September 18 - June Lucille Foray

On this day, in 1917, veteran voice actress June Lucille Foray was born in Springfield, Massachusetts.

 As a little girl, June, like many little girls, wanted to be a dancer when she grew up. Lucky for us, if not for her as a child, an ill timed case of pneumonia kept her home from dance class and she ended up becoming a voice actress instead. By the age of 12, June had already been heard in a drama on the local radio station and by 15, was doing that sort of thing regularly. After graduating from high school, her family fell on hard financial times and moved to Los Angeles, mostly to be near an uncle, but that was when June's career took off.

By the late 1930s, June had her own radio show, Lady Make Believe (also the title of a children's album she released in 2016). It didn't take long for her to be featured on coast-to-coast radio shows like The Jimmy Durante Show. In the 1940s, June began working in the movies. Very occasionally she would do a live action part, but mostly she voiced animated characters. This work naturally spilled onto the television screen when the new media came along. If you've payed even the tiniest bit of passing attention to cartoons since the 1950s, I guarantee you've heard June's voice. How can I make this guarantee? June provided the voice for:

Rocky J. Squirrel, Natasha Fatale and Nell Fenwick for The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show

Granny and Witch Hazel for The Bugs Bunny Show (and dozens of Loony Tunes shows and shorts both before and after)


Cindy Lou Who for How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Ursula and Marigold for

The original voice of Karen and the Teacher for Frosty the Snowman

Jokey Smurf and Mother Nature for The Smurfs

 Mrs. Cauldron for The Garfield Show (for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award)


Plus literally dozens and dozens of other characters in everything from Scooby Doo to Mr. Magoo to the Pink Panther. If you try to say you haven't ever heard her voice, you're flat out lying.



 June also did extensive work for Disney. Those credits include:

Lucifer in Cinderella

Witch Hazel in the Donald Duck short Trick or Treat (and not to be confused with her Loony Tunes character of the same name)

Mrs. Sheep in Lambert the Sheepish Lion

A Squaw in Peter Pan (she also was the live model for one of the mermaids)

Wheezy Weasel and Lena Hyena in Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Mrs. Featherby  and Magica De Spell in Duck Tales

Grandmother Fa in Mulan and Mulan II

She can also be heard in the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction as the wife of the man getting dunked in the town well.

In the mid 1960s, June looked around and began to worry that the legacy of animation wasn't being paid attention to much less preserved. Being who she was, rather than talking about the problem, she did something about it by creating the Annie Awards, basically the Oscars of animation, in 1972. Almost 46 years later, the Annies are still going strong thanks in large part to June's efforts. The fact that there is an actual Oscar for Best Animated Feature is also due to June's lobbying efforts.

June worked regularly up until 2014. In 2015, her health began to decline after she was involved in an automobile accident. On July 26, 2017, June passed away in Los Angeles, California. She was less than two months shy of her 100th birthday.