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Arthur Q. Bryan was a 20th-century American radio personality, stage performer, and voice actor, best known for originating the iconic signature voice of Looney Tunes' bumbling hunter Elmer Fudd for Warner Bros. animation from the 1940s through the late 1950s.
Key moments
May 8, 1899Born in Brooklyn, New York, USA
1940Debut as the official voice of Elmer Fudd in the shorts Elmer's Candid Camera and A Wild Hare, the latter marking Bugs Bunny's first formal on-screen appearance
1950sContinues voicing Elmer Fudd in dozens of classic Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts, including award-nominated entries directed by Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng
November 18, 1959Passes away, with previously recorded performances of his Elmer Fudd voice appearing in Warner Bros. animated releases for years after his death
Unplanned cultural signature
Bryan's distinctive speech quirk (a natural mild rhotacism that made him replace r and l sounds with w) was not a contrived acting choice for the Elmer Fudd role, but a real, well-known part of his normal speaking voice. This gave the character an unforced, endearing sincerity that made Elmer far more sympathetic than typical cartoon villains, and turned the throwback hunter into one of the most widely recognized comedic archetypes in American pop culture.
Career context in early voice acting
Long before voice performance for animation became a formal, high-paying specialized profession, Bryan built his career across multiple entertainment verticals: he worked as a radio host, comedic sketch performer, and even took minor live-action roles in major Hollywood feature films (including Cecil B. DeMille's 1949 Samson and Delilah). His career path reflects the flexible, cross-disciplinary work common for voice artists working in the mid-century American broadcast era.
Standing out alongside Mel Blanc
Bryan was one of very few regular Looney Tunes performers who held exclusive rights to a major core character separate from Mel Blanc, the legendary voice artist who voiced almost every other primary member of the Looney Tunes cast. The decades-long professional collaboration between Bryan and Blanc created the timeless, beloved comedic chemistry between Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd that remains famous to global audiences to this day.
years active
1926–1959
Arthur Quirk Bryan (May 8, 1899 – November 30, 1959) was an American actor and radio personality. He is best remembered for his longtime recurring role as well-spoken, wisecracking Dr. Gamble on the radio comedy Fibber McGee and Molly and for voicing the Warner Bros. cartoon character Elmer Fudd.[4]
Early life
Arthur Q. Bryan was born in Brooklyn, New York City, on May 8, 1899. He sang in a number of churches in the New York City area and had plans to be a professional singer. In 1918, he began working as an insurance clerk at the Mutual Life Insurance Company.[5] He sang tenor with the Seiberling Singers and the Jeddo Highlanders on NBC radio.[6]
Career
Radio
He started as a singer in 1926 on WGBS and he continued as a tenor soloist on WEAF in 1928.[5] In 1929, Bryan was an announcer at WOR radio in New Jersey.[7][5] Contemporary radio listings in a daily newspaper indicate that he was still at WOR as late as September 13, 1931.[8] In October 1931, he began working as an announcer at WCAU in Philadelphia,[6] and in 1933 he moved to Philadelphia's WIP[9] By 1934, he was heard on WHN in New York.[10]
Death
Bryan died of a sudden heart attack at age 60[5] on November 30, 1959, in Hollywood.[18] Bryan is buried in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery.
Legacy
The DVD specials for some cartoons such as What's Opera, Doc?, in Looney Tunes Golden Collection, include bits of conversation between Bryan and Mel Blanc, affording a rare opportunity to hear them working together and to hear Bryan's natural voice.Bryan's natural voice is also heard as the tired hotel guest in A Pest in the House, in which Bryan "talks to himself"; Elmer Fudd is the hotel manager.[19]
Selected filmography
The Great Library Misery (1938, Short) – Mr. F.T Smith
Broadway Serenade (1939) – Process Server (uncredited)
Dangerous Dan McFoo (1939, Short) – Dan McFoo (voice, uncredited)
I Stole a Million (1939) – Cafe Mgr. Forbidding Dancing (uncredited)
These Glamour Girls (1939) – Dance Customer (uncredited)
Dad for a Day (1939, Short) – Spanky's Father
Little Accident (1939) – Customer
Elmer's Candid Camera (1940, Short) – Elmer Fudd (voice, uncredited)
Road to Singapore (1940) – Bartender (uncredited)
Millionaire Playboy (1940) – J.B. Zany
Confederate Honey (1940, Short) – Ned Cutler (voice, uncredited)
The Hardship of Miles Standish (1940, Short) – John Alden (voice, uncredited)
External links
References
1.See the September 12, 1918, draft card of Arthur Q. Bryan, available on ancestry.com^
2.Allan Ellenberger. Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries A Directory McFarland, 2001^
Bryan's work in animation did not go unnoticed by radio producers. Although his first forays into that medium were accompanied by instructions that he use the Fudd voice, Bryan soon came to the attention of Don Quinn and Phil Leslie, the production and writing team responsible for Fibber McGee and Molly and their supporting characters, two of whom spun off into their radio hits, The Great Gildersleeve and Beulah.The Gildersleeve character, played by Harold Peary, became series broadcasting's first successful spin-off hit; that plus the onset of World War II (which cost Fibber McGee & Molly their Mayor La Trivia, when Gale Gordon went into the Coast Guard in early 1942, and "The Old Timer" Bill Thompson was drafted almost a year later) nabbed nearly every other remaining male voice.
Bryan was first hired for the new Great Gildersleeve series, to play the part of Cousin Octavia's secretary/assistant, Lucius Llewellyn (using the Elmer Fudd voice), and later one of Gildersleeve's cronies, Floyd Munson, the barber. His work on the series (in Bryan's natural voice) so impressed Quinn and Leslie, that Bryan was added to the cast of their main show, Fibber McGee and Molly, in 1943.[5]
In the early 1940s, Bryan played Waymond Wadcliffe on the Al Pearce & His Gang program on CBS.[13] Bryan starred as Major Hoople (from June 22, 1942, to April 26, 1943), appeared in the cast of The Charlotte Greenwood Show,[14] and played Lt. Levinson on radio's Richard Diamond, Private Detective (from September 6, 1950, to June 29, 1951).In the mid-1940s, he had the role of Duke on Forever Ernest.[15]
On May 5th 1949, Bryan appeared as "Clarence, the Guardian Angel" on the Screen Directors Playhouse radio series' rendition of Frank Capra's film It's a Wonderful Life.The episode also starred James Stewart reprising his film role as "George Bailey".
Films
Bryan first became involved with the film industry when he moved to Hollywood in 1936 to become a scenario writer for Paramount Pictures.[6][5]
Bryan's live-action work remained largely in uncredited cameo roles, usually employing the Fudd persona, or minor supporting roles in B-movies (like the apoplectic newspaper editor in the Bela Lugosi thriller The Devil Bat).In the 1940 Charley Chase short South of the Boudoir, he speaks in his normal voice, but at one point slips into his Fudd voice while coming on to Chase's wife.He did work steadily, appearing in dozens of films over the years, in such successful releases as Samson and Delilah; two Bob Hope/Bing CrosbyRoad to ... films, Road to Singapore and Road to Rio; and the Ozzie and Harriet feature Here Come the Nelsons.He appeared frequently in live-action short-subjects for Warner Bros. Pictures and Columbia Pictures.
Bryan continued as the Fibber show's secondary male lead, even after Thompson and (for a time) Gordon returned to the show, and he stayed as Dr. Gamble all the way through its final incarnation on the NBC Monitor series in 1959, as well as playing Floyd on "Gildersleeve" through its conclusion in 1954. Bryan's final original work as Fudd came in the Warner Bros.Edward R. Murrow spoof Person to Bunny.[5]
Television
Bryan was a panelist on the early TV quiz show Quizzing the News (1948–49).He would be found in numerous productions in the early 1950s predominantly in 1-episode bit parts, such as in the early filmed television comedy, Beulah.He also landed a minor television role in 1955, as the handyman Mr. Boggs in the short-lived CBS sitcom Professional Father.On The Halls of Ivy, Bryan played Professor Warren, head of the college's history department, a role he also had on the radio program of the same name.[16] On September 17, 1956, he became ill with acute gastritis while rehearsing for an episode of Producers' Showcase called "The Lord Don't Play Favorites", three hours before its airtime.Staging director Bretaigne Windust replaced Bryan during production.[17]
South of the Boudoir (1940, Short) – Thomas Bailey
Swing with Bing (1940, Short) – Golf Duffer
A Wild Hare (1940, Short) – Elmer Fudd (voice, uncredited)
The Devil Bat (1940) – Joe McGinty
Elmer's Pet Rabbit (1941, Short) – Elmer Fudd (voice, uncredited)
Manpower (1941) – Drunk Texan (uncredited)
Ellery Queen and the Perfect Crime (1941) – Book Salesman
Look Who's Laughing (1941) – Mayor Duncan's Aide (uncredited)
