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Iconic Kids Entertainer, Voice Actor Chuck McCann Dies

Actor’s long list of credits in animation includes ‘G.I. Joe,’ ‘DuckTales,’ ‘Garfield’ and more. 

Children’s entertainer Chuck McCann, known for hosting puppet shows and voicing animated characters, died April 8 at the age of 83.

Chuck McCann, a journeyman actor and well-known children’s entertainer whose roles included dozens of iconic voice roles in animation, died April 8 of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 83.

McCann got his start in television in the late 1950s but was perhaps best known as the host of children’s variety and puppet shows in the New York City, a task he continued through the 1980s for various outlets. He moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s and guest-starred on dozens of live-action series as well as co-creating the puppet-based Saturday morning comedy series Far Out Space Nuts.

In the late 1970s, he increasingly did more roles for TV animated series such as The New Schmoo, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels and Pac-Man. Among the roles he is most fondly remembered for are Leatherneck on G.I. Joe, and as Duckworth and Burgler Beagle on DuckTales, and The Thing in the Marvel’s 1994 Fantastic Four series.

He also provided voices for various incarnations of Garfield, The PowerPuff Girls and Adventure Time.

Born in Brooklyn as the son of a bandleader and singer, McCann was a close friend of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and was a regular at the Playboy Mansion.

He is survived by his wife of 40 years, Betty Fanning, and three children.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter, IMDb, Wikipedia

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Tom McLean has been writing for years about animation from a secret base in Los Angeles.