Bill Thompson (July 8, 1913 – July 15, 1971) was an American radio actor and voice actor whose career stretched from the 1930s until his death. July 8 is the 189th day of the year (190th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 176 days remaining. ... Year 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... July 15 is the 196th day (197th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 169 days remaining. ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday. ... A voice actor (also a voice artist) is a person who provides voices for animated characters (including those in feature films, television series, animated shorts), voice-overs in radio and television commercials, audio dramas, dubbed foreign language films, video games, puppet shows, and amusement rides. ... The 1930s (years from 1930–1939) were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression, also known in Europe as the World Depression. ...

Born in Terre Haute, Indiana from vaudevillian parents, Bill Thompson began his career in Chicago radio, where his early appearances included a regular stint on Don McNeill's morning variety series The Breakfast Club in 1934 and a stint as a choir member on the musical variety series "The Sinclair Weiner Minstrels" around 1937. While on the former series, Thompson originated a meek, mush-mouthed character occasionally referred to in publicity as "Mr. Wimple." Thompson soon achieved his greatest fame when he joined the cast of the radio comedy Fibber McGee and Molly around 1936, and would re-use the Wimple voice beginning in 1941. Terre Haute is a city located in Vigo County, Indiana. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... Don McNeill, from a 1942 publicity photo Don McNeill (December 23, 1907 – May 7, 1996) was an American radio personality, best known as the creator and host of The Breakfast Club, which ran for over thirty years. ... The Breakfast Club was a program on ABC radio (and briefly on television) originating in Chicago, Illinois, hosted by Don McNeill. ... 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Radio comedy, or comedic radio programming, is a radio broadcast that may involve sitcom elements, sketches, and many other forms of comedy found on other mediums. ... Jim and Marian Jordan were featured in 1947 NBC promotional art by Sam Berman. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... For the movie, see 1941 (film). ...

On Fibber McGee and Molly, Thompson essayed a variety of roles, including a boisterous conman with a W. C. Fields voice, originally named Widdicomb Blotto but soon re-christened Horatio K. Boomer, and Nick Depopoulous, the Greek restaurant owner. His two most famous roles on the series, however, were as The Old Timer and Wallace Wimple. The Old Timer, introduced in 1937 was a garrulous old gent who would drop in and listen to McGee's rambling stories and jokes. He inexplicably referred to McGee as "Johnny," and his catch phrase was "That's pretty good, Johnny, but that ain't the way I heerd it!" (This catch phrase would surface in Warner Bros. cartoon shorts, notably in Tortoise Wins by a Hare in which Bugs Bunny disguises himself as a bearded old man and repeats portions of that catch-phrase as he tries to trick the tortoise into telling him "how he beat that rabbit!") W. C. Fields (January 29, 1880 – December 25, 1946) was an American comedian and actor. ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Warner Bros. ... Cecil Turtle is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. ... Bugs Bunny is a fictional animated rabbit who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated films produced by Warner Bros. ...

Wallace Wimple, an expansion of Thompsons Breakfast Club role, would prove to be his most enduring character, however. Wimple was a timid bird-watcher, appropriately nick-named "Wimp" by McGee, who lived in constant terror of his "big old horrid wife," ironically named "Sweetie Face," who was often mentioned but never heard. (The term "wimp" for an unmanly character was in common usage already, as with the cartoon character J. Wellington Wimpy). The character, whose greeting was a mild "Hello, folks," became very popular, and inspired animation director Tex Avery to build a dog character around the voice. This character, eventually named Droopy Dog, was also voiced by Thompson in most of his appearances. Thompson also played the title role, an Adolf Hitler take-off, in Avery's Academy Award nominated short The Blitz Wolf (1942). J. Wellington Wimpy or just Wimpy is one of the characters in the long-running comic strip, Thimble Theater, and in the Popeye cartoons based upon the strip. ... Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. ... Frederick Bean Fred/Tex Avery (Wednesday, February 26, 1908 – Tuesday, August 26, 1980) was an American animator, cartoonist, and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during the Golden Age of Hollywood. ... Droopy Dog in Señor Droopy. ... Hitler redirects here. ... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent and most watched film awards ceremony in the world. ... 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ...

Around 1943, however, Thompson's thriving career was interrupted when he joined the US Navy during World War II, and all of his radio characters were temporarily dropped. He returned to Fibber McGee full-time in 1946, however, and also became a semi-regular on Edgar Bergen's radio series as lecturer "Professor" Thompson, and continued to work on radio until the late 1950s, notably in several episodes of CBS Radio Workshop. Upon his return to civilian life, Thompson's animation voice-over career also began to build steam. At MGM, he returned as Droopy and also played Droopy's recurring bulldog nemesies Spike, alternately known as Butch, and many other shorts characters. 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ... The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for naval operations. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Sam Bermans caricature of Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen for 1947 NBC promotion book Edgar John Bergen (February 16, 1903 – September 30, 1978) was an American actor and radio performer, best known as a ventriloquist. ... This does not cite its references or sources. ... The CBS Radio Workshop was an experimental dramatic radio anthology series that aired on CBS from January 27, 1956, until September 22, 1957. ... Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. ... A voice-over is a narration that is played on top of a video segment, usually with the audio for that segment muted or lowered. ... MGM logo Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer or MGM, is a large media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of cinema and television programs. ... Droopy Dog in Señor Droopy. ...

For Walt Disney, he was heard in many shorts and features, often in either dialect parts or a variation of his Wimple/Droopy voice. His animated feature film credits included the parts of the White Rabbit and the Dodo in Alice in Wonderland and Mr. Smee (and the other pirates) in Peter Pan (reprising his roles in radio adaptations for Lux Radio Theater). His best showcase may well have been in Lady and the Tramp (1956), where he was heard in no less than five dialect parts, as Jock the friendly Scottish terrier, Bull the Cockney bulldog, Dachsie the German dachshund, Joe the Italian cook, and the Irish policeman in the park. In shorts, he was heard as Ranger J. Audobon Woodlore in several Donald Duck and Humphrey the Bear entries and as Professor Owl in two music related shorts, including the Academy Award winning Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom (directed by Ward Kimball), amongst many others. He reprised both of these roles in Disney's various television series, and was the first actor to voice the comic book character Scrooge McDuck (the theatrical featurette Scrooge McDuck and Money (1967). For the company founded by Disney, see The Walt Disney Company. ... Animation is the technique in which each frame of a film or movie is produced individually, whether generated as a computer graphic, or by photographing a drawn image, or by repeatedly making small changes to a model (see claymation and stop motion), and then photographing the result. ... Alice in Wonderland is a 1951 animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Productions and originally released to theaters on July 28, 1951 by RKO Radio Pictures. ... Peter Pan is the fourteenth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. ... Lux Radio Theater, one of the genuine classic radio anthology series (NBC Blue Network (1934-1935); CBS (1935-1955), adapted first Broadway stage works, and then (especially) films to hour-long live radio presentations. ... Lady and the Tramp is a 1955 animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Productions, and originally released to theaters on June 16, 1955 by Buena Vista Distribution. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Scottish Terrier (also known as the Aberdeen Terrier), popularly called the Scottie, is a breed of dog best known for its distinctive profile. ... St Mary-le-Bow The term cockney refers to working-class inhabitants of London, particularly east London, and the slang used by these people. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The dachshund is a short-legged, elongated dog breed of the hound family. ... J.Audobon Woodlore is a fictional character created by The Walt Disney Company. ... Donald Duck is an animated cartoon and comic-book character from Walt Disney Productions. ... Humphrey the Bear is a fictional character created by The Walt Disney Company in 1950. ... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent and most watched film awards ceremony in the world. ... Firehouse Five Plus Two LP album cover. ... A television program is the content of television broadcasting. ... Scrooge McDuck or Uncle Scrooge is a fictional Scottish character created by Carl Barks who first appeared in Dell Comics Four Color Comics #178 Christmas on Bear Mountain in December 1947. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ...

In 1957, Thompson joined the Los Angeles branch of Union Oil as an executive, working in community relations and occasionnaly reprising his radio characters. He remained sporadically active in animation, however, going on to play King Hubert in Disney's Sleeping Beauty (1959), and as Touché Turtle for Hanna-Barbera's Touché Turtle and Dum Dum (plus a guest role in an early episode of The Flintstones). His final role was as Uncle Waldo in The Aristocats (1970), released shortly before his death from a heart attack. Thompson was 58. Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,290. ... The Unocal Corporation (NYSE: UCL), based in El Segundo, California, was founded in 1890 as the Union Oil Company of California. ... Cartoon Network Studios, formerly known as Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ... A promotional shot of Touché Turtle and Dum Dum. ... The Flintstones is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. ... The Aristocats is a 1970 animated feature produced and released by Walt Disney Productions. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Acute myocardial infarction (AMI or MI), commonly known as a heart attack, is a disease state that occurs when the blood supply to a part of the heart is interrupted. ...

Sources

Dunning, John. On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-507678-8

External link

• Fibber McGee and Molly cast page with bio: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/5284/cast.html#thompson
• Bill Thompson at the Internet Movie Database