Regular correspondent Geed tipped me to this bit of unfortunate news.
Filmation co-founder Lou Scheimer passed away on Thursday, two days shy of his 85th birthday. Not only was Scheimer involved on the production end of things, but he also had the time to contribute some voice work to many of Filmation's cartoons, often either uncredited or using a stage name. His two children from his first marriage, son Lane and daughter Erika, would follow him to the microphone during the 70's.
Scheimer was also the announcer for most of Filmation's live-action entries in the 70's, including Shazam!, Jason of Star Command (he was the announcer for Tarzan & The Super 7, anyway) & The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam! (1981). His voice work included Bat-Mite (New Adventures of Batman) & Orko (He-Man & The Masters of the Universe). Imagine if Filmation and not Ruby-Spears had acquired Alvin & The Chipmunks in the 80's. Scheimer probably wouldn't need his voice sped up, like Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. did.
Last year, Scheimer was honored at Comic-Con International in San Diego, as he made his final convention appearance. Author Andy Mangels is the moderator. Here is the video:
Rest in peace, Lou. Thanks for the memories.
4 comments:
As I said in my previous post, Filmation is as part of my childhood as Hanna Barbera and Looney Tunes were. I may strictly be a 60's/70's fan (I thought the 80's got way too preachy for my taste) but the man was part of a legendary studio and the last one to start sending animation work overseas. DC heroes, Fantastic Voyage, Star Trek, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Ghostbusters, Flash Gordon, Archie and even lesser known stuff like Hardy Boys, My Favorite Martian and Hero High was all great. Hope Adult Swim pays their respect in a bumper to him which they usually do for animation legends. He deserves it.
Seeing as I don't follow [adult swim] much anymore, I won't know unless we get someone else checking in.
I always had my doubts that Scheimer was actually doing any voicework, though I do remember his kids doing it (I remember they replaced Maureen McCormick and Barry Williams on The Brady Kids series and were used again as the voices of Sport Billy & Sport Lilly).
I do give him props for trying to keep as much animation in the US and train would be animaters. Don Bluth was one of his crew back in the late 60s before he went to work for Disney and later opening his own house.
That's because Scheimer used the name "Erik Gunden" for his work on He-Man, for example.
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