Alan Young

Early life and education

Young was born as Angus Young on November 19, 1919, in North Shields, Northumberland, England, to Scottish parents. In his later years, he claimed he had been born in 1924. His father was a mine worker and a tap dancer, and his mother was a singer. The family moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, when Young was a toddler and to West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, when he was six years old. Young came to love radio when bedridden as a child because of severe asthma.^[1][2]

By the time he entered high school, Young had his own comedy radio series on the CBC network, but he left it during the Second World War to serve in the Royal Canadian Navy.^[1][3][4]

He later resigned his Navy commission after learning he would be spending his time writing for a Navy show, and he attempted to join the Canadian Army. According to some sources, the Army rejected him owing to his childhood asthma.^[5]

Career

After leaving the service, Young moved to

After its cancellation, Young continued to act in films, among which Androcles and the Lion (1952) and Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), and two George Pal films, Tom Thumb (1958) and The Time Machine (1960). He appeared in the NBC espionage drama Five Fingers ("Thin Ice", 1959), starring David Hedison.^[9]

Young was best known, however, for

CBS television show, in which he starred as Wilbur Post, the owner of Mr. Ed, a talking horse who would not talk to anyone but him, thus causing comic situations for Wilbur Post, with his wife, neighbors, and acquaintances.^[10] In 1962 while not filming Mister Ed Young appeared as John Stetson (inventor of the famous western Stetson hat) on Death Valley Days in the episode "The Hat that Won the West." He also starred as Stanley Beamish in the unaired 1966 pilot episode of Mr. Terrific, but apparently declined to appear in the broadcast series in 1967 that followed. In the late 1960s, he retired from acting for several years. During that time, he founded a broadcast division for the Christian Science Church.^[11]

During the 1970s, Young became active in voice acting. After 1974, he voiced

Farmer Smurf on The Smurfs, Haggis McHaggis on The Ren & Stimpy Show, 7-Zark-7 & Keyop in Battle of the Planets, and Hiram Flaversham in The Great Mouse Detective. He also guest starred on The Love Boat, The Incredible Hulk, The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show, and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.^[12]

Young later starred in the sitcom

California Musical Theatre's adaptation of Show Boat. He had been called for the role after Van Johnson, who was initially cast in the part, was hospitalised.^[13] He had also appeared in the plays A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and The Girl with the Freudian Slip. In 1993, he recreated his role as Filby for the mini-sequel to George Pal's The Time Machine, reuniting him with Rod Taylor, who had played George, the Time Traveller. It was called Time Machine: The Journey Back

, directed by Clyde Lucas.

In 1994, Young co-starred in the Eddie Murphy film Beverly Hills Cop III. He played the role of Uncle Dave Thornton, the Walt Disney-esque founder of the fictional California theme park Wonderworld, and in that same year, Young played the role of Charlie in the television film, Hart to Hart: Home Is Where the Hart Is.^{[citation needed]}

After 1994, he played at least eight characters, including antique dealer Jack Allen on the radio drama

Sabrina, the Teenage Witch ("Sweet Charity", 1997) in which he played Zelda's love interest.^{[citation needed}

]

Personal life

Young was married three times.[15] He and Mary Anne Grimes were married from 1941 to 1947 and had two children.

In interviews with Greg Bell, host of

SiriusXM's satellite radio "Old Time Radio" program, Young described having dated Marilyn Monroe

several times.

Young married his second wife Virginia McCurdy in 1948 and they had two children.[16] They divorced in 1995.

Young married Mary Chipman the following year, in 1996, and they divorced the following year, in 1997.^[17] He dedicated his book Mr. Ed and Me to Chipman.^[18]

Young supported Ronald Reagan,^[19] although he stated in a later interview that he was apolitical.^[20]

Death

Young spent his final years at

Woodland Hills, California. He died there on May 19, 2016, at the age of 96, and was buried at sea.^[15][21]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1946	Margie	Roy Hornsdale
1949	Chicken Every Sunday	Geoffrey Lawson
	Mr. Belvedere Goes to College	Avery Brubaker
1952	Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick	Aaron Slick
	Androcles and the Lion	Androcles
1955	Gentlemen Marry Brunettes	Charlie Biddle / Mrs. Biddle / Mr. Henry Biddle
1958	Tom Thumb	Woody
1960	The Time Machine	David Filby / James Filby
1976	Baker's Hawk	Paul Carson
1978	The Cat from Outer Space	Doctor Winger
1983	Mickey's Christmas Carol	Scrooge McDuck	Voice, Animated short, also credited for "Story"
1985	The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal	Himself	Documentary
1986	The Great Mouse Detective	Hiram Flaversham (voice)
1987	Alice Through the Looking Glass	White Knight (voice)
1990	DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp	Scrooge McDuck (voice)
1993	Time Machine: The Journey Back	Filby	"Time Machine: The Journey Back"
	Disney Sing-Along Songs	Scrooge McDuck (voice)	"The Twelve Days of Christmas"
1994	Beverly Hills Cop III	Dave Thornton
1996	The Flintstones Christmas in Bedrock	Additional voices
1999	Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas	Scrooge McDuck (voice)	Direct-to-video
2002	The Time Machine	Flower Store Worker
2004	Em & Me	Grandfather	San Diego Film Festival Award for Best Actor Monaco International Festival Best Actor Award
2004	Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas	Scrooge McDuck (voice)	Direct-to-video
2023	Once Upon a Studio	Scrooge McDuck (voice)	Archival recordings

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1950–1953	The Alan Young Show	Alan	Television version Lead Role Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (1951) Nominated - Primetime Emmy for Most Outstanding Personality (1951)
1954	General Electric Theater	Alan Parker	"Wild Luke's Boy"
1955	Screen Director's Playhouse	Ernest Stockhoeffer/Vernon Hathaway	"The Life of Vernon Hathaway"
1955–1956	Studio One	George Abernathy, Timothy	"The Man Who Caught the Ball at Coogan's Bluff" "This Will Do Nicely"
1956	Chevron Hall of Stars	Robinson	"I Killed John Harrington"
	Matinee Theatre		"Ask Me No Questions"
	Studio 57	Hector Tutwilder	"Swing Your Partner, Hector"
1956–1958	The Steve Allen Show	Himself	5 episodes
1958	Alan Young (TV series)	Alan	3 episodes
1959	Five Fingers	Carl	"Thin Ice"
	Encounter	Wilbur Bowser	"The Last of the Hot Pilots"
1960	Startime	Clarence	"Tennessee Ernie Ford Meets King Arthur"
1961–1966	Mister Ed	Wilbur Post	Lead Role 143 episodes
1962	Death Valley Days	John Batterson Stetson	"The Hat That Won the West"
1966	Mr. Terrific	Stanley Beamish	TV pilot
1976	Gibbsville	Kanzler	"Saturday Night"
1978–1980	Battle of the Planets	7-Zark-7, Keyop	Main Characters English dub 85 episodes
1978, 1983	The Love Boat	Phil Sharpe (S2 E9 1978), Ross	2 episodes
1980	Humpty	Humpty Dumpty (voice)
1981	Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends	Mr. Frump (voice)	"The Fantastic Mr. Frump"
1982	The Incredible Hulk	Cyclops (voice)	"The Cyclops Project"
	Madame's Place	Ridgley, the Butler	Unaired Pilot
1982–1989	The Smurfs	Farmer Smurf (voice) Miner Smurf (voice) Scaredy Smurf (voice)	49 episodes
1983	Alvin and the Chipmunks	Grandpa Seville (voice)	"Grandpa and Grandma Seville"
	The Dukes	additional voices	7 episodes
	The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show	Gaggy Rogers (voice)	"Wedding Bell Boos!"
	Saturday Supercade	additional voices	13 episodes
	Mister T	Doctor Kirby (voice)	"Mystery on the Rocky Mountain Express"
1984	Robo Force	S.O.T.A.	TV film
	Down to Earth	Alistar Coogan	"Everything Old Is New Again"
1986	Murder, She Wrote	Floyd Nelson	"Keep the Home Fries Burning"
1987	St. Elsewhere	Knox	"A Coupla White Dummies Sitting Around Talking"
1987–1990	DuckTales	Scrooge McDuck/Narrator (voice)	Lead Role 97 episodes
1988–1989	Coming of Age	Ed Pepper	15 episodes
1990	Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color	Scrooge McDuck (voice)	"A DuckTales Valentine"
	TaleSpin	Doctor Cooper (voice)	"The Old Man and the Sea Duck"
	City	Donald	"Just a Passing Dad"
1991	Earth Angel	Norman	TV film
1992	Raw Toonage	Scrooge McDuck (voice)	"The Treasure of the Sierra Marsdre"
1993	Doogie Howser, M.D.	Doctor Emmitt Randall	"Eleven Angry People...and Vinnie"
	Coach	Ranger Farley	"One for the Road"
	A Flintstone Family Christmas	Mr. Gravelberry (voice)	TV film
1994	Batman: The Animated Series	Tod Baker (voice)	"Baby-Doll"
	Party of Five	Jack Gordon	"Homework"
	Hart to Hart	Charlie Loomis	"Home Is Where the Hart Is"
1994–1995	The Ren & Stimpy Show	Haggis McHaggis (voice)	4 episodes
1995	Duckman	Wilbur Nelson (voice)	"America the Beautiful"
	Maybe This Time	Arthur	"Gracie Under Fire"
	The Wayans Bros.	Reverend Benton	"Loot"
1997	Sabrina the Teenage Witch	Mr. Berry	"Sweet Charity"
	USA High	Mr. Phipps	"Goodbye, Mr. Phipps"
	Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction	Jake Gillespie	"Season 1 Episode 6 - The Diner"
1998	Kelly Kelly	Great Uncle Billy	"The Kilt Show"
	The Tony Danza Show	Doctor Harris	"Mini-pause"
1999	Mickey Mouse Works	Scrooge McDuck (voice)	2 episodes
2000	Rude Awakening	Priest	"Truth Don't Fail Me Now"
	Hang Time	Mr. McHenry	"That '60s Show"
	ER	Archie Mellonston	"Benton Backwards"
2001	God, the Devil and Bob	Wilbur Post (voice)	"God's Girlfriend"
	FreakyLinks	Henry	"Subject: Sunrise at Sunset Streams"
	Maybe It's Me	Abe Lasky	"The Hair Episode"
2002	House of Mouse	Scrooge McDuck (voice)	3 episodes
2004	Static Shock	Dr. McDonald (voice)	"Now You See Him"
	Megas XLR	Jax (voice)	2 episodes
2015–2016	Mickey Mouse	Scrooge McDuck (voice)	"Goofy's First Love" "No"

Video games

Year	Title	Role
1997	The Curse of Monkey Island	Haggis McMutton
2008	Disney Think Fast	Scrooge McDuck
2010	Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
2013	DuckTales: Scrooge's Loot
	DuckTales: Remastered

Radio

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1939	Stag Party	Himself
1940–1944	The Alan Young Show	Alan	Canadian version
1944–1949	The Alan Young Show	Alan	U.S. version
1945	The Old Gold Comedy Theater Known also as The Harold Lloyd Theatre	Bob Bennett	"Nothing but the Truth"[22]
1947	Hedda Hopper's This Is Hollywood	Roy Hornsdale	"Margie"
1947–1948	Texaco Star Theatre	Himself
1948–1949	The Jimmy Durante Show	Co-host
1949–1950	Family Theater	Johnny the Leprechaun, Donald	"The Leprechaun Who Didn't Listen" "The Lion Tamer" "My Terminal Moraine"
1950	The Jack Benny Program	Himself
1952	Hollywood Star Playhouse	Ernie	"Nor Gloom of Night"
1979	Sears Radio Theater	Harry Silverman, Otto Glitch, Steve	"The Care and Feeding of a Sex Symbol" "The Terrible Dream of Mr. Glitch" "A Very Nice Couple"
1994–2009, 2012	Adventures in Odyssey	Jack Allen	91 episodes

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Barnes, Mike; Byrnes, Duane (May 20, 2016). "Alan Young, Two-Legged Star of 'Mister Ed,' Dies at 96". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
2. ^ Shapiro, T. Rees (May 20, 2016). "Alan Young, Actor Who Played Willllburrrrr on 'Mister Ed,' Dies at 96". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
3. ^ Elbur, Lynn (May 20, 2016). "Alan Young, Star of 1960s sitcom 'Mr. Ed,' Dies at 96". Associated Press. Archived from the original on May 23, 2016. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
4. ISBN 978-1-84854-195-5
   .
5. ^ Dunham, Will (May 20, 2016). "Actor Alan Young, Human Star of Horse Sitcom 'Mister Ed,' Dies at 96". Reuters. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
6. ^ On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio John Dunning; Oxford University Press, pp. 20–21 ^{[ISBN missing]}
7. ^ Thomas, Bob (June 10, 1959). "Comic Alan Young Critical of TV". The Milwaukee Sentinel.
8. ^ "Nominations Search". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on June 17, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
9. ^ There's No Business Like Show Business...Was Alan Young; BearManor Media, Jul 5, 2006, multiple mentions
10. ^ "Alan Young In Mister Ed". The Gettysburg Times. March 18, 1961.
11. ^ TV Guide 1974 page 36 "Well, he's come back to Hollywood after spending the past six years as a Christian Science lecturer in Boston and other parts of the country. "I set up a film and broadcasting department for the mother church in Boston," Young said"
12. ^ "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981, Animated Series) Voice Cast". Voice Chasers.
13. ^ Sylvie Drake (September 16, 1991). "Stage: 'Show Boat' Afloat Without Its Star".
14. ^ Alan Young's voiceography. Behind the Voice Actors.com – check mark indicates BTVA has verified the entries using screenshots of credits and other confirmed sources.
15. ^ ^{a b} T. Rees Shapiro (May 20, 2016). "Alan Young, actor who played Willllburrrrr on 'Mister Ed,' dies at 96". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
16. ^ "Alan Young, the Affable Owner on 'Mister Ed,' Dies at 96". The New York Times. Reuters. May 20, 2016. Archived from the original on May 21, 2016. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
17. AM New York. Reuters. May 20, 2016. Archived from the original
    on May 22, 2016. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
18. OCLC 31708835
    .
19. ISBN 978-0521199186
    – via Google Books.
20. ^ "An Interview with Alan Young". December 4, 2010. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
21. ^ Where the Stars Are Buried - Index (T-Z)
22. ^ "Radio's Golden Age". Nostalgia Digest. 40 (1): 40–41. Winter 2014.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alan Young.

• Official website
• Alan Young at
  IMDb
• Alan Young at the Internet Broadway Database
• Alan Young at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television
• The Alan Young Show at Old Time Radio Outlaws