Virtually every male voice actor wanna-be has said to themselves, “If
I only had pipes like his, I could make a fortune.” The pipes
they are usually speaking of are the baritone vocal stylings of the
incomparable Gary Owens.
His honors are too numerous to mention, but include induction into the
National Broadcasters Hall Of Fame and the Radio Hall of Fame in 1995.
Gary’s star is on the world famous Walk of Fame next to Walt Disney’s
on Hollywood Blvd. A recent TV Land poll selected Gary as their favorite
TV announcer with more than 59% of the national vote. Gary was Vice-President
for both Golden West Broadcasters and Gannett Corporation, at the time,
the world’s largest media company.
The VORG sat down with the Mitchell, South Dakota native to talk about
his incredibly successful career, making money with his voice. Gary,
who started his career at age 16, points out that there are about ten
people who grew up in or near his hometown, all of whom went into TV
or radio, including The Price Is Right’s Bob Barker, NBC’s
Tom Brokaw and Entertainment Tonight’s Mary Hart. Gary is probably
best remembered for making “Beautiful Downtown Burbank”
nearly as famous as Hollywood in his role on the hit 60’s NBC-TV
series Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In “Which had 40 million
people laughing every Monday night for six seasons…and that was
a long time”. He has appeared on over 30,000 commercials and promos,
for all the major networks, plus featured with one of his patented cartoon
voices in over 3,000 animation episodes. He is still one of the busiest
voice-actors in Hollywood. His narration of Ray Harryhausen’s
“The Tortoise and the Hare” just won the best short subject
award at the “Annies!” “I’ve done 15 series,
either as the announcer, a regular or host,” including Bewitched,
The Wonderful World Of Disney, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh In,
The Pat Boone Show, Letters to Laugh In, The Hudson Brothers Show, The
Gong Show, Wacko, Breakaway, The Half Hour Comedy Hour, Games People
Play, America’s Funniest Videos, That 70’s Show, The Green
Hornet & The Rosie O’Donnell Show. From the very beginning
in 1969, Gary was a regular voice on the Emmy and Peabody award winning
series Sesame Street. For 15 years he announced The American Comedy
Awards and has hosted the Grammy’s and announced the Emmy’s
on several occasions.
Owens describes his voice today as “a cross between the newscasters
and announcers of the sixties,” and is one of the elite people
in the business who has successfully made the cross-over from radio
personality to voice actor. Gary told us that in the 60’s they
used to refer to disc jockey’s voices as the “puker”
voices. The producers would say things like, “Oh, we can’t
use him…he’s got a puker voice.” Owens says that although
disc jockeys may have a “smooth” voice, it’s usually
accompanied by a “geeky” sound. “It’s not what
a person usually sounds like.” Gary turned that stigma around
to become a “signature trademark” and took his incredible
gift to Hollywood. During his years as the #1 rated afternoon radio
personality on Gene Autry owned 710 KMPC, Gary honed his voice-acting
skills doing LIVE spots for tens of thousands of local and national
sponsors. It was these LIVE endorsements (bringing the station millions
of dollars every year) that got the attention of advertising agencies
and their clients, TV Networks and film producers. We asked Gary if
he had ever been in a session where the script direction said, “Gary
Owens-Type Character”. “Oh, yes about once a week!...and
sometimes I don’t win the job. I’ve even asked producers
why they don’t just hire Gary Owens.” Gary has also been
the voice of most of the superheroes we all grew up with, from Captain
Squash to Batman Blue Falcon, Powdered Toast Man (a big hero on Ren
& Stimpy), Roger Ramjet and countless others. One of his most memorable
characters, which is still airing today, is that of the original Space
Ghost. One of his favorites is Badly Animated Man, who Gary describes
as “not drawn too well and could fly straight up over a building
and straight down, but that was all.” Gary has had the distinction
of working with virtually everyone in the voice-over world and is widely-known
as not only a true professional but universally one of the nicest guys
in the business. He has lent his voice to thousands of charities and
public service announcements and has helped hundreds of people get their
start in show business. Gary gave us his take on the proliferation of
film and TV actors making their way behind the microphone. “Well
now, the money is such that Gene Hackman can make a million dollars
on a series of spots, Donald Sutherland the same thing. Taking nothing
away from their talent, it is a coo for the owner of a company to say,
Hey Marge, that guy we got to voice our commercials is coming over for
dinner. (And that guy happens to be Gene Hackman.) So fame can play
an equal part in who gets a particular job.” Owens says that some
of his biggest voice-actor influences included Orson Welles, John Carradine,
Ken Nordine, Hugh Douglas (Suspense) and Reed Hadley. Gary is also quick
to credit his representation for helping him to keep busy. “What
you need is somebody who will sell your particular talent. I go in for
certain types of reads. I’m not gonna play a fifteen year old
kid. Although I have and I beat him 96-94 in overtime.”
As for how the voice-over business has changed in the last ten or fifteen
years? “Well, I think it has become more serious. We used to just
have fun doing the thing and if the session lasted two hours, nobody
cared. Now it’s get in and out as quickly as you can.”
In addition to the many commercials, on-air promos and movie trailers
now running, you can currently hear Gary on his nationally-syndicated
radio show on the Music Of Your Life Network, in Los Angeles on KLAC
570AM. He is working on his second comedy CD with his close friend Jonathan
Winters and is finishing his new autobiography and VO book “How
To Make Money With Your Voice”, which is scheduled to hit shelves
this Christmas. Gary Owens had some final advice for all those hoping
to make money with their voice… “A man never stands so tall,
until he walks a mile with a squirrel in his pants!”
