"Second" Voice of Fred Flinstone dies at 85 *

Canadian cartoon voice Henry Corden has passed away. Sad.

From Netscape.ca

Voice of Fred Flintstone Dies at 85
By RYAN PEARSON, AP ONLINE

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Henry Corden, the voice of cartoon caveman Fred Flintstone's "Yabba-dabba-doo!" for more than two decades, has died. He was 85.

Corden died of emphysema Thursday night at AMI Encino Hospital, his longtime agent Don Pitts said Friday. Corden's wife of nine years, Angelina, was with him at the time.

He took over as the lovable loudmouth Fred Flintstone when original voice Alan Reed died in 1977. Reed had been doing Flintstone since the character debuted in 1960.

Born in Montreal, Corden moved to New York as a child and arrived in Hollywood in the 1940s. His first acting role was in the 1947 film "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." Known for playing villains, he found small parts in movies, including 1952's "The Black Castle" and "The Ten Commandments" in 1956.

"As Henry said, he always played the cold-blooded creeps," Pitts said.

Corden moved into voice acting in the 1960s, and deployed his dialect skills in bit parts for Hanna-Barbera, including "Jonny Quest," "Josey and the Pussycats" and "The New Tom & Jerry Show."

Since "The Flintstones" echoed "The Honeymooners," Corden tweaked his role to approximate Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden character, Pitts said.

Corden also contributed to "The Jetsons," "Scooby-Doo" and "The Smurfs."

Corden, who lived in Encino, had been working until his health suffered about three months ago. He can most recently be heard on ubiquitous cereal commercials yelling "Barney, my Pebbles!"

Besides his wife, Corden is survived by five children and five grandchildren. A private memorial "party" is planned, Pitts said.

 

R.i.p...

 

I also remember him from playing the bad guy in the "Drums Of Death" episode
from the 1951 season of the "Adventures Of Superman".

Sad to hear of his passing.

 

Henry Corden was the voice of Fred Flinstone, but he wasn't the original one. Alan Reed was the first actor to give voice to Fred and he was without a doubt the best one. He passed away in 1977.

That's not a knock against Corden, who did a fine job subsituting for Corden. It's a shame he passed on, but he leaves behind a memorable legacy in the service of Bedrock's favorite son.

 

Talented

Definitely a very talented man. Hopefully his work will be preserved for a long time.
Sleep peacefully!

Tom

 

He also had great live-action performances in the original Postman Always Rings Twice and Breakfast at Tiffany's. R.I.P.

edit - I saw the thread title and assumed it was Alan Reed you were talking about. That's what I get for premature reply! - guy )

 

..."wife of nine years"...so he married at age 76? Now that is cool.

 

I've seen him in a couple of appearances on "Dragnet": as a cab driver in the 1950s version, and as a fur shop owner in the 1960s edition.

 

Slight diversion of topic. I just saw an episode of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' featuring Alan Reed as an auctioneer and Howard Morris (who also did voices for many HB cartoons) as an art expert. I 've never seen pictures of these men before but as soon I they spoke I knew they were familiar, even out of their classic characters.

 

Thanks to whoever changed the thread title. I didn't want to be disrespectful, but to me, there is only one voice of Fred, and that's Alan Reed.

 

miike himself requested the title change, and I compied!

COMPLIANCE!

 

Agreed.

BTW, I believe I remember seeing Henry Corden in an episode of The Brady Bunch. I believe he played the owner of the ice cream shop where Jan and Marcia worked.

 

He also played the Monkees landlord also if anyone remembers.

 

"Mr. Babbitt", and I was honored to have met him at a Monkees convention in Los Angeles in the late 80's that I was working at. He seemed like a sweet, fun man with lots of great stories to tell from his years in the business. One of those great character actors who seemed to pop up on every sitcom or drama on the tube in the 60's and 70's.

 

Man, tough to find a picture of this guy. Here he is in the role of Jeannie's Father!

 

Here's another.

 

Who does the voice of Fred in the PEBBLES commercials these days?

 

Whoever is doing Fred's voice for a few recent new Flintstones toons on Cartoon Network as well as Fred's appearance on Harvey Birdman sounds MUCH closer to Alan Reeds Fred than Corden did-I was never crazy about his Fred.

 

Henry Corden was also on The Flintstones while Alan Reed was alive. He played Fred's bully neighbor in one of the last seasons of the show, and (correct me if I'm wrong) he may have been Fred's singing voice in the movie The Man Called Flintstone.

 

When I was able to watch Cartoon Network up here (I had a satellite dish
), I noticed as well that in a couple of promos, Fred's voice did sound like Reed's again, and I didn't remember the soundbites from any of the original episodes.

 

I agree that Reed was the best Fred by far, but Henry Corden was greatly talented in his own right. And I never knew until now that he was born here!