Greg Burson

Gregory Lewis Burson (August 15, 1949 – July 22, 2008) was an American voice actor. He was best known for being one of the many successors to voice actors Daws Butler (who was also Burson's mentor) and Mel Blanc following their deaths in 1988 and 1989 respectively.

Career One of Burson's earliest jobs, which did not pay well but got him lots of attention, was doing the voiceover for a Dianetics commercial for Scientology. He was trained by Daws Butler, who was his acting mentor and one of his influences. Following Butler's death, Burson inherited most of his characters, starting with Yogi Bear on The New Yogi Bear Show and many other characters in Hanna-Barbera-related shows. Burson based his Yogi voice on Butler's portrayal in the earlier Yogi Bear episodes, due to having grown up watching them as a child. He also inherited the role of Mr. Magoo in the animated segments of the live action feature film of the same name in 1997 (after Jim Backus died in 1989).

Burson was also one of the successors to Mel Blanc, and voiced many of his characters as well, including Bugs Bunny, for whom he was given the responsibility of voicing in 1995's Carrotblanca, a well-received 8-minute Looney Tunes cartoon originally shown in cinemas alongside The Amazing Panda Adventure (USA and Canada) and The Pebble and the Penguin (non-US). It has since then released on video, packaged with older Looney Tunes cartoons, and was even included in the special edition DVD release of Casablanca, of which it is both a parody and a homage. Burson found Bugs' voice difficult to get right, eventually basing it on Blanc's portrayal in the 1950s. Officers later discovered that he had a collection of guns in his home. Burson also screamed a stream of nonsensical words at the police when they were alerted to his home; one officer said, "He was so drunk, we couldn't tell if he was trying to do one of his voices or was just slurring his words." Officer Rudy Villarreal confirmed that all three women involved in the incident lived with Burson, but none of them were harmed. The incident resulted in Burson being blacklisted for the rest of his life.

Death After losing voice-over work, Burson struggled with depression and alcoholism.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Radio

Discography