What do you think?
Rate this book
Daws Butler - Characters Actor
The official biography of the voice of Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound and all things Hanna-Barbera. This first book on master voice actor Daws Butler has been assembled through personal scrapbooks, letters and intimate interviews with family and co-workers. Foreword by Daws' most famous student, Nancy Cartwright (the voice of Bart Simpson).
302 pages, Paperback
First published November 20, 2004
5 people are currently reading
44 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 16, 2026
I was born ten years after Daws Butler's death. I didn't grow up with his cartoons the way many of his fans did, but I've always loved old movies and TV shows, especially from the 1950s and '60s. With the advent of MeTV Toons, I became aware of this more-talented-than-the-average voice actor's work. As I read a bit about him online, I was impressed by everything I learned. He was married for over 45 years. He trained up a new generation of voice actors instead of pulling the ladder up after himself. A video on YouTube has him giving a tour of his workshop--and when he shows off his awards, he starts listing other voice actors who also got them, sharing the spotlight in a moment that was rightfully his. He seemed like such a humble and genuinely kind person, and I was eager to learn more about him.
I never would've guessed that he had so many creative talents. I love any example of an artist who refuses to stick to only one medium. Prior to his days of doing voices, he enjoyed writing, drawing, music, and he published a few poems. His voice work was incredible and I wouldn't trade it for anything, but I do wish we could've gotten to see a bit more of his other talents throughout his life. Unfortunately producers tended to pigeonhole him as only a voice talent, and publishers weren't interested in his written materials. If nothing else, he got to put his love of writing to use creating scripts for his workshops.
This book sufficiently answered my questions: did he ever do anything besides voice acting? How old were his children during the early Hanna-Barbera days? Why did he voice fewer Hanna-Barbera characters as time went on? How much did he charge for the workshop? The information is thorough and well-organized. It's a biography full of behind-the-scenes photos and stories both humorous and heartfelt. I smiled over the story of him overhearing a bad Snagglepuss impression while in a restaurant. I found Doug Young's account of how Daws helped him find work after the decline of radio shows touching. And Don Butler's tale of being in Vietnam and hearing his father's voice on the radio the very moment he needed it brought tears to my eyes.
As much as I loved this book, I would've appreciated a little more about Daws' work for Walter Lantz. Despite the 18 years he spent voicing practically every Chilly Willy character and multiple Woody Woodpecker antagonists, his work for Lantz gets no more than a paragraph. I recognize that Walter and Gracie were no longer alive by the time this book was compiled and had no children; perhaps there was little information to work with. But Smedley is noticeably absent from any list of characters with a southern drawl. Likewise, Chilly Willy isn't mentioned alongside his kid voices. This was a large chunk of his career that I felt was sort of glossed over.
Also, I'll forever wonder who Daws' other favorite character to portray was. The book lists Snagglepuss as his overall favorite and Mr. Jinks as "one of his top three." Nowhere does it say who else rounds out this top three. I hate that we're left hanging, almost as much as Jinks hates meeces.
And--heavens to Murgatroyd!--this book is littered with minor errors, including misspelled titles and character names, the wrong death year on the back cover, the wrong age at death inside the book, lines attributed to the wrong character, repeats in his credits, missing credits, and inconsistent spellings. And those were just the things I was knowledgeable about beforehand. Leave us face it, this book could've done with better editing.
Despite these flaws I truly did enjoy getting to know the man behind the voices of Yogi Bear, Snagglepuss, Huckleberry Hound, Jinks, and so many others. I'm excited to use the 24 pages of credits as a checklist as I delve deeper into Daws' body of work. How sad that he died before getting to play Yogi in another TV series as planned. But how special that the role went to one of his students. I'm sure he would be so proud of how far his students have come since their days in his workshop. Delighted, even.
Exit, to find my next read, stage left.
I never would've guessed that he had so many creative talents. I love any example of an artist who refuses to stick to only one medium. Prior to his days of doing voices, he enjoyed writing, drawing, music, and he published a few poems. His voice work was incredible and I wouldn't trade it for anything, but I do wish we could've gotten to see a bit more of his other talents throughout his life. Unfortunately producers tended to pigeonhole him as only a voice talent, and publishers weren't interested in his written materials. If nothing else, he got to put his love of writing to use creating scripts for his workshops.
This book sufficiently answered my questions: did he ever do anything besides voice acting? How old were his children during the early Hanna-Barbera days? Why did he voice fewer Hanna-Barbera characters as time went on? How much did he charge for the workshop? The information is thorough and well-organized. It's a biography full of behind-the-scenes photos and stories both humorous and heartfelt. I smiled over the story of him overhearing a bad Snagglepuss impression while in a restaurant. I found Doug Young's account of how Daws helped him find work after the decline of radio shows touching. And Don Butler's tale of being in Vietnam and hearing his father's voice on the radio the very moment he needed it brought tears to my eyes.
As much as I loved this book, I would've appreciated a little more about Daws' work for Walter Lantz. Despite the 18 years he spent voicing practically every Chilly Willy character and multiple Woody Woodpecker antagonists, his work for Lantz gets no more than a paragraph. I recognize that Walter and Gracie were no longer alive by the time this book was compiled and had no children; perhaps there was little information to work with. But Smedley is noticeably absent from any list of characters with a southern drawl. Likewise, Chilly Willy isn't mentioned alongside his kid voices. This was a large chunk of his career that I felt was sort of glossed over.
Also, I'll forever wonder who Daws' other favorite character to portray was. The book lists Snagglepuss as his overall favorite and Mr. Jinks as "one of his top three." Nowhere does it say who else rounds out this top three. I hate that we're left hanging, almost as much as Jinks hates meeces.
And--heavens to Murgatroyd!--this book is littered with minor errors, including misspelled titles and character names, the wrong death year on the back cover, the wrong age at death inside the book, lines attributed to the wrong character, repeats in his credits, missing credits, and inconsistent spellings. And those were just the things I was knowledgeable about beforehand. Leave us face it, this book could've done with better editing.
Despite these flaws I truly did enjoy getting to know the man behind the voices of Yogi Bear, Snagglepuss, Huckleberry Hound, Jinks, and so many others. I'm excited to use the 24 pages of credits as a checklist as I delve deeper into Daws' body of work. How sad that he died before getting to play Yogi in another TV series as planned. But how special that the role went to one of his students. I'm sure he would be so proud of how far his students have come since their days in his workshop. Delighted, even.
Exit, to find my next read, stage left.
October 10, 2011
After reading Daws Butler, Characters Actor, I was struck by two things. First, that one man could have created so many classic cartoon characters (Yogi, Mr. Jinks, Huckleberry Hound, etc.), and second, that I had never heard of him until I won this book from firstreads.
Basically, Butler started out as an amateur, worked his way up to vaudeville, joined the Navy during WWII, then started doing more radio, and eventually voice acting. At the end of his life, Butler was also mentoring a number of talented young voice actors (including Nancy Cartwright, voice of Bart Simpsons, who provided the foreword for this book).
I like Daws Butler. It's nice when the man behind your favorite childhood characters is just as nice as you always hoped he would be. The book itself is taken mostly from interviews and correspondence from Daws. There are pages upon pages that are just letters sent to Joe Bevilacqua (listed on the cover, but not Goodreads, as co-author of this text) from Butler. There is very little new material, and in fact, I'm pretty sure the same paragraph-long quotation from an interview with Butler about how he creates characters, not just voices and "working through the conflict" was used at least twice in the book, or at least a quote from a different interview in which he provided the exact same information in a very similar manner. There was also a chapter composed entirely of tributes from Butler's associates and students. All of that made me think that perhaps Ben Ohmart is more of a compiler than a writer. The bulk of the book, after all, was written by Butler and people who knew Butler in their own words, which is a bit lazy, but gets the point across, anyway.
In any case, this is not an academic book about Daws Butler. From the beginning, when Ohmart begins speaking of his topic as "Daws", instead of the more formal "Butler," you can tell this is much more of a tribute to the man than anything else. All of the primary material, letters, quotations, pictures, and so on did help me get a feel for this familiar stranger, Daws Butler, but I almost might have preferred a compilation of his correspondence instead of essentially the same thing masquerading as a biography.
Basically, Butler started out as an amateur, worked his way up to vaudeville, joined the Navy during WWII, then started doing more radio, and eventually voice acting. At the end of his life, Butler was also mentoring a number of talented young voice actors (including Nancy Cartwright, voice of Bart Simpsons, who provided the foreword for this book).
I like Daws Butler. It's nice when the man behind your favorite childhood characters is just as nice as you always hoped he would be. The book itself is taken mostly from interviews and correspondence from Daws. There are pages upon pages that are just letters sent to Joe Bevilacqua (listed on the cover, but not Goodreads, as co-author of this text) from Butler. There is very little new material, and in fact, I'm pretty sure the same paragraph-long quotation from an interview with Butler about how he creates characters, not just voices and "working through the conflict" was used at least twice in the book, or at least a quote from a different interview in which he provided the exact same information in a very similar manner. There was also a chapter composed entirely of tributes from Butler's associates and students. All of that made me think that perhaps Ben Ohmart is more of a compiler than a writer. The bulk of the book, after all, was written by Butler and people who knew Butler in their own words, which is a bit lazy, but gets the point across, anyway.
In any case, this is not an academic book about Daws Butler. From the beginning, when Ohmart begins speaking of his topic as "Daws", instead of the more formal "Butler," you can tell this is much more of a tribute to the man than anything else. All of the primary material, letters, quotations, pictures, and so on did help me get a feel for this familiar stranger, Daws Butler, but I almost might have preferred a compilation of his correspondence instead of essentially the same thing masquerading as a biography.
April 2, 2015
This book was a total inspiration, I loved it. I've always been a fan of the old animated cartoons of my childhood. This book will give you insight into the life of this incredible man, Daws Butler, who was the character actor of many famous cartoon icons, including; Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepus, Elroy Jetson, Cap'n Crunch, and hundreds more. He gave so much of himself to others too, teaching a class once a week at his home for aspiring actors who wanted to learn from him. Sadly, Daws is gone, but he is severely missed by all those who loved him, especially his children, extended family, and all the characters he gave life to.
September 4, 2012
I highly recommend this book for anyone
FTC: I received a free copy of this book and was not reimbursed in any other way.
FTC: I received a free copy of this book and was not reimbursed in any other way.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews