R.I.P. Jimmy Weldon

We just word on the passing a couple of days ago of ventriloquist, voice-over artist, announcer, children’s host, and actor Jimmy Weldon (1923-2023), just two months shy of his centennial birthday.

Weldon developed the voice of his duck companion Webster Webfoot on local radio in the ’40s. In the TV era he brought the character to lock kids television shows that he hosted at stations all over the country. In 1961, the effort yielded a priceless dividend, for it provided him with his greatest professional credit the voice of Yakky Doodle in Hanna-Barbera cartoons. (In all frankness, the voice sounds more than a little like Disney’s Donald — perhaps a little younger. He worked in animated cartoons for decades, providing Yakky’s voice and dozens of others. As an actor he also played bit parts, in the movie Americathon (1979) and on TV shows like Dragnet,The Waltons, S.W.A.T., B.J. and the Bear,The Rockford Files, and Diff’rent Strokes. He retired about 30 years ago.

For lovers of variety entertainment he had a wonderful professional name — a cross between Jimmy Nelson and Jo “Boobs” Weldon! Go with God, Yakky, but don’t drive him crazy with that voice!