Dallas McKennon: The Grizzled Voice of Gumby

Most of the photos one finds online of character actor Dallas (sometimes Dal) McKennon (1919-2009) look like this one: a grizzled, bearded western sidekick type. One might be apt to mix him up with the similarly place-named Denver Pyle. This is because McKinnon’s best known live action role was as the tavern keeper Cincinnatus on the Disney TV series Daniel Boone, and he appeared in similar roles on episodes of other western shows like Wagon Train, Bonanza, etc. That said, his most famous roles were not his live-action ones by a long way. He provided the voices of some of the most famous animated characters of the 20th century.

These are some of the characters he played in animated shorts and kids TV:

Gumby in Art Clokey’sclaymation series

Archie in Filmation’s various cartoons based onArchie Comics

Chet on Filmation’s Hardy Boys series

Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse

Buzz Buzzard in Woody Woodpecker cartoons

The title character and other voices in the series Q.T. Hush

McKennon also provided voices in such major animated (or mixed) projects as Lady and the Tramp (1955), Paul Bunyan (1958), Sleeping Beauty (1959), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), Mary Poppins (1964), Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966, as Max), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), Journey Back to Oz (1972), Treasure Island (1973), Oliver Twist (1974), et al.

Meanwhile, McKennon also had live action roles in such films as Bend in the River (1952), Tom Thumb (1959), William Castle’s The Tingler (1959), The Three Stooges’ Have Rocket Will Travel (1959), Alfred Hitchcock’sThe Birds (1963), The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964), Elvis Presley’sClambake (1967), Phyllis Diller’s Did You Hear the One About the Traveling Saleslady? (1968), Don Knotts’The Love God? (1969), The Cat from Outer Space (1978), Hot Lead and Cold Feet (1978), et al.

Originally from Oregon, McKennon attended the University of Washington, then served in the U.S. Signal Corps during World War Two. After the war, he began to work in local Oregon radio, playing a children’s character named Mr. Buttons. He would continue to be involved with historical projects about the history of the Pacific Northwest and the Oregon Trail throughout his career. In Los Angeles during that 1950s he hosted his own children’s wraparound program on local TV, screening Our Gang and Laurel and Hardy shorts as a character named Captain Jet.

All told, McKennon had nearly 250 screen credits, the last of them in the 1990s.