Jack Mercer
| Jack Mercer | |
|---|---|
Jack Mercer with a cut-out of Popeye the Sailor
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| Born |
January 13, 1910 Worthington, Indiana |
| Died | December 4, 1984 (aged 74) Manhattan, New York City |
| Cause of death | Stomach cancer |
| Occupation | Voice actor, animator |
| Years active | 1932–1984 |
| Notable work | Voice of Popeye |
| Spouse(s) |
Margie Hines (m. 1939–1942?; divorced) Virginia Mercer (m. ?–1984; his death) |
Jack Mercer (January 13, 1910 – December 4, 1984) was an American voice actor and animator. He is best known as the voice of cartoon characters Popeye the Sailor and Felix the Cat. The son of vaudeville and Broadway performers, he also performed on the vaudeville and legitimate stage.
Mercer began his work in cartoons as an "inbetweener", an apprentice animator at Fleischer Studios. Mercer liked to imitate voices, including one close call where he mimicked the high-pitched and loud voice of the wife of one of the Fleischers after he mistakenly thought she had left the studio.
When Billy Costello, the original cartoon voice of Popeye (1933–1935), became difficult to work with, he was dismissed. Mercer had begun imitating Costello's interpretation of Popeye, and practiced it until his voice "cracked" just right and he had it down. Searching for a replacement for Costello, Lou Fleischer heard Mercer singing the Popeye song and gave him the job of doing the Popeye voice. Mercer's first cartoon was 1935's King of the Mardi Gras.
Mercer continued to voice the one-eyed sailor for the Fleischers, for Paramount's Famous Studios cartoons (1942–1957), for a series of television cartoons for King Features Syndicate, and for a Saturday morning cartoon show (1978) produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Mercer also did other cartoon voices, including all the voices for a series of Felix the Cat cartoons produced in 1959-1960. Mercer also did the voices of Wimpy, Poopdeck Pappy, Popeye's nephews, King Little, Twinkletoes the Carrier Pigeon, and the bumbling spies Sneak, Snoop, and Snitch in Fleischer's Gulliver's Travels, and a number of voices, including Mr. Bumble for Fleischer's Mister Bug Goes to Town. Mercer's natural voice was relatively high-pitched for a man, and he was able to do some of the female voices as well.
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