Unsung of the Screen: Mel Blanc (Post Five, Pt. 2)

Mel Blanc continued doing his voice work throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s. During the 70s, he did a series of college lectures in the United States that actually broke attendance records for any college lectures in the country. 

He continued voicing his famous cartoon characters for commercials and TV specials (except for the Tasmanian Devil, Yosemite Sam, and Foghorn Longhorn, because these voices had become to hard on his throat). He also provided the voice of Twiki, a robot in the television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, his last original voice. 

Mel Blanc's final work was providing the voices of most of the Looney Tunes characters in Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988. 

After shooting an Oldsmobile commercial, his son Noel (who was also in the commercial) noticed his father had a heavy cough. He took him to the hospital and the doctor recommended he either stay overnight to be safe or take an inhaler home. Mel chose to stay at the hospital overnight. Unfortunately, someone forgot to put bed rails on his bed and Mel would fall out, breaking his femur and releasing fat emboli into his brain, causing him to have a stroke. 

Mr. Blanc died about 48 hours later on July 10, 1989. He was 81 years old.

Check out this popular Christmas episode of The Jack Benny Show. This showcases Mel's talent as a comedian and actor.

My admiration and fascination for this man has grown to new heights. I hope you find inspiration in him as well.