A Look Back at the Voice Acting Career of Gary Owens

Gary Owens passed away at the age of eighty last week.  You may not recognize the name but I guarantee you know the voice.  Gary Owens was a disc jockey and TV/radio personality renowned for his rich baritone and droll delivery.  He is most closely associated with his role as the announcer on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.  Owens would introduce and close each show standing in front of an old fashioned microphone with a hand cupped to one ear.

And now, high atop the unemployment building, here in beautiful downtown Burbank…

Owens was one of the few cast members to remain with Laugh-In for its entire six season run (1968 – 1973).  However, it was as a voice actor that Owens had the greatest influence on popular culture.  Owens was not a man of many voices like Futurama’s Billy West or the legendary Mel Blanc.  Owens’ voice is always immediately recognizable as his own.  But he utilized that voice to instill each character with a distinct personality.  He was often cast in the role of announcer/narrator or would play superheroes or characters in authoritative positions.  Here are a few of his most memorable roles:

Roger Ramjet with the American Eagles

Roger Ramjet

Running for 156 episodes starting in 1965, Roger Ramjet depicted its titular character saving the world from a rogues’ gallery of reoccurring villains.   Ramjet, as portrayed by Owens, was patriotic and very moral.  Unfortunately he was also quite naïve.  Ramjet had the help of special Proton Energy Pills that gave him “the strength of twenty atom bombs for a period of twenty seconds” and a team of jet plane-flying kids known as the American Eagles.

“I’ll get you next time, Penelope Pitstop!”

Narrator on The Perils of Penelope Pitstop

The Perils of Penelope Pitstop was patterned after silent film serials in which the pretty heroine is terrorized by an over-the-top villain.  The show was a spin-off with both Penelope and her rescuers, the Ant Hill Mob, originating on the cartoon, Wacky Races.  Gary Owens portrayed the narrator who had no visible presence in the cartoon.  Owens would often talk directly to the other characters, usually to warn Pitstop of impending danger or to chastise the show’s villain, the Hooded Claw.

A title card from the original Space Ghost.

Space Ghost

Gary Owens provided the voice for Space Ghost in his original incarnation on Space Ghost and Dino Boy in 1966.  He also reprised the role for the 1991 series Space Stars.  On both shows, Space Ghost was a space age superhero.  Piloting his Phantom Cruiser through space, Space Ghost fought intergalactic supervillains with the help of two masked teens and a masked monkey named Blip.  When Space Ghost was reworked as a talk show host on Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast the part of Space Ghost went to George Lowe.  Owens did, however, make two appearances on the show. In the episode “Late Show”, Owens introduces the show in a style reminiscent of Late Show with David Lettermen.  In the episode “Warren”, Owens appears as a replicant of  Space Ghost known as Gary.

Blue Falcon and the Dog Wonder

Blue Falcon

Originally airing as one half of The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder was a none-too-subtle spoof of Batman.  Owens played millionaire Radley Crown who fought crime as his alter ego the Blue Falcon.  His partner in this quest is the mechanical talking dog, Dynomutt.   Dynomutt is tricked out with all kinds of gadgets similar to Inspector Gadget.  He is also just as bumbling as Gadget.  The long-suffering Blue Falcon would, more often than not, find himself hindered by his partner’s attempts to assist him.

“Cling tenaciously to my buttocks!”

Powdered Toast Man

Powdered Toast Man was a semi-regular character on The Ren & Stimpy Show.  His primary purpose seemed to be delivery of powdered toast (scraped from his own head with a butter knife) to Ren and Stimpy.  The bread-themed do-gooder also performed tasks worthy of a boy scout.  In a single episode he rescued a kitten from a tree, saved the Pope from a powder keg, and helped the U.S. President free himself from his zipper.  Owens portrayed Powdered Toast Man as grandiose and self-absorbed (the character loudly calls out his own name whenever he arrives on the scene).  Powdered Toast Man was oblivious to the fact that his attempts to resolve minor problems often resulted in major catastrophes.

Owens lent his voice to over 3000 cartoons.  He was an inductee into both the National Radio Hall of Fame and the Television Hall of fame.  In 1979, Billboard magazine named him the Top Radio Personality in the World.  At the time of his passing, Owens was still doing voice over work.  Not bad for someone who was not expected to survive when he was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of eight.