Alan Reed
{{Short description|American actor (1907–1977)}}
{{otherpeople|Alan Reed}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2022}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Alan Reed
| image = Alan Reed in Time Table (1956).jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Reed in Time Table (1956)
| birth_name = Herbert Theodore Bergman
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1907|08|20|mf=yes}}
| birth_place = New York City, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1977|06|14|1907|08|20|mf=yes}}
| death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.
| other_names = Alan Reed Sr.
Teddy Bergman
| alma_mater = American Academy of Dramatic Arts
Columbia University
| occupation = Actor
| years_active = 1930–1977
| spouse = {{marriage|Finnette Walker|1932}}
| children = 3
}}
Alan Reed (born Herbert Theodore Bergman; August 20, 1907 – June 14, 1977){{Cite web |url=http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2ba1a6c80f |title=Alan Reed profile |website=British Film Institute |access-date=2020-03-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150927041006/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2ba1a6c80f |archive-date=2015-09-27 |url-status=dead }} was an American actor, best known as the original voice of Fred Flintstone on The Flintstones and various spinoff series. He also appeared in many films, including Days of Glory, The Tarnished Angels, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Viva Zapata! and Nob Hill, as well as several television and radio series.
Early life
Herbert Theodore Bergman was born on August 20, 1907, in New York City to Jewish parents. His father was a Lithuanian-Jewish immigrant and his mother was born in the United States to Ukrainian-Jewish parents from Galicia.[http://www.jewishhumorcentral.com/2010/10/fred-flintstone-stone-age-star-with.html "Fred Flintstone: A Stone Age Star With A Jewish Voice."] Jewish Humor Central.com, October 10, 2010. Retrieved August 19, 2014. He attended George Washington High School{{Cite news |last=Schmidt |first=Bill Jr. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3815177/the_brooklyn_daily_eagle |title=Airy Chats |date=April 24, 1932 |work=Brooklyn Daily Eagle |access-date=December 12, 2015 |page=E9 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} (now George Washington Educational Campus) and majored in journalism at Columbia University.{{Citation needed |date=February 2022}}
Between graduating from WHS and entering Columbia, he studied drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.{{Cite news |last=Witte |first=Lawrence |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3821613/denton_journal/ |title=Static |date=December 9, 1960 |work=Denton Journal |access-date=December 13, 2015 |page=10 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} He began his acting career in the city, eventually working on Broadway.
For several years, Reed toured in vaudeville with his cousin, Harry Green.{{Cite book |last=Cox |first=Jim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PGY5AQAAIAAJ&q=reed |title=Radio Speakers: Narrators, News Junkies, Sports Jockeys, Tattletales, Tipsters, Toastmasters and Coffee Klatch Couples Who Verbalized the Jargon of the Aural Ether from the 1920s to the 1980s{{snd}}A Biographical Dictionary |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc. |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7864-6086-1 |pages=234–235 |url-access=subscription}} He also had two other jobs—operating a wholesale candy factory and working at the Copake Country Club as "social director, entertainment producer and actor".
Career
=Radio=
As early as 1930, Reed (billed as Teddy Bergman) co-starred with Herbert Polesie in Henry and George, a CBS program that featured "minute dramas, popular laughmakers ... interspersed with dance music selections".{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3814878/the_lincoln_star/ |title=Henry and George In Lincoln |date=August 3, 1930 |work=The Lincoln Star |access-date=December 12, 2015 |page=D5 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}}
Reed's radio work included having two roles in Valiant Lady,Buxton, Frank and Owen, Bill (1972). The Big Broadcast: 1920–1950. The Viking Press. {{ISBN?}} p. 249. the role of Solomon Levy on Abie's Irish Rose, as the "Allen's Alley" resident poet Falstaff Openshaw on Fred Allen's NBC radio show, and later on his own five-minute show, Falstaff's Fables, on ABC, as Officer Clancey and other occasional roles on the NBC radio show Duffy's Tavern, as Shrevey the driver on several years of The Shadow, as Chester Riley's boss on the NBC radio show The Life of Riley, as Italian immigrant Pasquale in Life with Luigi on CBS radio, various supporting roles on Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, and as Lt. Walter Levinson in several episodes of Richard Diamond, Private Detective.
Reed was "heard regularly on the Crime Doctor series,"{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3821782/belvidere_daily_republican/ |title=Fanny Brice on the Air Tonight |date=September 26, 1940 |work=Belvidere Daily Republican |access-date=December 13, 2015 |page=8 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} and "was the original Daddy to Fanny Brice on Baby Snooks".{{Cite book |last=DeLong |first=Thomas A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iu8aAQAAIAAJ&q=reed |title=Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960 |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc. |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-7864-2834-2 |page=223 |url-access=subscription}} Billed as Teddy Bergman, he had the title role on Joe Palooka.
=Stage=
Billed as Teddy Bergman, Reed appeared on Broadway in Double Dummy (1936), and A House in the Country (1937),{{Cite web |url=http://www.playbillvault.com/Person/Detail/50726/Teddy-Bergman |title=Teddy Bergman |website=Playbill Vault |access-date=14 December 2015}} and Love's Old Sweet Song (1940).{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3821925/el_paso_heraldpost/ |title=CBS Actor Has Head Shaved for Summer |date=May 31, 1940 |work=El Paso Herald-Post |access-date=December 13, 2015 |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}}
=Television=
From 1957 to 1958, Reed appeared in a recurring role as J.B. Hafter, a studio boss, on the CBS sitcom Mr. Adams and Eve. He also played the same character in The Bob Cummings Show. In 1963, he appeared as Councilman Jack Gramby in episode 8 of the CBS sitcom My Favorite Martian. In 1964–65, he had a recurring role as Mr. Swidler in the ABC sitcom Mickey.
=Voice acting=
In animation, Reed provided the voice of Boris the Russian Wolfhound in Walt Disney's Lady and the Tramp in 1955. In 1960, he began the voice role for Fred Flintstone, the lead character of Hanna-Barbera's prime-time animated series The Flintstones. Reed provided Fred's voice for the entire six-season run of the show, as well as in several spin-off series (The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, The Flintstone Comedy Hour) and specials. His final performance as Fred Flintstone was a cameo guest role on an episode of Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics. Afterwards, Fred would be voiced by Henry Corden (who had previously done voice work for Hanna-Barbera and bore a resemblance to Reed). Reed's other voice roles for Hanna-Barbera was Touché Turtle's sidekick, Dum Dum.
Radio playwright and director Norman Corwin cast Reed as Santa Claus in the 1969 KCET television reading of his 1938 play The Plot to Overthrow Christmas.
In television commercials Reed was the voice over for J.J. Keebler, a creation of the Leo Burnett Agency.{{Cite magazine |last=Cerny |first=JoBe |date=May 11, 2015 |title=Icons of Advertising |url=http://screenmag.com/story/2015/may/11/11262/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150607070242/http://screenmag.com/story/2015/may/11/11262/ |archive-date=June 7, 2015 |access-date=August 17, 2019 |magazine=Screen |url-status=live}}
Personal life
In May 1932, Reed married Finette Walker{{Cite news |url=http://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Magazines/Archive-BC-IDX/32-OCR/1932-05-01-BC-OCR-Page-0019.pdf |title=Behind the Microphone |date=May 1, 1932 |work=Broadcasting |access-date=14 December 2015 |page=19}} (1909–2005), a Broadway actress whom he met at television station W2XAB (later WCBS-TV) in New York City. She appeared on stage in the early 1930s and was a chorus member in the original 1934 Broadway production of Anything Goes with Ethel Merman.[http://www.playbillvault.com/Person/Detail/81525/Finette-Walker "Finette Walker: Performer."] Playbill Vault Retrieved August 19, 2014. They had three sons, including actor Alan Reed, Jr. (born 1936).
Death
Reed, a heavy smoker, was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 1967. The cancer was treated surgically, but he later developed emphysema. On June 14, 1977, he died at St. Vincent Medical Center (Los Angeles) after having a heart attack, two months before his 70th birthday.{{cite news| url=http://www.thespectrum.com/story/entertainment/2015/09/24/alan-reed-jr-remembers-flintstones/72626720/| title=Alan Reed Jr. remembers 'The Flintstones' at 55| first=Nick| last=Thomas| newspaper=USA Today| date=September 23, 2015| access-date=November 1, 2017}}
Filmography
=Film=
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
!Title !Role !class="unsortable"|Notes |
|---|
| rowspan="2"| 1937
| Opening announcer (voice) | rowspan="2"|Short film |
| Teddy Bergman's Bar-B-Q
| Teddy Bergman |
| 1944
| Sasha | |
| 1945
| Nob Hill | Dapper Jack Harrigan | |
| 1946
| The Postman Always Rings Twice | Ezra Liam Kennedy | |
| rowspan="2"| 1950
| Harry Patullo | |
| Emergency Wedding
|Barber | |
| rowspan="2"| 1951
| Colonel Lamartine | |
| Here Comes the Groom
| Walter Godfrey | |
| rowspan="2"| 1952
| |
| Actor's and Sin
| J.B. Cobb | Segment "Woman of Sin" |
| rowspan="3"| 1953
| Detective | Uncredited |
| I, the Jury
| George Kalecki | |
| Geraldine
| Frederick Sterling | |
| 1954
| Tomaso | |
| rowspan="4"| 1955
| Charboneau | |
| Lady and the Tramp
| Boris (voice) | |
| Kiss of Fire
| Sergeant Diego | |
| The Desperate Hours
| Detective | |
| rowspan="3"| 1956
| Al Wolfe | |
| The Revolt of Mamie Stover
| Captain Gorecki | |
| He Laughed Last
| Big Dan Hennessy | |
| 1957
| Colonel Fineman | |
| 1958
| Puddles Podell | |
| 1959
| The Sultan (voice) | |
| 1960
| Prince (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1961
| Sally Tomato | |
| 1965
| Unnamed Judge (uncredited) | Anti-pornography documentary film produced by the "Center for Decent Literature" |
| 1966
| Fred Flintstone (voice) | |
| 1969
| Fig King | |
| 1971
| Big Bill (voice) | |
| 1975
| Sebastian, Mr. Usher | Final role, 1979 English dub |
| 1978
| Professor Heigner | Final role, posthumous release |
| 2005
| Fred Flintstone | Archival footage |
=Television=
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
!Title !Role !class="unsortable"|Notes |
|---|
| 1956
| Uncle Leo | Season 2 Episode 7: "Alibi Me" |
| 1957–1958
| J. B. Hafter | Regular cast |
| 1958
| Joe Ferbus | Episode: "The Reunion" |
| 1959
| Dirks the Clamjumper | Episode: "Gold and Brimstone" |
| rowspan="2"| 1960
| Garson | Episode: "The Maître d" |
| Make Room for Daddy
| Howard Sloan | Episode: "The Apple Polishers" |
| 1960–1966
| Fred Flintstone, Professor Von Messerschmidt, J.L. Gothrocks, The Prowler, Grandpa Rocky Flintstone (voices) | 166 episodes |
| rowspan="2"| 1962–1963
| The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series | rowspan="2"| Dum Dum (voice) | rowspan="2"| 52 episodes |
| Touché Turtle and Dum Dum |
| rowspan="3"| 1963
| Private Winthrop Fairchild | Episode: "Raise Your Right Hand" |
| The Dick Van Dyke Show
| Auctioneer | Episode: "The Masterpiece" |
| My Favorite Martian
| Councilman Jack Gramby | Episode: "The Awful Truth" |
| 1964
| Filmore Bear, Additional voices | Episode: "Ring-A-Ding Spring" |
| 1964–1965
| various characters | various episodes |
| 1964, 1968
| Gene Booth | Episodes: "Teenage Idol", "The Great Tag-Team Match" |
| 1965
| Parks Commissioner Fiske (Uncredited) | Episode: "Cousin Itt Visits the Addams Family" |
| rowspan="3"| 1966
| Glasstor | Episode: "Glasstor" |
| Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?
| Fred Flintstone (voice) | Television film |
| The Impossibles
| Smogula | 1 episode |
| 1967
| Batman | General MacGruder | Episode: "Penguin Sets a Trend" |
| 1968
| The Bandit | Episode: "Bad Day at Shady Rest" |
| 1969
| Little girl (voice) | Uncredited |
| 1970
| Mad Dog Mahoney (voice) | 10 episodes |
| 1971
| The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show | Fred Flintstone (voice) | 16 episodes |
| 1972–1974
| Fred Flintstone (voice) | 18 episodes |
| 1973
| Fred Flintstone (voice) | Television film |
| 1975
| Sebastian, Mr. Usher (voices) | English version |
| rowspan="2"| 1977
| rowspan="2"| Fred Flintstone (voice) | |
| Energy: A National Issue
| Television film |
| 1977–1980
| Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels | Additional voices | 39 episodes |
=Radio=
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
!Title !Role !class="unsortable"|Notes |
|---|
| 1930
| Henry and George | | |
| 1932
| Joe Palooka | |
| 1938
| Various roles | |
| 1939
| The Campbell Playhouse: Twentieth Century |
|
| 1940
| Daddy | |
| 1940–1947
| | |
| 1942
| Solomon Levy | |
| rowspan="2"| 1944–1951
| Officer Clancy, various characters | |
| The Life of Riley
| Chester Riley's boss | |
| 1948–1953
| Pasquale | |
| 1948–1954
| The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show | rowspan="2"| Various roles | |
| 1949–1962
| |
| 1949–1953
| Richard Diamond, Private Detective | Lieutenant Walter Levinson | |
=Stage=
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
!Title !Role !class="unsortable"|Notes |
|---|
| 1936
| Dounle Dummy | rowspan="3"| Various characters | rowspan="3"| Broadway |
| 1937
| A House in the Country |
| 1940
| Love old Sweet Song |
Further reading
- {{cite book |last1=Reed |first1=Alan |last2=Ohmart |first2=Ben |title=Yabba Dabba Doo!: The Alan Reed Story |date=2009 |publisher=BearManor Media |location=Albany, Georgia |isbn=978-1-59393-313-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_IQYBAAAQBAJ |quote=Ben Ohmart is president of BearManor Media, the publisher |language=en}}
- {{cite book |last1=Terrace |first1=Vincent |title=Radio Programs, 1924–1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows |date= 2015 |publisher=McFarland & Company |location=Jefferson, NC |isbn=978-1-4766-0528-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EhOBCgAAQBAJ |language=en}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
{{Portal|Biography}}
- https://www.nytimes.com/1977/06/16/archives/alan-reed-a-film-and-tv-actor-69.html
- http://www.whenradiowas.com/alan_reed_august12.asp
- https://fredericksburg.com/lifestyles/tinseltown-talks-actors-son-remembers-the-voice-of-yabba-dabba-do-as-toon-turns-55/article_e4b6e4cf-8856-5de3-8b81-616b656802b8.html
- https://www.metv.com/stories/alan-reed-and-mel-blancs-real-friendship-deepened-as-fred-and-barneys-bond-grew
Papers
- [https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8x34zzk/ Reed (Alan) Papers] - Online Archive of California
- {{IBDB name|495381}} (billed as Teddy Bergman)
- [https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/159092%7C8899/Alan-Reed/ Turner Classic Movies]
- {{IMDb name|715284|Alan Reed}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reed, Alan}}
Category:American male film actors
Category:American male television actors
Category:American male voice actors
Category:American male stage actors
Category:American male radio actors
Category:American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent
Category:American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
Category:George Washington Educational Campus alumni
Category:Jewish American male actors
Category:Male actors from New York City
Category:American Academy of Dramatic Arts alumni
Category:Columbia University alumni