Jeff Bergman

Jeff Bergman
Born Jeffrey Allen Bergman
(1960-07-10) July 10, 1960
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Nationality American
Alma mater University of Pittsburgh
Occupation Voice-over artist, comedian, impressionist
Years active 1986–present
Notable credit(s) Jetsons: The Movie
as George Jetson
The Looney Tunes Show
as Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck
Family Guy
as Fred Flintstone/various[1][2]
Website www.insidejeffbergman.net

Jeffrey Allen "Jeff" Bergman (born July 10, 1960)[3] is an American voice-over artist/actor, comedian and impressionist. Bergman is a cartoon impressionist who has provided the modern-day voices of various classic cartoon characters, most notably with Looney Tunes, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, George Jetson, Fred Flintstone, Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound. Bergman was the first to replace Mel Blanc as the voice of Bugs Bunny and several other Warner Bros. cartoon characters following Blanc's death in 1989. Bergman alternated with Joe Alaskey and Greg Burson in providing most of Blanc's voices for various Warner Bros. productions.

Early life

Bergman was born in Philadelphia on July 10, 1960. Throughout his early childhood, he impersonated several celebrities and cartoon characters, his first impression being comic influence Ed Sullivan at the age of 6. At the age of 15, Bergman began doing impressions of various Looney Tunes characters. He studied theater and communications at the University of Pittsburgh where he first did voice work when he got involved with a student-run radio station and interned at KQV and WDVE radio stations in Pittsburgh.[4] While there, he made his first demo reel and was profiled in a story on KDKA-TV's Evening Magazine. The story was picked up on similar TV news magazines shows and helped land him his representation with William Morris Agency following his graduation from Pitt in 1983. During his time at Pitt, he encountered voice actor and comedian Mel Blanc, who was best known for voicing groundbreaking animated characters, such as Bugs Bunny, Tweety and Barney Rubble. They met in Blanc's hotel room in 1981, where Bergman voiced Blanc's characters for him, earning himself a 45-minute session. Bergman credits Blanc with helping him gain his diploma two years later.[4]

Career

Bergman's work with Warner Bros. began in 1986, recording voices for The Bugs Bunny Show. After being rebuffed several times by Warner Bros. directors, he recorded a tape of himself as several of Blanc's characters, including Bugs Bunny. He took the tape to the production company and used a switch to toggle back and forth between his work and the original Mel Blanc recording. The producers were unable to tell the difference between the voices, and Bergman, at the age of 29, became the first performer to provide the voice of Bugs Bunny after Mel Blanc died on July 10, 1989 - Bergman's 29th birthday.

His first appearance in that role, as well as those of Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd, was in the 1990 animated short Box-Office Bunny, Bugs's first in over 25 years. Bergman later voiced Bugs and Daffy again in the 1990 TV specials Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue and The Earth Day Special (also voicing Tweety Bird and Porky Pig in the latter). He voiced Bugs, Daffy, Elmer, and Yosemite Sam in the 1991 short (Blooper) Bunny, as well as several characters (including Sylvester the Cat and Foghorn Leghorn) in animated TV specials and newer animated series' such as The Plucky Duck Show, Taz-Mania and Tiny Toon Adventures, a show focusing on the lives of younger versions of the character. He also lent his voice to Bugs, Daffy and Porky in the animated sequences of Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Away from the Looney Tunes, Bergman also voiced George Jetson on the amusement park ride The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera.

Throughout the 2000s, Bergman kept himself busy by voicing various Hanna-Barbera characters, namely Fred Flintstone, in newer specials such as The Flintstones: On the Rocks, only rarely returning to the voices of the Looney Tunes in that time, when Alaskey and West were not available. In 2003, he voiced Bugs in a sketch on NBC comedy show Saturday Night Live. Eventually, after almost 20 years, and after sporadically appearing as the Looney Tunes characters for nearly two decades, he returned as the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester the Cat, Pepé Le Pew, and Tweety in 2011's The Looney Tunes Show. He also returned for the 2015 series Wabbit, voicing Bugs and Foghorn, as well as other minor characters such as Michigan J. Frog.

Bergman also voiced George Jetson and Mr. Spacely in Jetsons: The Movie when their previous voice actors George O'Hanlon and Mel Blanc both died during production - he had been working at his local radio in Pennsylvania when he received the call to travel to California and complete the dialogue. Bergman is a recurring cast member of Family Guy, usually voicing Fred Flintstone, George Jetson and Sylvester the Cat, as well as The Cleveland Show and American Dad!. He also gave a voice sample for a character in the 2011 Spyro game, Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure.

Bergman had a recurring role as a radio intern Gus Kahana on the AMC comedy-drama Remember WENN which aired in the late 1990s.[4]

Bergman also voiced Zap in Skylanders: Giants, Skylanders: Swap Force, Skylanders: Trap Team, Skylanders: SuperChargers and Skylanders: Imaginators.

Voice roles

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1986 The Bugs Bunny Show Additional voices
1990 The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera George Jetson
Ghosts
Police Chief
Short film
Gremlins 2: The New Batch Bugs Bunny
Daffy Duck
Porky Pig
Jetsons: The Movie George Jetson
Mr. Spacely
Basketball Coach
Box-Office Bunny Bugs Bunny
Elmer Fudd
Daffy Duck
Short film
1991 (Blooper) Bunny Bugs Bunny
Daffy Duck
Elmer Fudd
Yosemite Sam
1992 Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers Bugs Bunny
Daffy Duck
Elmer Fudd
Yosemite Sam
Porky Pig
1998 The Secret of Mulan Additional voices Direct-to-video
2006 Porky and Daffy in the William Tell Overture Porky Pig Short film
2010 Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes Butch
Droopy
Direct-to-video
2012 Big Miracle Ronald Reagan
2012 Foodfight! Charlie Tuna
2015 The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown! Fred Flintstone[5] Direct-to-video
Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run Bugs Bunny
Daffy Duck
Foghorn Leghorn
Pepé Le Pew
2016 Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders The Joker

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1990 Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue Bugs Bunny
Daffy Duck
TV short
1990 The Earth Day Special Bugs Bunny
Tweety
Porky Pig
1990–1991 Tiny Toon Adventures Bugs Bunny
Daffy Duck
Foghorn Leghorn
Elmer Fudd
Tasmanian Devil
Yosemite Sam
Sylvester
Tweety
Additional voices
1991 Bugs Bunny's Lunar Tunes Bugs Bunny TV short
1992 Bugs Bunny's Creature Features Bugs Bunny
Daffy Duck
Elmer Fudd
Yosemite Sam
The Plucky Duck Show Foghorn Leghorn
Daffy Duck
Episodes: "A Quack in the Quarks"
"A Ditch in Time"
"Slugfest/Duck Dodgers Jr./Duck Trek"
1995–2000 Ace Ventura: Pet Detective Additional voices
1996–1999 Doug Coach Spitz
2001 The Flintstones: On the Rocks Fred Flintstone
Parking Guard
Vendor
TV movie
The Jetsons: Father & Son Day George Jetson
Elroy Jetson
Mr. Cosmo Spacely
2002 Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law George Jetson
Bakov
Clown
Episode: "Shaggy Busted"
The Jetsons: The Best Son George Jetson
Elroy Jetson
Robot Boy
2003 Saturday Night Live Bugs Bunny Episode: "Queen Latifah/Ms. Dynamite"
Cartoon Network's Funniest Bloopers and Other Embarrassing Moments Porky Pig
Fred Flintstone
George Jetson
Foghorn Leghorn
Henery Hawk
TV short
2004 Johnny Bravo Fred Flintstone Episode: "Wilderness Protection Program/A Page Right Out of History"
2006–present Family Guy Fred Flintstone
Barney Rubble
George Jetson
Sylvester the Cat
Homer Simpson
Max Weinstein
Victor
2008, 2009 Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy Host
Fred Flintstone
Barney Rubble
Episodes: "A Dog on the $25,000 Pyramid"
"Fred and Barney Try to Get Into a Club"
2010 The Cleveland Show Alda-nator
Garrison Keillor
Episodes: "Love Rollercoaster"
"Buried Pleasure"
2011–2014 The Looney Tunes Show Bugs Bunny
Daffy Duck
Sylvester
Tweety
Foghorn Leghorn
Pepé Le Pew
Girardi
2012 Cartoon Network 20th Anniversary Bugs Bunny
Daffy Duck
2013 Mad Daffy Duck
James P. Sullivan
Captain Marvel
Episodes: "First White House Down/McDuck Dynasty"
"Iron Bland 3/Monsters Community"
"World War ZZZ/SHAZAM! & Cat"
2014 Rick and Morty Additional voices Episode: "Rixty Minutes"
Phineas and Ferb Additional voices Episode: "The Klimpaloon Ultimatum"
Mike Tyson Mysteries Elton John (Episode 3)
Elon Musk (Episode 3)
Robert Redford (Episode 4)
Voice
2015 Wabbit Bugs Bunny
Foghorn Leghorn
Michigan J. Frog
Voice[6]

Video games

Year Title Role Notes
2011 Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure Additional voices
2012 The Expendables 2 Videogame Barney Ross
2012 Skylanders: Giants Zap
2013 Skylanders: Swap Force Zap
2014 Scooby Doo and Looney Tunes: Cartoon Universe Bugs Bunny
Daffy Duck
Foghorn Leghorn
Sylvester
Skylanders: Trap Team Zap
2015 Skylanders: SuperChargers Zap [7]
2016 Skylanders: Imaginators Zap

References

  1. "Jeff Bergman - TV.com". TV.com. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
  2. "Jeff Bergman Credits". TV Guide. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
  3. "Jeff Bergman," Behind the Voice Actors, www.behindthevoiceactors.com/
  4. 1 2 3 Owen, Rob (2011-05-01). "Pitt grad voices Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck on Cartoon Network". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Pittsburgh, PA. Retrieved 2011-05-01.
  5. The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown! Closing Credits
  6. "Buddha Bugs/Now and Zen". Wabbit. Season 1. Episode 1. September 21, 2015. Cartoon Network.
  7. Vicarious Visions. Skylanders: SuperChargers. Activision. Scene: Closing credits, 7:13 in, Voice Actors.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/4/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.