While bass vocalist Thurl Ravenscroft will forever be remembered for his 1966 Christmas song “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”…his voice is also eternally associated with one of the most popular cereal brands produced by Kellogg’s.
For more than 50 years, Ravenscroft was the official voice of “Tony the Tiger,” the beloved mascot of Frosted Flakes who would roar the catchphrase: “They’re g-r-r-r-eat!!!!”
Sources said the
advertising agency that was tasked with introducing Tony in 1952 was “looking
for a big tiger’s voice – unusually rich, warm and deep – and thought of Thurl immediately.”
He had begun working in Hollywood as a singer and voice actor in the late 1930s.
Ravenscroft was still doing the Tony the Tiger commercials into his 90s. He died in 2005 at age 91. After his death, Kellogg’s ran an advertisement in Advertising Age magazine commemorating Ravenscroft. The headline read: “Behind every great character is an even greater man.”
Thurl Ravenscroft was born in 1914 in Norfolk, Neb. After high school, he moved to Los Angeles in 1933 to study at the famed Otis Art Institute (now Otis College of Art and Design).
In 1937, Ravenscroft joined The Sportsmen Quartet, performing on Jack Benny’s popular radio show. The Sportsmen also worked with George Burns and Gracie Allen, Rudy Valle and Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy.
Ravenscroft left the Sportsmen in 1942 to enlist in the U.S. Air Transport Command, serving five years as a civilian navigator.
During World War II, he
spent most of his time flying courier missions back and forth across the
Atlantic Ocean. Although Ravenscroft trained to become a commercial airline pilot,
he returned to Hollywood and formed a new quartet in 1948 known as The
Mellomen.
The group built a fine reputation, contributing to many hit recordings, from the Big Band era forward. The Mellomen sang backup for artists such as Bing Crosby, Frankie Laine, Spike Jones, Jo Stafford, Rosemary Clooney, Doris Day, Arlo Guthrie, Peggy Lee and Elvis Presley. The group performed songs for several of Presley’s movies as well.
The Mellomen were hired
to provide vocals for many popular Disney films including “Alice in Wonderland,”
“Peter Pan,” “Lady and the Tramp” and “The Jungle Book” as well as numerous
animated short film projects.
Aside from crooning with The
Mellomen, Ravenscroft did some solo voice-over work and singing for Disney movies,
including “One Hundred and One Dalmatians,” “The Sword in the Stone,” “Mary
Poppins,” “Pete’s Dragon,” “The Fox and the Hound” and many others.
Additionally, Ravenscroft did voice-over work for several Disney theme park attractions, including The Haunted Mansion, Country Bear Jamboree, Mark Twain Riverboat, Pirates of the Caribbean, Disneyland Railroad and Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room.
The ultimate honor for any Disney contributor is to be selected as a “Disney Legend,” a hall of fame of sorts that began in 1987. Ravenscroft was included in the “class of 1995.”
His musical accomplishments
were diverse. For example, Ravenscroft sang bass on Rosemary Clooney’s “This
Ole House,” which went to No. 1 in 1954. One of his personal favorite
recordings was the 1963 version of “Mr. Bass Man” sung with the Andrews Sisters.
Ravenscroft’s distinctive bass voice can also be heard in the chorus on 28 albums that were released by The Johnny Mann Singers during the 1960s and ’70s.
In June 2023, Kim Carpenter of Omaha Magazine spoke to Keith Scott, an Australian voice actor and animation historian, about Ravenscroft’s success.
Scott said: “What made Thurl a legendary voice actor…was his gift for comic or dramatic interpretation. He was chosen to narrate or play characters at Disneyland attractions because he was flexible beyond his marvelous singing gifts.”
“Thurl’s legacy is his outstanding one-of-a-kind vocal delivery. He was unmatched – a bass man who could do any assignment.”
“He should be
acknowledged for his incredibly long career and his unique voice, which is
known throughout the world,” Scott said.
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