Voice Actress June Foray: Happy 99th Birthday ! Still Alive and Well

The Early Years

Voice Actress June Lucille Forer (born September 18, 1917),  is better known as June Foray  and is an American Voice Actress, and she’s best known as the reigning queen of animated female voice talent. She’s the original voice of  Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Natasha Fatale,  (Rocky and Bullwinkle), Lucifer from Disney’s Cinderella, Cindy Lou Who, Jokey Smurf, and the lovable Granny from the Warner Bros. cartoons.

As a teenager, she began her career voice acting on local radio stations in Massachusetts. Then, after graduating high school, her family moved to Los Angeles, California. Additionally, June Foray was a regular voice over talent heard on the Jimmy Durante Show. In addition,  June Foray’s voice appeared on the Buster Brown Program way before most of us voice talent peeps were born!

By the 1940’s June Foray worked on films and in the burgeoning animation industry. Her voice over character resume could probably stretch to the moon and back. For real, folks, June Foray’s talent versatility is unmatched to this day. (Just me editorializing again) Hey, this is my blog, and I can be as opinionated as I’d like.

Fast Forward

I had the pleasure of being seated next to this very tiny, and lovely Voice Actress queen at abanquet dinner. It happened at the VOICE 2010 voiceover conference in Los Angeles. The photo of us above, which she signed for me is right in the center of the dream board at my voiceover recording studio.

June Foray is a consummate original. The most striking thing about her work to me is that she was fearless. And how such a tiny woman could have such a big voice.  I told her how I grew up watching “Rocky and Bullwinkle”. And how my favorite character of hers was Natasha. And at the ripe age of five, I how I was attempting to mimic her “Moose and Squirrel” lines in that Russian accent. Then she broke into Natasha’s character for me. We shared good laughs that night. I felt like a total drooling fan that night!

The Death Hoax

In addition, a string of recent fake celebrity death reports, the much beloved June Foray was a victim of a freeking death hoax!  I just learned about it today while preparing this post. Chalk it up to a phony Facebook post that garnered about one million “likes”. Despicable. Therefore, this just proves once again that you just cannot believe everything you see online.  In conclusion, as far as I know, today, June Foray, Voice Actress extraordinaire remains still alive and well. Happy 99th Birthday!