of George Bernard Shaw’s philosophical comedy on religion, he played the gentle Christian fleeing persecution in Rome, who befriends a lion after pulling a painful thorn from its paw. The soft-spoken Young replaced Harpo Marx, who was to have played it in mime, but was fired by the producer, Howard Hughes, after a few weeks shooting.

In 1983, Young became the voice of the Walt Disney cartoon character Scrooge McDuck in Mickey’s Christmas Carol, and continued to voice Donald Duck’s miserly billionaire uncle in the television series DuckTales from 1987, and dozens more of the incarnations of “the richest duck in the world”, using a broad Scottish accent.

This came easily to him because he was the son of a Scots mine worker and English mother. He was born Angus Young in North Shields, Tyne and Wear, but the family moved to Edinburgh when Young was a baby, and then to Canada about six years later. As a boy, he suffered from severe asthma, which kept him bedridden for long periods of time but encouraged his love of radio. By the age of 13, he had become a radio performer, and at 17, he was writing and performing in his own radio show for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, before serving in the Canadian navy during the second world war.

Alan Young reads from the racing form as the minister at a wedding between Bamboo Harvester and Rosita in the episode Ed the Bridegroom in 1965.

Alan Young reads from the racing form as the minister at a wedding between Bamboo Harvester and Rosita in the episode Ed the Bridegroom in 1965. Photograph: CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images
In New York, he broadcast the popular Alan Young Radio Show from 1944 to 1949. In 1950, he moved into television with The Alan Young Show, which ran for three years, earning a couple of Emmy awards. The show was a bland mixture of musical numbers – Young had a pleasant singing voice – and comic sketches, which utilised the star’s rather wimpish, daydreaming persona, carried over into the films he made.

He began his Hollywood career appearing in three delightful divertissements at 20th Century Fox, starting with Margie (1946), in which he played the nerdy teenage boyfriend of a schoolgirl (Jeanne Crain). Young, who was 27 at the time, continued to play characters much younger than himself, something his fair, clean-cut boyish features enabled him to do.

Two years later, he was a snobbish student in Mr Belvedere Goes to College and, in the charming period piece Chicken Every Sunday, he played an asthmatic bachelor courting the pretty daughter of Dan Dailey and Celeste Holm. He then got top billing for the first time at Paramount in the musical Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick (1952), in which he played a shy country bumpkin, who outwits some city slickers, opposite Dinah Shore as a farm girl. Another musical was the lame Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), where he was an odd-job man who on marrying a showgirl (Crain) turns out to be a millionaire.

George Pal, the Hungarian animator and special effects expert cast, Young in the first two of the five films he directed, Tom Thumb (1958) and The Time Machine (1960). In the former, Young was the rather soppy romantic lead, but the latter provided him with his favourite film role. Young, with a Scottish accent, played David Filby, best friend to the Victorian scientist George Wells (Rod Taylor), who tries to dissuade him from moving through the fourth dimension. The 40-year-old Young also appeared as the 18-year-old son of David Filby.

After Mister Ed finished its run, Young headed the film and broadcasting unit of the Christian Science church, of which he was a member. Otherwise, most of Young’s career was given over to doing voiceovers for cartoon characters. Among his few film appearances were one as the benign owner of a theme park who gets shot in Beverly Hills Cop III (1994) and a cameo in the far inferior 2002 remake of The Time Machine.

Young, who was married and divorced three times, is survived by four children, two each from his first and second marriages.

• Alan Young (Angus Young), actor, born 19 November 1919; died 19 May 2016"

2. Background from imdb.com/name/nm0949241/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Alan Young Biography
Overview
Born November 19, 1919 in Tynemouth, Northumberland, England, UK
Died May 19, 2016 in Woodland Hills, California, USA (natural causes)
Birth Name Angus Young
Nickname Al Young
Height 5' 10" (1.78 m)

Mini Bio
Alan Young was born in Northern England in 1919, but his Scots father moved the family to Edinburgh, Scotland, when Young was a toddler and then to Canada when Young was about 6 years old. As a boy, he suffered from severe asthma, which kept him bedridden for long periods of time but encouraged his love of radio. By age 13, Young had become a radio performer, and by age 17, he was writing and performing in his own radio show for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The show was broadcast in the U.S. and led to an invitation to New York, initiating Young's career as an "All-American boy," despite his non-American origins and a vestigial Scots accent. He became popular on American radio from 1944 to 1949 with his "Alan Young Radio Show," but when radio began to lose its popularity and his show was canceled, Young decided to put together a comedy act and tour the U.S. theater circuit. After this experience, he wrote a television pilot for CBS in 1950, which resulted in The Alan Young Show (1950). The show was a well-received live revue that ran for 3 years, earned a couple of Emmy Awards, and garnered Young a star on the "Walk of Fame." However, the strain of writing and performing a weekly show got to Young, and the quality of the show declined, leading to his departure from the show and its cancellation. In the meantime, based on his popularity on radio and television, Young had established a film career, starting with his debut in Margie (1946) followed by Chicken Every Sunday (1949), Mr. Belvedere Goes to College (1949), Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick (1952), Androcles and the Lion (1952), Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), Tom Thumb (1958), and The Time Machine (1960).

In the early 1960s, Young landed his best-known role, Wilbur Post, in the popular television series Mister Ed (1958), which ran for 5 years. Since then, Young has made a number of television and film appearances but is known primarily for his voice characterizations in cartoons, especially as Scrooge McDuck in DuckTales (1987).
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Lyn Hammond
Spouse (3)
Mary Chipman (1996 - 1997) ( divorced)
Virginia Ethel McCurdy (14 May 1948 - 1995) ( divorced) ( 2 children)

Mary Anne Grimes (26 February 1941 - 1947) ( divorced) ( 2 children)

Trade Mark (3)
Often voices cartoon characters with a Scottish accent
The voice of Scrooge McDuck
His role as Wilbur Post in Mister Ed (1958)
Trivia (22)
1. Started a broadcast division for the Christian Science Church in Boston shortly after finishing the Mister Ed (1958) series.
2. Naturalized U.S. citizen.
3. As a child he had bronchial asthma, which kept him bedridden four months of each year. That is how he developed his love for radio.
4. He once went on a date with Norma Jean Baker, later to become Marilyn Monroe.
5. Is seen at Mister Ed (1958) conventions singing the theme song.
6. He is the only actor to appear in both The Time Machine (1960) and The Time Machine (2002).
7. He was 40 years old when he played the 18-year-old James Filby in The Time Machine (1960).
8. Has four children.
9. His Disney-esque character "Uncle Dave" from Beverly Hills Cop III (1994) was loosely based on his "Uncle Scrooge McDuck" (DuckTales (1987)) and "David Filby" (The Time Machine (1960)) roles.
10. Repeated the role of David Filby for a sketch for a documentary on the movie The Time Machine (1960) in 1992 over 30 years later.
11. On The O'Reilly Factor (1996) in 2007, he revealed that he owned a percentage of Mister Ed (1958), which made him independently wealthy.
12. Best known by the public for his starring role as Wilbur Post on Mister Ed (1958).
13. He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Radio at 6927 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
14. Young reminisces about Mister Ed (1958) makeup man Jack P. Pierce in the book "A Sci-Fi Swarm and Horror Horde" (McFarland & Co., 2010) by Tom Weaver.
15. Had his first name legally changed from Angus to Alan when he was age 20. According to his autobiography, "Mister Ed and Me and More!" (2007), he was proud of his birth name but Americans always made unflattering comments about it, such as mispronouncing it "Agnes," which prompted him to change it legally.
16. Cousin of Laura Mennell.
17. Release of his book, "Mister Ed and Me and More". [2007]
18. Voice acting mentor and friend of 'Russi Taylor (I)'.
19. In Time Machine: The Journey Back (1993), his character David Filby's date of death was given as May 15, 1916. Young himself died on May 19, 2016.
20. His body was buried at sea.
21. He didn't find out until he met Stan Laurel late in life that their families lived near each other in North Shields, Tynemouth.
22. As children his father and an aunt ran away from home to audition for Stan's father in Glasgow.
Personal Quotes (5)
1. [When Connie Hines was hired to play his wife, Carol]: She was perfect for it, and is so dear. She didn't have many lines beyond 'Dinner is ready' or 'I'll make some coffee.' They were just simple lines but she did them beautifully.
2. When I was young I was paid $3 for doing a short monologue. That impressed my dad who earned the same amount for working all day in a shipyard at the time. He told me to 'Keep up this talking business because lips don't sweat.' It was good advice.
3. [While he spoke of Ed Wynn (I)']: Ed Wynn was a wonderful old comedian, gave me good advice. He said 'Make it simple. You're going into someone's home, so don't be insulting.'
4. Ed [the horse] actually learned to move his lips when the trainer touched his hoof. In fact he soon learned to do it when I stopped talking during a scene, which actually could be a bit of a problem.
5. A dear old man once told me that birthdays are a heavy weight to carry all your life. So I actually stopped counting birthdays when I was sixteen."

FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen LTC Greg Henning LTC Jeff Shearer Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price CPT Scott Sharon CWO3 Dennis M. SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSG William Jones SGT (Join to see) SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski PO1 H Gene Lawrence PO2 Kevin Parker PO3 Bob McCord LTC Orlando Illi Maj Kim Patterson

Mr Ed...who could forget that.

Great bio on "Wilbur".