Alan Young

Alan Young
Alan Young and Olga San Juan
Born	Angus Young (1919-11-19) 19 November 1919 (age 92) North Shields, Northumberland, England, UK
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1944 – present
Spouse	1) Mary Anne Grimes (1941–1947) (two children) 2) Virginia McCurdy (12 May 1948-1992) (one child)

Alan Young (born 19 November 1919) is a British-born Canadian actor best known for his role as Wilbur Post in the television series Mister Ed and as the voice of Scrooge McDuck in Disney films, TV series and video games. During the 1940s and 1950s, he starred on his own shows on radio and television.

Early life

Young was born Angus Young in North Shields, Northumberland, England, to John Cathcart Young, a shipyard worker, and Florence Pinckney, whose ancestors included a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. 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. Near the start of his radio career, during World War II, Young attempted to enlist in first the Royal Canadian Navy, then the Canadian Army, but was rejected by both due to his poor health.^[1]

Radio

Young became a broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1944, he moved to American radio with The Alan Young Show, NBC's summer replacement for Eddie Cantor's show. He switched to ABC two years later, then returned to NBC. Since 1994, he has played at least eight characters on the popular radio drama Adventures in Odyssey, most notably antique dealer Jack Allen.

Films and television

Young's debut was in the film Margie (1946), and featured in Chicken Every Sunday (1949),^[2] and the television version of The Alan Young Show began the following year. After its cancellation, Young appeared in films, including Androcles and the Lion (1952) and Kiss Me Kate (1953), he had an (uncredited) role as a dancer with Ann Miller in the major production number, "Tom, Dick or Harry". He had roles in two George Pal films, tom thumb (1958) and The Time Machine (1960).

He appeared in the episode "Thin Ice" of the NBC espionage drama Five Fingers, starring David Hedison. He is best known, however, for Mister Ed (1961-66), a CBS television show, in which he starred as Wilbur Post, the owner of Mr. Ed, a talking horse that would talk to no one but him, thus causing hilarious situations for Wilbur Post with his wife, neighbours and acquaintances.

Young's television guest appearances include The Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote, St. Elsewhere, Coach, Party of Five, The Wayans Bros., Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (Episode: "Sweet Charity", playing Zelda's older love interest), USA High, Hang Time, ER and Maybe It's Me.

In 1993, Young 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 2002, he had a cameo as the flower store worker in Simon Wells' remake of The Time Machine. Finally, in 2010, he read H.G. Wells's original novel for 7th Voyage Productions, Inc..

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.

Animation

In later life, he founded a broadcast division for the Christian Science Church and did voices for animated cartoons. Since 1983, he has provided the voice of Scrooge McDuck for Disney films and on the popular series DuckTales. In Mickey's Christmas Carol, he portrayed the character's miserly namesake. He also provided the voice of Jack Allen on the Focus on the Family radio drama, Adventures in Odyssey and voiced Hiram Flaversham in Disney's The Great Mouse Detective. His other cartoon voice appearances include Camp Lazlo, Megas XLR, Static Shock, House of Mouse, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Duckman, Batman: The Animated Series, TaleSpin, The Smurfs, The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and as 7-Zark-7 and Keyop in Battle of the Planets. In 1997, he did the voice of Haggis McMutton in the PC game, The Curse of Monkey Island. And he voiced Atok Dalang in Upin & Ipin:classic serials and Geng series 1-4

Listen to

• Internet Archive: The Alan Young Show (four 1945-46 episodes)

References

1. ^ YouTube - Alan Young - Archive Interview Part 1 of 6
2. ^ Thomas, Bob (June 10, 1959). "Comic Alan Young Critical of TV". The Milwaukee Sentinel. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=WW1QAAAAIBAJ&sjid=VhAEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5217,4930447&dq=alan-young&hl=en. 

External links

• Alan Young at the Internet Movie Database
• Kliph Nesteroff interview with Alan Young
• Official website
• Alan Young interview on "The Joe Cook Program" July 2006
• Alan Young's American Archive of American Television Interview
• Alan Young reads HG Wells The Time Machine