Lonnie Burr
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Lonnie Burr | |
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| Born | Leonard Burr Babin May 31, 1943 |
| Other names | The Velvet Smog |
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| Spouse | Diane Dickey (1970-present) |
Lonnie Burr (born May 31, 1943) is an American actor, entertainer and writer best known as one of nine of the original thirty-nine
After appearing on the show, Burr's entertainment career included work as a character actor, dancer, singer, and choreographer. His career as a writer included being a book author, playwright, lyricist, journalist, critic and poet. Throughout adulthood, he continued to honor his Disney experience. As he was quoted in an interview, "Whether I someday scale the Matterhorn or win my Pulitzer, I shall always be known as Mouseketeer Lonnie; that is the way the obituary will begin. I have come to learn that is a marvelous association."
Early life
Burr was born in
Early performances
At age four Burr started dance lessons with legendary tap teacher Willie Covan and was soon dancing, singing and doing imitations for live audiences and local, Pasadena, CA TV shows. He began acting on radio after turning professional at age five. By six (1949) he was working on national television, radio, films, theatre and commercials. His first two movie appearances were in the 1951 films A Yank in Korea and Queen for a Day, followed by M (1951 U.S. remake), Hans Christian Andersen (1952), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and Apache (1954).
Burr’s first recurring television role (1950–1951) was as next door neighbor Oliver Quimby on
On radio, he was heard on The Enchanted Lady as Buster Beetle, Prince Charming and other characters, the child lead on the popular NBC Radio soap opera
Lonnie's career as a stage actor began at age six at California's renowned Pasadena Playhouse. After appearing in two plays, he performed his first stage lead there at age eight in The Strawberry Circle. His early television commercials included appearing during Space Patrol (1950s series) to eat a bowl of Chex, one of the show's sponsors, and The Lone Ranger, in which he and Clayton Moore (the original television Lone Ranger), both on horseback, promoted the goodness of Cheerios breakfast cereal. (Lonnie dismounted to enjoy his cereal at the breakfast table.)
Mickey Mouse Club
In 1955 Lonnie signed a seven-year contract with
Lonnie appeared in more than 200 episodes of the original Mickey Mouse Club. The popularity he and other Red Team members enjoyed continued after ABC cancelled the series in 1959, as it was rerun in the 1960s and 1970s, then continued on the Disney Channel from the 1980s through the early 2000s. The "Mice", as the adult Mouseketeers often called themselves, continued to acquire new fans; eventually adults who were fans as children watched with their own children and grandchildren. Disney also licensed the shows internationally, and they were aired in five languages in forty-plus foreign countries including Japan, France, Mexico, Australia (twelve years), parts of South America, and in the 1980s and 1990s in Russia (U.S.S.R.) and the other Warsaw Pact countries.
Roles as an adult
After The Mickey Mouse Club stopped filming in 1958, Lonnie took a hiatus from the entertainment business. At age fourteen he completed his senior year of high school. Accepted at UCLA, he received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in Theatre Arts by age twenty. He completed a year toward a Ph.D. in English Literature a few years later, but decided to return to his professional careers in the performing arts and his new career as a published author. Burr resumed his performing career in the 1960s in plays, musical comedy, film, television, commercials, industrial films, night clubs and other live performances. He transitioned from child TV star to adult character actor, deliberately taking roles in which he could vary his appearance and attitude to the extent that in the 1980s Robert Osborne, then columnist for The Hollywood Reporter and later TCM host, named him "a master of disguises."
Live theatre is Burr’s favorite performing medium. His 45 drama, comedy and musical theatre performances include
Lonnie’s live appearances include performances during the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World (WDW) in 30-minute stage shows reuniting some of the original Mouseketeers, who performed new numbers and a few recreated from the original series. Lonnie also wrote and choreographed the first of these appearances.
As a promotion for the original Mickey Mouse Club’s return to television in the mid-1970s, Lonnie and other Mouseketeers appeared on Tomorrow, Tom Snyder’s national late night talk show from New York. Lonnie and three other Mouseketeers also visited Queens to appear at a Shea Stadium New York Mets game with Mickey Mouse, who was scheduled to throw out the first baseball. Instead, Mickey handed the ball to Lonnie, making him the only Mouseketeer to have thrown the opening ball for a Major League Baseball game. Mickey and Lonnie were together again in the 1980s when Disneyland promoted its extensively renovated
Lonnie’s films since his Ph.D. semester include
While Lonnie and Annette had been in contact during the years after the Mickey Mouse Club,
Among Lonnie’s 67 TV credits are guest roles on
As a writer, Lonnie is the author of a memoir, The Accidental Mouseketeer (2014) and Two for the Show: Great 20th Century Comedy Teams(2000). He has two
, Storyboard and online publications.Burr was one of the hosts and the
As a
As an inveterate library and museum patron since the early 1960s, Lonnie recognizes the importance of giving back whenever possible. Items from a number of his areas of interest now belong to
External links
- Lonnie Burr at IMDb
- Official website
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