Last week I had the extreme pleasure of meeting a very talented voice actor named Bill Farmer, THEE voice of Disney's "Goofy"! Bill was in town courtesy of our local school's PTA, all arranged by a local school teacher- Kris Thompson- who grew up with Bill in Kansas. In addition to lending his voice to Goofy, he provides the official "barking" duties for Pluto, and countless other character voices. He is a phenomenal talent, and during several school performances, he wowed the crowds with his arsenal of endless animated characters and celebrity impressions. Of course, I was in my glory; because growing up, I had always enjoyed the voice work of animated Saturday morning fare; and often practiced my impressions of Mel Blanc(Bugs Bunny etc...) Paul Winchell(Tigger and others) Bill Scott (Bullwinkle) and the Hanna Barbera duo of Daws Butler and Don Messick. During my run as a touring puppeteer with the Grey Seal Puppets, I performed 9 different character voices, but not at the level of Bill's work I promise you. Interestingly, I discovered that Bill and I shared some common history; beginning with the fact that my mom's family hailed from a small town in Kansas not far from the one Bill grew up in...We both studied Radio and Television in college; and Bill was also a puppeteer for a Mark Wilson touring puppet production!
I found Bill to be a very down to earth individual, and though he works with many of Hollywood's biggest stars- he is very humble and personable. I was very fortunate to have been invited to lunch with he and Kris. I was thrilled to talk to him about his working with some of the biggest names in cartoon show business history. In fact, Bill told me he took voice acting lessons from none other than Daws Butler himself. How cool is that? In addition to his voice work, Bill and his wife run a documentary film making company in California, and so Bill is quite a busy man. I will treasure my time spent with him, and perhaps he'll come back and visit again, and we can bring him to your school or event! And don't think it hasn't crossed my mind that if Hamster Sam ever went "animated" for TV, how cool it would be if Bill Farmer could provide his voice!
SAD NEWS:
Sadly, during his visit to the Carolinas, Bill had to try and deal with the unexpected passing of Wayne Allwine; close friend and voice of Mickey Mouse. What makes this more difficult is that Mr. Allwine was married to Russi Taylor; the voice of Minnie Mouse. These voice actors are like one big family; and my heart goes out to all of them with this tragic loss, and I only hope that along with time; that future recording sessions will bring healing through happy memories and the joyful sounds of Disney's wonderful character voices.
