Early life

June Foray was born as June Lucille Forer on September 18, 1917 in Springfield, Massachusetts, one of three children of Morris Forer and Ida Robinson. The family resided at 75 Orange Street. Her voice was first broadcast in a local radio drama when she was 12 years old; by age 15, she was doing regular radio voice work.

Two years later, after graduating from Classical High School, she moved with her parents and siblings to Los Angeles, California, near Ida's brother, after Morris Forer, an engineer, fell on hard financial times.

Acting career

After entering radio through the WBZA Players, Foray starred in her own radio series Lady Make Believe in the late 1930s. She soon became a popular voice actress, with regular appearances on coast-to-coast network shows including Lux Radio Theater and The Jimmy Durante Show.

In the 1940s, Foray also began film work, including a few roles in live action movies, but mostly doing voice overs for animated cartoons and radio programs and occasionally dubbing films and television. On radio, Foray did the voices of Midnight the Cat and Old Grandie the Piano on The Buster Brown Program, which starred Smilin' Ed McConnell, from 1944 to 1952. She later did voices on the Mutual Network program Smile Time for Steve Allen. Her work in radio ultimately led her to recording for a number of children's albums for Capitol Records.

For Walt Disney, Foray voiced Lucifer the Cat in the feature film Cinderella, Lambert's mother in Lambert the Sheepish Lion, a mermaid in Peter Pan and Witch Hazel in the Donald Duck short Trick or Treat; decades later, Foray would be the voice of Grandmother Fa in the 1998 animated Disney film Mulan. She also did a variety of voices in Walter Lantz's Woody Woodpecker cartoons, including Woody's nephew and niece, Knothead and Splinter. Impressed by her performance as Witch Hazel, in 1954 Chuck Jones invited her over to Warner Brothers Cartoons. For Warner Brothers she was Granny (whom she has played on vinyl records starting in 1950, before officially voicing her in Red Riding Hoodwinked, released in 1955, taking over for Bea Benaderet), owner of Tweety and Sylvester, and a series of witches, including Looney Tunes' own Witch Hazel, with Jones as director. Like most of Warner Brothers' voice actors at the time (with the exception of Mel Blanc), Foray was not credited for her roles in these cartoons.

Chuck Jones is reported to have said, "June Foray is not the female Mel Blanc, Mel Blanc was the male June Foray."

She played Bubbles on The Super 6 and on How the Grinch Stole Christmas voiced Cindy Lou Who, asking "Santa" why he's taking their tree. In 1960, she provided the voice for Mattel's original "Chatty Cathy" doll; she was then asked to voice the evil "Talky Tina" doll in The Twilight Zone episode ("Living Doll") that aired on November 1, 1963.

Foray worked for Hanna-Barbera, including on Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, The Jetsons, The Flintstones and many other shows. In 1959, she auditioned for the part of Betty Rubble on The Flintstones, but the part went to Bea Benaderet; Foray described herself as "terribly disappointed" at not getting to play Betty.

She has done extensive voice acting for Stan Freberg's commercials, albums and 1957 radio series, memorably as secretary to the werewolf advertising executive. She also appeared in several Rankin/Bass TV specials in the 1960s and 1970s, voicing the young Karen and the teacher in the TV special Frosty the Snowman (although only her Karen singing parts remained in later airings, after Rankin-Bass reedited the special a few years after it debuted, with Foray's dialogue re-dubbed by an actress who was uncredited). She also voiced all the female roles in Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (1975), including the villainous cobra Nagaina.

For Jay Ward: she played nearly every female on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, including Natasha Fatale and Nell Fenwick, as well as male lead character Rocket J. Squirrel (a.k.a. Rocky Squirrel); played Ursula on George of the Jungle; and also starred on Fractured Flickers.

In the mid-1960s, she became devoted to the preservation and promotion of animation, and has since written numerous magazine articles about animation. In 1988 she was awarded the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award. In 1995, ASIFA-Hollywood, a chapter of the Association Internationale du Film d'Animation (the International Animated Film Association), established the June Foray Award, which is awarded to "individuals who have made a significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation." Foray was the first recipient of the award. In 2007, Foray became a contributor to ASIFA-Hollywood's Animation Archive Project.

In 2007, Britt Irvin became the first person ever to voice a character in a cartoon remake that had been previously played by Foray in the original series when voiced Ursula in the new George of the Jungle series on Cartoon Network. In 2011, Roz Ryan voiced Witch Lezah (Hazel spelled backwards) in The Looney Tunes Show, opposite June Foray as Granny.

Foray also voiced May Parker in "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends" from 1981-1983, as well as Raggedy Ann on several TV movies, Grandma Howard on Teen Wolf, Jokey Smurf and Mother Nature on The Smurfs, Magica De Spell and Ma Beagle in DuckTales. At the same time, she also had a leading role voicing Grammi Gummi on Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, working with her Rocky and Bullwinkle co-star Bill Scott until his death in 1985.

Foray guest starred only once on The Simpsons, in the season one episode "Some Enchanted Evening", as the receptionist for the Rubber Baby Buggy Bumper Babysitting Service. This was a play on a Rocky & Bullwinkle gag years earlier in which none of the cartoon's characters, including narrator William Conrad, was able to pronounce "rubber baby buggy bumpers" unerringly. Foray was later homaged in The Simpsons, in the season eight episode "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", in which the character June Bellamy is introduced as the voice behind both Itchy and Scratchy. Foray appeared on camera in a major role only once, in Sabaka as the high priestess of a fire cult. She also appeared on camera in an episode of Green Acres as a Mexican telephone operator. In 1991, she provided her voice as the sock-puppet talk-show host Scary Mary on an episode of Married... with Children. She played cameos in both 1992's Boris & Natasha and 2000's The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Another on camera appearance was as herself on an episode of the 1984 TV sitcom The Duck Factory, which starred Jim Carrey and Don Messick.

She was often called for ADR voice work for television and feature films. This work included dubbing the voice of Mary Badham in The Twilight Zone episode "The Bewitchin' Pool" and the voices for Sean and Michael Brody in some scenes of the film Jaws. She dubbed several people in Bells Are Ringing, Diana Rigg in some scenes of The Hospital, Robert Blake in drag in an episode of Baretta and a little boy in The Comic.

Later career

In 1996 and 1997, Foray won the Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Female Performer in an Animated Television Production for her work in Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries. In 2000, Foray returned to play Rocky the Flying Squirrel in Universal Pictures' live-action/CGI animated film The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, co-starring and produced by Robert De Niro. On Season Three, Episode One ("The Thin White Line") of Family Guy, Foray again played Rocky in a visual gag with a single line ("And now, here's something we hope you'll really like!"). Foray voiced the wife of the man getting dunked ("Don't tell him, Carlos!") in Pirates of the Caribbean. In 2003, she guest starred as the villain Madame Argentina in The Powerpuff Girls episode "I See a Funny Cartoon in Your Future". During this time, Foray also had a regular role, reprising Granny on Baby Looney Tunes and also Witch Hazel in an episode of another Warner Bros. Animation series Duck Dodgers.

In October 2006, she portrayed Susan B. Anthony on three episodes of the podcast The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd. In November 2009, Foray appeared twice on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack: in one episode as Ruth, a pie-maker trapped in Bubbie's stomach, and in another episode as Kelly, a young boy having a birthday party and as Kelly's Mom and Captain K'Nuckles' kindergarten teacher.

In 2011, she voiced Granny in Cartoon Network's The Looney Tunes Show. That year, she received the Comic-Con Icon Award at the 2011 Scream Awards. She also appeared as Granny in the theatrically released Looney Tunes short, I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat, which was shortlisted for Academy Award consideration

In 2012, Foray received her first Emmy nomination, and won in the category of Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for her role as Mrs. Cauldron on The Garfield Show. She thus became, at age 94, the oldest entertainer to be nominated for and to win an Emmy Award. Foray also reprised her role of Rocky the Flying Squirrel in a Rocky and Bullwinkle short film, which was released in 2014.

In September 2013, she was honored with the Governors Award at the 65th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. That same year, she reprised her role as Magica De Spell in the video game DuckTales Remastered.

Personal life

Foray married Bernard Barondess in 1941. The marriage ended in divorce. She met Hobart Donovan on The Buster Brown Program on radio. He was the main writer and had also written The Buster Brown comic book. Foray married Donovan in 1955. Donovan died in 1976.

Filmography

Radio

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1937-1939	Lady Make Believe	Host	She also wrote the episodes
1944-1952	The Buster Brown Program	Midnight the Cat, Old Grandie
1945-1947	Smile Time	Various characters
1946	Cavalcade of America	Mary Anne Clark	"Danger: Women at Work"
1946	Let George Do It	Mrs. Hutchinson	"Cousin Jeff and the Pigs"
1946; 1948-1950	The Lux Radio Theatre	Additional voices	"Coney Island Repeat" "Mother Wore Tights" "Wabash Avenue"
1947	The Life of Riley	Secretary	"Riley Enrolls at Pip Instead of UCLA"
1947-1950	The Jimmy Durante Show	Various characters
1948	NBC University Theatre	Cunégonde	"Candide"
1949	Command Performance	The Granny
1949	Screen Directors Playhouse	Mother Zombie	"The Ghost Breakers"
1950	The Adventures of Philip Marlowe	Stewardess, Receptionist	"The Last Wish"
1952	Amos 'n' Andy	Chiquita	"Leroy's Oil Stock"
1954	Rocky Fortune	Linda, Miss Fabian	"The Museum Murder"
1954	Our Miss Brooks	Mrs. Thundercloud	"Bartering With Chief Thundercloud"
1956-1957	CBS Radio Workshop	Amy Lesley, Convention Secretary, Edwina, Gladys Farley, Grocery Clerk, Listener #2, Rhoda Mae Flogg, Temperamental Actress, Vess Neff	4 episodes
1957	The Stan Freberg Show	Various characters
1979	Sears Radio Theater	Spanish Lady on the Street	"Voodoo Lady"
2007	Adventures in Odyssey	Madge	"The Other Side of the Glass Part 1"

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1943	The Egg Cracker Suite	Oswald the Lucky Rabbit	Voice role Universal Short
1946	The Lonesome Stranger	Little Orphan Fanny	Voice role Live action short
1950	Cinderella	Lucifer the Cat
1951	Get Rich Quick	Mrs. Geef, Additional voices	Goofy short
1951	Car of Tomorrow	Fashion Car announcer, Talking Turn Signal	MGM short
1952	Trick or Treat	Witch Hazel	Donald Duck short
1952	Lambert the Sheepish Lion	Mrs. Sheep
1952	How to Be a Detective	The Dame	Goofy short
1952	One Cab's Family	Mary, Nurse	MGM short
1953	Little Johnny Jet	Mary	MGM short
1953	Peter Pan	Squaw	She also served as the model for one of the mermaids
1953	Father's Day Off	Goofy Jr.	Goofy short
1953	Father's Week-end	Mrs. Geef	Goofy short
1954	Pet Peeve	Joan	Tom and Jerry short uncredited
1954	The Farm of Tomorrow	Hen, Female announcer	MGM short
1955	Mouse for Sale	Joan	Tom and Jerry short
1955	Red Riding Hoodwinked	Red Riding Hood's Grandmother, Red Riding Hood	Sylvester and Tweety short
1955	This is a Life?	Granny	Bugs Bunny short
1956	The Flying Sorceress	Joan, Witch	Tom and Jerry short
1956	Broom-Stick Bunny	Witch Hazel	Bugs Bunny short
1956	Tweet and Sour	Granny	Sylvester and Tweety short
1956	Get Lost	Knothead and Splinter	Woody Woodpecker short
1956	Tugboat Granny	Granny	Sylvester and Tweety short
1956	Rocket-bye Baby	Martha Wilbur, Old Lady, P.A. voice	Merrie Melodies short
1956	Deduce, You Say	Alfie's Girlfriend, The Shropshire Slasher's Mother	Daffy Duck short
1957	Red Riding Hoodlum	Knothead and Splinter	Woody Woodpecker short
1957	International Woodpecker	Knothead and Splinter	Woody Woodpecker short
1957	Boston Quackie	Mary	Daffy Duck short uncredited
1957	Mucho Mouse	Joan	Tom and Jerry short
1957	Greedy for Tweety	Granny	Sylvester and Tweety short
1957	Rabbit Romeo	Millicent	Bugs Bunny short uncredited
1957	The Snow Queen	Court Raven, Old robber, Old Fairy	1959 English dub
1957	Tom's Photo Finish	Joan	Tom and Jerry short
1957	The Unbearable Salesman	Knothead and Splinter	Woody Woodpecker short
1958	Don't Axe Me	Elmer Fudd's Wife	Daffy Duck short
1958	Hare-Less Wolf	Charles Wolf's Wife	Bugs Bunny short
1958	A Pizza Tweety Pie	Granny	Sylvester and Tweety short
1958	The Vanishing Duck	Joan	Tom and Jerry short
1958	A Bird in a Bonnet	Granny	Sylvester and Tweety short
1959	Apes of Wrath	Mama Ape	Bugs Bunny short
1959	A Broken Leghorn	Miss Prissy	Foghorn Leghorn short
1959	China Jones	Dragon Lady	Daffy Duck short uncredited
1959	A Witch's Tangled Hare	Witch Hazel	Bugs Bunny short
1959	Loopy De Loop	Red Riding Hood, Grandma	"Wolf Hounded"
1959	Goldimouse and the Three Cats	Narrator, Mother Cat, Goldimouse	uncredited
1960	Trip for Tat	Granny	Sylvester and Tweety short
1961	The Last Hungry Cat	Granny	Sylvester and Tweety short uncredited
1962	Quackodile Tears	Daffy Duck's Wife	uncredited
1962	Honey's Money	The Wealthy Widow	Yosemite Sam short
1962	The Jet Cage	Granny	Sylvester and Tweety short
1964	Hawaiian Aye Aye	Granny	Sylvester and Tweety short
1965	Of Feline Bondage	Jerry's Fairy Godmother	Tom and Jerry short
1965	The Year of the Mouse	Second Mouse	Tom and Jerry short
1966	A-Haunting We Will Go	Witch Hazel	Daffy Duck short
1966	The Man Called Flintstone	Tanya
1970	The Phantom Tollbooth	Faintly Macabre the Witch, Princess of Pure Reason, Voice of Ralph
1975	Jaws	Michael Brody, Sean Brody	ADR work
1977	Bugs Bunny's Easter Special	Granny
1981	The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie	Granny
1983	Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island	Granny, Miss Prissy
1988	Who Framed Roger Rabbit	Wheezy, Lena Hyena
1989	Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland	Librarian	1992 English dub
1990	DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp	Mrs. Featherby
1991	Problem Child 2	Voice of puppet	Live action film
1994	Thumbelina	Queen Tabitha
1996	Space Jam	Granny, Witch Hazel
1998	Mulan	Grandmother Fa
2000	The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle	Rocky J. Squirrel, Animated Natasha Fatale, The Narrator's Mother	Voice role Live action/animated film
2000	Tweety's High-Flying Adventure	Granny	Direct-to-video film
2003	Looney Tunes Back in Action	Granny	Live action/animated film
2004	Mulan II	Grandmother Fa	Direct-to-video film
2006	The Legend of Sasquatch	Momma Sasquach
2006	Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas	Granny as The Ghost of Christmas Past	Direct-to-video film
2011	I Tawt I Taw A Puddy Tat	Granny	Theatrical Short
2014	Rocky and Bullwinkle	Rocky, Fearless Leader's Mother	Direct-to-video short. Planned for Theatrical Release along with Mr. Peabody & Sherman.

Live action

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1954	Sabaka	Marku Ponjoy, The High Priestess of Sabaka	Live action film
1954	Meet Mr. McNutley	Myrna	"Fashion Model"
1955-1956	The Johnny Carson Show	Various characters
1966	Death of a Salesman	Jenny	TV adaptation
1967	Green Acres	Carmelita	"Don't Count Your Tomatoes Before They're Picked"
1984	The Duck Factory	Herself	"The Annies"
2013	I Know That Voice	Herself	Documentary

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1959	The Huckleberry Hound Show	Mom	"Bear on a Picnic" (Yogi Bear segment)
1959-1964	The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show	Rocky J. Squirrel, Natasha Fatale, Nell Fenwick
1959-1960; 1971-1972	Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color	Radio Voices, Grandma Duck, Queen, Witch	"Duck Flies Coop" "This Is Your Life Donald Duck" "Disney on Parade" "Dad, Can I Borrow the Car"
1960-1961	Mister Magoo	Mother Magoo
1961-1962	The Alvin Show	Daisy Bell, Reporter, Additional voices
1961-1962	Calvin and the Colonel	Woman, Thief, Nancy, Chiquita, Operator	"The Television Job" "Cloakroom" "Calvin's Glamour Girl" "Nephew Newton's Fortune"
1963	Fractured Flickers	Various characters
1963	The Twilight Zone	Talky Tina	"Living Doll" uncredited
1963-1964	The Flintstones	Grandma Dynamite, Peaches, Nurse #1, Nurse #2, Granny Hatrock, Secretary, Dinosaur #2, Monkey	"Foxy Grandma" "The Dress Rehearsal" "The Bedrock Hillbillies"
1966	Dr, Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas	Cindy Lou Who	TV special
1966-1969	The Super 6	Bubbles
1967	Lost in Space	Gundermar	Voice "The Questing Beast"
1967	Birdman and the Galaxy Trio	Medusa	"The Empress of Evil"
1967	George of the Jungle	Ursula, Marigold
1967-1968	Off to See the Wizard	Dorothy Gale, Wicked Witch of the West
1969	Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!	Gypsy Fortune Teller	"A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts"
1969	The Pogo Special Birthday Special	Pogo, Hepzibah	TV special
1969	Frosty the Snowman	Teacher, Karen, Additional voices	TV short
1970	Horton Hears a Who!	Jane Kangaroo, Mother Who, Baby Who, Additional voices	TV short
1975	Rikki-Tikki-Tavi	Nagaina the Cobra, Teddy's Mom, Darzee's Wife	TV special
1975	The Hoober-Bloob Highway	Additional voices	TV special
1975	The White Seal	Mackah	TV special
1976	Mowgli's Brothers	Mother Wolf	TV special
1978	Fabulous Funnies	Broom-Hilda, Oola, Hans, Additional voices
1978	Bugs Bunny's Howl-oween Special	Witch Hazel	TV short
1978	Raggedy Ann and Andy in The Great Santa Claus Caper	Raggedy Ann	TV special
1979	Raggedy Ann and Andy in The Pumpkin Who Couldn't Smile	Raggedy Ann, Aunt Agatha, Neighbor	Credited as Mrs. Hobart Donavan for Aunt Agatha
1979	Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales	Mrs. Claus, Clyde Bunny	TV special
1980-1982	Heathcliff	Grandma, Sonja, Crazy Shirley, Iggy, Marcy, Muggsy, Princess
1981	Faeries	Hag	TV special
1981-1983	Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends	Aunt May Parker, Crime Computer, Judy
1981-1989	The Smurfs	Jokey Smurf, Mother Nature, Additional voices
1982	The Incredible Hulk	Additional Voices
1985	Pound Puppies	Mother Superior, Old Woman	TV special
1985	The Jetsons	Lady at Gas Station, Telephone Operator	"Little Bundle of Trouble"
1985-1991	The Adventures of the Gummi Bears	Grammi Gummi, Dragon, Additional voices
1986-1987	Teen Wolf	Grandma Howard, Mrs. Seslick
1986-1988	Foofur	Additional voices
1987-1988	The Flintstone Kids	Grandma Cavemom	3 episodes
1987-1990	DuckTales	Magica de Spell, Ma Beagle
1988	A Pup Named Scooby-Doo	Constance McSnack	"Wanted Cheddar Alive"
1989	Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters	Mrs. Dweeb	2 episodes
1990	Tom and Jerry Kids Show	Witch	"Doom Manor"
1990	The Simpsons	Happy Little Elf, Rubber Baby Buggy Bumper Babysitting Service Receptionist	"Some Enchanted Evening"
1990-1991	Tiny Toon Adventures	Granny
1990-1993	Garfield and Friends	Various characters
1991	Garfield Gets a Life	Mona, Librarian	TV special
1993	All-New Dennis the Menace	Martha Wilson
1993	Rugrats	Blocky, Svetlana the Spy	"Sour Pickles"
1993	2 Stupid Dogs	Red Riding Hood's Grandmother	2 episodes
1993	Bonkers	Ma Barker	"Calling All Cars"
1995	Weird Science	Baby Ruth, Tammy	Voice role Live action television series
1995-2000	Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries	Granny, Witch Hazel	Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Female Performer in an Animated Television Production
1996	Cave Kids	Rat	"Soap Bubble Dreams"
2001	Family Guy	Rocky J. Squirrel	"The Thin White Line"
2002-2005	Baby Looney Tunes	Granny
2003	The Powerpuff Girls	Madame Argentina	"I See a Funny Cartoon in Your Future"
2005	Duck Dodgers	Lezah the Wicked	"M.M.O.R.P.D."
2009	The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack	Ruth, Kid, Kelly, Kelly's Mother, K'nuckles' Kindergarten Teacher	"Bubbie's Tummy Ache" "Flapjack Goes to a Party"
2009-present	The Garfield Show	Mrs. Cauldron	Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer In An Animated Program
2011-2014	The Looney Tunes Show	Granny

Video games

Year	Title	Role
1997	Lego Island	Mama Brickolini, Polly Gone, Parrot
1999	Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time	Granny, Witch Hazel
2000	Donald Duck Going Quackers	Magica De Spell
2000	Looney Tunes: Space Race	Granny
2000	Bugs Bunny & Taz: Time Busters	Granny
2003	Looney Tunes: Back in Action (video game)	Granny
2007	Looney Tunes Acme Arsenal	Granny
2008	Disney Think Fast	Magica De Spell
2013	DuckTales: Remastered	Magica De Spell

Books

• Foray, June (2006). Perverse, Adverse and Rottenverse. Albany, New York: BearManor Media. ISBN 1-59393-020-8
• Foray, June (2009). Did You Grow Up With Me, Too? The Autobiography of June Foray. Albany, New York: BearManor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-461-3

[ Source: Wikipedia ]