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Obit: John Stephenson @ 89...Voiced "Mr. Slate" on The Flintstones

I remember he did a credible Jimmy Durante impression as Doggie Daddy.
He was also the original voice of Dr. Benton Quest on "Jonny Quest," but
was replaced by Don Messick, who also did Bandit's barks.

Mr. Stephenson was the original announcer on "I Love Lucy" and, if I'm not
mistaken, did the Philip Morris commercials. However, Lucy was impressed
with Roy Rowan, who played the announcer in the "Lucy Gets Ricky On The
Radio" episode, and hired him to replace Stephenson. Rowan stayed with
Lucy until "Here's Lucy" ended in 1974. (Rowan was also Art Linkletter's
announcer on "People Are Funny" when it was on CBS radio from about 1951
to 1954; Pat McGeehan was the announcer when it moved back to NBC radio
and television.)

Stephenson didn't do just voiceover; he hosted the travelogue show "Bold
Journey" in its first season (1956-57) before Jack Douglas took over for the final
two seasons.

Sad coincidence that two of the voices from "Jonny Quest" passed away just days
apart; Don Messick died several years ago.
 
He also did the epilog on the 1960s revival of "Dragnet" for its first three seasons until 1969 when George Fenneman replaced him.
 
Kurt Toy said:
He also did the epilog on the 1960s revival of "Dragnet" for its first three seasons until 1969 when George Fenneman replaced him.
Click to expand...

Right. Fenneman's is the voice that says, "The story you are about to see is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent." He did this in the '50s as well, and Hal Gibney did the epilogues. Fenneman and Jack Webb were old friends from their days on San Francisco radio in the '40s, and as Fenneman once recalled, Webb would always give him a "good-luck line" on a new show, "which [was] also a good-luck check." I seem to recall, now that I think about it, when Fenneman took over Stephenson's duties, although I don't know the reason for the change.
 
I thought Doug Young was the voice of 'Doggie Daddy'?
Stephenson later did some various non-recurring character voices on 'Superfriends' and 'Scooby Doo'.
 
He was in three Perry Mason episodes; in "The Case of the Runaway Corpse" he was the corpse in question, and appeared without his toupee.
I also recall seeing him in a first season Lou Grant episode.

Among the many voices he did for Hanna-Barbera, Stephenson was called upon to do a Paul Lynde impression for the wolf character in "Kwicky Koala." I think this was after Lynde died.
 
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I think he also appeared in an early, black-and-white episode of
"Gomer Pyle, USMC."

It's funny, in a way, how Paul Lynde's voice was used for wolf
characters on Saturday-morning cartoons. Besides the Stephenson
imitation mentioned earlier, Lynde himself voiced Mildew Wolf in the
"It's The Wolf" segment of "Cattanooga Cats" on ABC in 1969-70.
Daws Butler, as Lambsy, the target of Mildew's cravings. did essentially
his Elroy Jetson voice in that cartoon (Marty Ingels also did Lambsy,
whose trademark cry was "It's the wool-uff!").
 
H-B certainly got their money's worth out of Lynde... he was also Sylvester Sneekley/The Hooded Claw in "The Perils of Penelope Pitstop," Claude Pertwee in "Where's Huddles?" and Templeton the rat in "Charlotte's Web."
 
rnigma1 said:
H-B certainly got their money's worth out of Lynde... he was also Sylvester Sneekley/The Hooded Claw in "The Perils of Penelope Pitstop," Claude Pertwee in "Where's Huddles?" and Templeton the rat in "Charlotte's Web."
Click to expand...

It's something of a sad commentary that, while his voice was so recognizable in all those cartoons; Paul Lynde would not allow Hanna-Barbera to include his name in their credits because he feared ridicule from his "Hollywood Squares" co-stars. Apparently he felt that working in cartoons was a sort of "slumming." Imagine being afraid of what Marty Allen, Rose Marie and John Davidson think of you. Sheeesh...
 
I found a message on the Internet Movie Database from a person claiming to be John Stephenson's son that claims that he did not die recently and that his full name upon birth was actually John Winfield Stephenson, not the name mentioned in the reports claiming he had died. Also I realized the obituary CrankyYankee cited at the beginning of this discussion is no longer on the site where it was posted originally.
 
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