June Foray

Biography: While few filmgoers or TV fans have ever seen June Foray, a healthy majority of them are quite familiar with her work. June Foray was one of the leading voice artists of the golden age of animation, working with both the Warner Bros. animation department and the Disney studios, and later gained her greatest fame as the voice of Rocket J. Squirrel on the classic television cartoon series The Bullwinkle Show. Born in Springfield, MA, on September 18, 1917, Foray began her career as an actress at the age of 12 -- appropriately enough, by appearing in a radio drama at a local station in Springfield directed by her voice teacher. By the time Foray was 15, she was a regular at Springfield's WBZA, and two years later she was living in Los Angeles, hoping to break into the big time as an actress. At 19, Foray was both writing and starring in a radio series for children, as Miss Makebelieve, and soon became a frequent guest performer on a number of top-rated radio shows, working withWhile few filmgoers or TV fans have ever seen June Foray, a healthy majority of them are quite familiar with her work. June Foray was one of the leading voice artists of the golden age of animation, working with both the Warner Bros. animation department and the Disney studios, and later gained her greatest fame as the voice of Rocket J. Squirrel on the classic television cartoon series The Bullwinkle Show. Born in Springfield, MA, on September 18, 1917, Foray began her career as an actress at the age of 12 -- appropriately enough, by appearing in a radio drama at a local station in Springfield directed by her voice teacher. By the time Foray was 15, she was a regular at Springfield's WBZA, and two years later she was living in Los Angeles, hoping to break into the big time as an actress. At 19, Foray was both writing and starring in a radio series for children, as Miss Makebelieve, and soon became a frequent guest performer on a number of top-rated radio shows, working with the likes of Danny Thomas and Jimmy Durante. It was in the mid-'40s that Foray finally broke into the movies, but while she scored occasional onscreen roles (most notably as High Priestess Marku in the exotic drama Sabaka), she soon discovered there was a ready market for her vocal talents in Hollywood. Her first animation voice work was for Paramount's Speaking of Animals comedy shorts, in which animated mouths were superimposed on live-action footage of animals. The Speaking of Animals shorts spawned a series of records for children, recorded with a number of other noted voice actors, including Daws Butler and Stan Freeberg. The records made her a hot property with casting agents for cartoon voice work, and she found herself working for many of the biggest names in animation. For Chuck Jones at Warner Bros., Foray provided the voice of Granny in the Sylvester and Tweety cartoons, as well as the cackling Witch Hazel and dozens of other female characters. She recorded voices for several Tex Avery cartoons at MGM, as well as some Woody the Woodpecker shorts for Walter Lantz. And she made her debut at Disney as Lucifer the Cat in Cinderella. With the rise of television in the 1950s, a new market for cartoons appeared, and Foray's career kicked into high gear. She was cast as Rocky on The Bullwinkle Show, and also voiced a number of female characters on the series (most notably the villainous Natasha); she was also the voice of sweet-natured Nell Fenwick on the show's side series Dudley Do-Right. Foray stayed busy doing voice work on a number of other cartoon series as well, including Hoppity Hooper, Yogi the Bear, George of the Jungle, and the new Tom and Jerry shorts produced for TV in 1965. In addition, Foray did occasional work on The Flintstones, though she was passed over for the role of Betty Rubble after voicing her in the show's pilot. (Foray also appeared, uncredited, as the voice of Cindy Lou Who in Chuck Jones' classic animated version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas). In the 1980s and 1990s, at an age when most actresses would consider retirement, Foray was still one of Hollywood's busiest vocal talents, recording voices for everything from The Smurfs and Garfield to Duck Tales and The Simpsons. Foray also made a return to prestigious big-screen animation as the voice of Grandmother Fa in Mulan, and revisited her most famous role with vocal work in 2000's mixture of live-action and computer animation, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. In semi-retirement (though she still takes the occasional job that strikes her fancy), Foray is an active member of the International Animated Film Society, as well as the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Expand

June Foray's Scores

Average career score: 80
Highest Metascore: 80 The Simpsons: Season 1
Lowest Metascore: 80 The Simpsons: Season 1
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
1 tv review
Title: Year: Credit: User score:
tbd The Looney Tunes Show: Season 29 Oct 14, 1967 Granny tbd
tbd The Pink Panther Show: Season 1 May 18, 1967 June Foray tbd
tbd The Pink Panther Show: Season 2 May 18, 1967 June Foray tbd
tbd Lost in Space: Season 2 Sep 14, 1966 Gundemar Voice tbd
tbd The Twilight Zone: Season 5 Sep 27, 1963 Actor / Mary Badham / Talky Tina 8.8
tbd The Flintstones: Season 4 Sep 19, 1963 Ma/Granny/Old Woman/Secretary/Monkey tbd
tbd The Flintstones: Season 3 Sep 14, 1962 Grandma Dynamite/Peaches/Bank Customer / Nurse tbd
tbd The Bullwinkle Show: Season 5 Aug 19, 1962 Cinderella/Fairy Godmother tbd
tbd The Bullwinkle Show: Season 4 Jun 8, 1962 Rocket J. Squrriel/Natasha Fatale tbd
tbd The Looney Tunes Show: Season 49 Jun 2, 1962 Granny tbd
tbd Beetle Bailey and His Friends: Season 1 May 19, 1962 Martha Halftrack tbd
tbd The Bugs Bunny Show: Season 2 Oct 10, 1961 Granny tbd
tbd The Bullwinkle Show: Season 3 Sep 24, 1961 Rocket J. Squrriel/Natasha Fatale tbd
tbd Tom and Jerry: Season 3 Sep 7, 1961 Mammy Two-Shoes / Jerry / Additional Voices 7.6
tbd The Bugs Bunny Show: Season 1 Oct 11, 1960 Granny tbd
tbd The Flintstones: Season 1 Sep 30, 1960 (Voice) Betty Rubble 8.2
tbd The Bullwinkle Show: Season 2 Sep 25, 1960 Snow White/Wicked Witch/Rapunzel tbd
tbd The Looney Tunes Show: Season 14 Dec 5, 1959 Granny tbd
tbd The Bullwinkle Show: Season 1 Nov 19, 1959 Cinderella/Fairy Godmother tbd
tbd I Love Lucy: Season 6 Oct 1, 1956 The Dog tbd
tbd The Looney Tunes Show: Season 33 Jan 1, 1956 Granny tbd
tbd The Looney Tunes Show: Season 17 Jun 19, 1954 Granny tbd
tbd The Looney Tunes Show: Season 23 Mar 13, 1954 Granny tbd
tbd The Looney Tunes Show: Season 20 Aug 29, 1953 Granny tbd
tbd The Looney Tunes Show: Season 6 Feb 28, 1953 Granny tbd
tbd The Looney Tunes Show: Season 18 Jan 3, 1953 Granny tbd
tbd The Looney Tunes Show: Season 4 Jan 19, 1952 Granny tbd
tbd Tom and Jerry: Season 2 May 26, 1951 Mammy Two-Shoes 9.6
tbd The Looney Tunes Show: Season 40 Apr 28, 1951 Granny tbd
tbd The Looney Tunes Show: Season 19 Sep 16, 1949 Granny tbd