Haunted Mansion voice actor Dal McKennon dies at 89
Voice actor Dallas ("Dal") McKennon has passed away at 89, just shy of his 90th birthday, which would have been July 19. While best known for his extensive work as a voice for various animated features, McKennon also voiced numerous voice tracks used in the Disney theme parks - most notably his warning for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, in which he exclaimed "Hold on to your hats and glasses... this here's the wildest ride in the wilderness!"
Mansion afficienados might note that McKennon also voiced the deaf old man in the Haunted Mansion's graveyard, who, unable to decipher the mummy muttering through his bandages, has been doomed to an eternity of croaking out "What's that? Louder!" Additionally, McKennon claimed that he was also the voice behind the whimpering dog outside the graveyard gates, as well as a few assorted moans, groans and wails from inside the attraction - including the famously horrifying scream inside of the stretching gallery.
"Since he does some of the Haunted Mansion screams, his fans may be interested to know that he can be seen doing that on-screen in the schlocky Vincent Price movie "The Tingler," if they remember that one," recalled Tim Hollis, author of Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records. "Toward the end of the picture, Dal appears as a projectionist in a movie theater, with a giant rubber grubworm locked around his throat. Dal then lets loose with practically the same scream you hear in the Haunted Mansion stretch room."
RIP, Dal.
Read the full article here.
Mansion afficienados might note that McKennon also voiced the deaf old man in the Haunted Mansion's graveyard, who, unable to decipher the mummy muttering through his bandages, has been doomed to an eternity of croaking out "What's that? Louder!" Additionally, McKennon claimed that he was also the voice behind the whimpering dog outside the graveyard gates, as well as a few assorted moans, groans and wails from inside the attraction - including the famously horrifying scream inside of the stretching gallery.
"Since he does some of the Haunted Mansion screams, his fans may be interested to know that he can be seen doing that on-screen in the schlocky Vincent Price movie "The Tingler," if they remember that one," recalled Tim Hollis, author of Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records. "Toward the end of the picture, Dal appears as a projectionist in a movie theater, with a giant rubber grubworm locked around his throat. Dal then lets loose with practically the same scream you hear in the Haunted Mansion stretch room."
RIP, Dal.
Read the full article here.
posted by Chef Mayhem at 9:27 PM
1 Comments:
Just came across the obituary just now while visiting your site. It struck a chord because we had also reported the sad news over at tintinologist.org, where we noted that Mr. McKennon had worked with Paul Frees on the Larry Harmon TV cartoon series, Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin, based on the Belgian comic-albums (soon to be on the screen again in a movie series from Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson).
We have a photo of Mr. McKennon in his heyday here:
http://www.tintinologist.org/forums/index.php?action=vthread&forum=7&topic=3240#msg28028
Hope this is of interest, and congratulations on such an in-depth and informative site.
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