R.I.P. Gary Owens, Laugh-In announcer and cartoon voiceover extraordinaire
Variety is reporting the death of Gary Owens, whose burly baritone lent gravitas to utter silliness—everything from Space Ghost to Laugh-In to the notion that downtown Burbank is beautiful. Owens died yesterday of complications from diabetes, which he’d had since he was a child. He was 80.
Blessed with a rich, booming voice, Owens set to using it primarily for ridiculous purposes, bellowing puns and other nonsensical wordplay as a radio DJ in Los Angeles. He shared a surrealist humor with Jonathan Winters, his best friend and frequent collaborator, with whom he crafted characters and worked on four comedy albums.
As it had for Winters, soon enough, television came calling, and Owens became a familiar voice and face on Rowan And Martin’s Laugh-In. He appeared throughout the show in his announcer’s booth, hand cupped to one ear in the style of an old-timey radio man, offering dadaist segues and introducing the show from “beautiful downtown Burbank” (a catchphrase that similarly caught on at Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show). Of Laugh-In’s enormous cast, Owens was one of only four—alongside Dan Rowan, Dick Martin, and Ruth Buzzi—to be with the series from beginning to end.
Naturally, Owens was much sought-after for voiceover work, and he found a more than welcoming place in animation. Most notably, he provided the voices for the title characters of Roger Ramjet and Space Ghost (making a cameo as himself years later in Cartoon Network’s Space Ghost Coast To Coast). He was also both Hanna-Barbera’s Batman spoof Blue Falcon, in Dynomutt, The Dog Wonder, and even Batman himself, in an episode of The New Batman Adventures.
