Clarence Charles " Ducky" Nash (December 7, 1904 – February 20, 1985) was an American voice actor and impressionist. He is best remembered as the original voice of the Disney cartoon character Donald Duck. He was born in the rural community of Watonga, Oklahoma, and a street in that town is named in his honor.[ "Walt Disney Legends: Clarence Nash" Walt Disney Official Fan Club website (Note: Source is behind a paywall.)]
Career
Radio career
Nash made a name for himself in the late 1920s as an impressionist for KHJ, a
Los Angeles radio station, on their show,
The Merrymakers.
He later was employed by the Adohr Milk Company for publicity purposes. Dubbed "Whistling Clarence, the Adohr Bird Man", Nash rode the streets with a team of
and gave treats to the children.
In 1932, Nash happened by the Disney Studio with his team of horses, and decided to leave a copy of his Adohr publicity sheet with the receptionist.
As it turns out, his name was recognized from a reprise appearance on
The Merrymakers a few days previous, and
Walt Disney had been impressed by Nash's vocal skills. He was asked to make an informal audition.
Donald Duck
One source indicates Nash auditioned before a casting director for Walt Disney Studios and did a voice impression of a billy goat that Nash had started doing as a child in Watonga. The director then reached for the intercom and told
Walt Disney, "I think we have found our duck."
Another version indicates Nash went through several of his voices, and Walt Disney happened by when Nash gave his impersonation of a family of
. Disney declared Nash perfect for the role of a talking duck in their upcoming animated short,
The Wise Little Hen. The duck was Donald Duck, who Nash went on to voice for 51 years, in over 120 shorts and films. The last film to feature Nash's famous voice was 1983's
Mickey's Christmas Carol, although he continued to provide Donald's voice for commercials, promos, and other miscellaneous material until his death.
As early as 1938, promoters from Lecture circuit were approaching him on his unique voice of Donald. Disney reportedly did not like the engagements at first, feeling that a human doing the voice would be spoiling the illusion, but then long after he had second thoughts. In early 1941, Nash was traveling on personal appearance tours sponsored by Disney. During World War II, Nash, with his ventriloquist puppet of Donald, which was built by Disney's character modeling department, became a regular performer at USO bond rallies and other events to support the war effort. In the mid-1940s, Roy and Walt approved the Donald puppet and they decided to harness it for the 1944 re-release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. RKO Pictures and Disney were unsure how the film would do the second time around at the box office after its initial blockbuster run, so they did a promotional campaign with Disney characters including Nash performing with the Donald puppet. During the promotional period of Fun and Fancy Free, he did multiple radio appearances from May to September 1947, with one of those appearances starring Disney himself. He voiced Donald for 1950s TV commercials.
Nash's Donald Duck voice was achieved by what is called buccal speech: an alaryngeal form of vocalization which uses the inner cheek to produce sound rather than the larynx.[ also published as ] He first discovered it while trying to mimic his pet goat Mary. In his days before Disney, Nash performed in vaudeville shows where he often spoke in a "nervous baby goat" voice.
Donald Duck became one of the world's most famous cartoon characters, in great part due to Nash's voice.
Other characters
In addition to Donald's voice, Clarence Nash also voiced Donald's nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie and his girlfriend
Daisy Duck, and
Mickey Mouse in
Plutopia,
R'coon Dawg,
Pluto's Party and
Pluto's Christmas Tree. He provided the meows and yowls of Figaro the kitten and some donkey brays in
Pinocchio and in a handful of shorts. He also did some bird sounds in
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, voiced a bullfrog in
Bambi and Mr. Bluebird in
Song of the South, did some dog sounds in
One Hundred and One Dalmatians and background bird sounds in
Enchanted Tiki Room, and voiced
Jiminy Cricket for a brief period of time after
Cliff Edwards's death in 1971.
Nash's iconic Donald Duck voice would be impersonated elsewhere in animation, most notably in the Tom and Jerry cartoons directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera with the character Little Quacker (voiced by Red Coffey) and Hanna-Barbera's Yakky Doodle (voiced by Jimmy Weldon),
Nash appeared as himself in the 1941 film The Reluctant Dragon, which shows how Disney films were produced, and was a contestant on a 1954 episode of What's My Line[Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine:] and a 1964 episode of To Tell the Truth.[Archived at Ghostarchive and the
]
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Wayback Machine: Nash also appeared as himself in a 1956 episode of Disneyland entitled "A Day in the Life of Donald Duck", in which he interacts with an animated Donald who blames him for his speech problems: the two end up arguing mainly due to Donald's short temper.[Archived at Ghostarchive and the
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Wayback Machine: ]
Later years
When Disney shut down their shorts department in 1962, Nash continued to voice Donald in various projects over the next two decades. In 1971, he devoted himself to charity work, making personal visits to hospitals and homes and entertaining children with his Donald Duck voice.
One of Nash's final performances was in Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983), which made Donald the only character in the film to be voiced by his original actor. His career at Disney was the subject of the premiere episode of Disney Family Album, a 1984 series of documentaries about behind-the-scenes personalities at the studio.
Personal life
Nash married Margaret Seamans in 1930, and they were married for over 50 years; they had two daughters, Kay and Peggy.
Death
Nash died on February 20, 1985, of
leukemia in the Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, at the age of 80 and was interred in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills, Los Angeles, California.
The tombstone of the grave he now shares with his wife Margaret Nash depicts a carving of Donald and Daisy Duck holding hands.
Successor and upcoming biography
After Nash's death, Donald's voice has been taken up by Disney animator
Tony Anselmo, who was trained under Nash personally. Anselmo is also among the many voiceover artists to have voiced Huey, Dewey and Louie over the years. Later characters whose voices owe considerable credit to Nash's duck voice have been voiced by actors such as
Jimmy Weldon,
Frank Welker,
Luba Goy and
Red Coffey. The most prominent of these is Weldon's
Yakky Doodle for
Hanna-Barbera.
It was announced in 2020 that Disney historian J.B. Kaufman was working on a biography of Nash with Margaret Barnes, Nash's granddaughter.
Filmography
Radio
Shorts
|
|
| (voice) |
| Bat |
| Kitten, Cat Judge, Cat Jury |
| Joey Hippo |
| Tootsie the Penguin |
| Donald Duck |
| Nephew Fred/Donald Duck |
Film
|
|
| (voice) |
| Himself, Donald Duck |
| Bullfrog, Hunter Dogs |
| Donald Duck |
| The Three Caballeros |
| Mr. Bluebird |
| Donald Duck, Cat |
| Ichabod's Horse, Cat |
| Birds |
| Dinah |
| Dogs |
| Donald Duck |
Television
|
|
| Voice & live-action |
| What's My Line? | Himself (Voice of Donald Duck) | Live appearance[Archived at Ghostarchive and the
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Wayback Machine: ] |
| Live appearance |
Live-action & voice
Final role |
Discography
-
Mickey and the Beanstalk (Capitol, 1947)
-
Donald Duck's Singing Lesson/ Pluto, The Pup (Golden, 1949)
-
Cinderella (RCA, 1949)
-
Mickey's New Car/ Donald Duck at the Opera (Golden, 1950)
[ "Golden Records-78 RPM-Label Discography Page 2". Retrieved November 25, 2018. "Original Voices..."] as Donald Duck
-
Donald Duck, Babysitter/ Mickey Mouse and Farmer Rush Rush (Golden, 1950)
-
Donald Duck Cowboy (Golden, 1950)
[ Billboard. October 14, 1950, P.113. "...are sung by the original D. Duck voice..."] as Donald Duck
-
Trick or Treat (RCA Victor, 1952)
-
Mr. Television (RCA Victor, 1952)
[ Billboard. June 30, 1951, P.20. "Milton Berle and Clarence Nash, the voice of Disney's Donald Duck, waxed two singles for RCA Victor last week titled respectively "Mr. Television" and "Mr. Animated Cartoon.""] as Donald Duck
-
Mr. Animated Cartoon (RCA Victor, 1952)
-
Donald Duck, Fire Chief (Golden, 1953)
[Hollis, Tim (2015). Toons in Toyland: The Story of Cartoon Character Merchandise. University Press of Mississippi. . Retrieved November 25, 2018.] as Donald Duck
-
Mickey Mouse's Birthday Party (Capitol, 1954)
-
School Days (Golden, 1954)
-
Mickey Mouse's Christmas Party (Golden, 1954)
-
Happy Birthday to Mickey Mouse/ Donald Duck's Unbirthday (Golden, 1955)
-
Walt Disney's Song Parade from Disneyland (Golden, 1956)
-
Goofy's Dance Party (Disneyland, 1959)
-
Donald Duck and His Friends (Disneyland, 1960)
-
Chipmunk Fun (Disneyland, 1963)
-
Mickey and the Beanstalk (Disneyland, 1963)
-
Dickens' Christmas Carol Presented by the Walt Disney Players (Disneyland, 1975)
-
Yankee Doodle Mickey (Disneyland, 1980)
-
Goin' Quackers (Disneyland, 1980)
-
Pardners (Disneyland, 1980)
[ Hollis, Tim; Ehrbar, Greg (2006). Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records. University Press of Mississippi. . Retrieved October 7, 2017.] as Donald Duck
-
Merry Christmas Carols (Disneyland, 1980)
-
Mousercise (Disneyland, 1982)
-
Mickey Mouse Splashdance (Disneyland, 1983)
[ Mouse - Splashdance at Discogs". Retrieved October 7, 2017.] as Donald Duck
See also
External links
