Thursday 2 April 2020

Julie Bennett

She was a favourite of Jack Webb in Dragnet. She turned up on I Love a Mystery and co-starred in Grand Central Station and Whispering Streets on radio. And in November 1955, The Hollywood Reporter revealed she had made the acquaintance of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, who signed her as “Mrs. Q” for the Tom and Jerry cartoon Tom’s Photo Finish.

Evidently, the cartoon producers liked her. When they got their own studio, they signed her to be the voice of Cindy Bear.

Now, actress Julie Bennett has been claimed by complications of Covid-19. She died on March 31st at age 88.

Bennett acted in cartoons through the 1980s and then pretty much disappeared. Various sources have revealed what happened. She changed her name to Marianne Daniels and became a personal manager.

Her third cousin has written stating her father was Beverly Hills realtor George Gordon Bennett and her mother’s name was Harriet. Her grandmother was Isabella "Bella" Block Abels. The four of them moved from Lake George, N.Y. to Los Angeles in October 1932 several months after Julie was born on January 24th. Her father changed the family name upon arrival in California. The 1930 U.S. Census reveals Belle Abels living with her daughter Harriet and son-in-law George S(amuel) Israel; the family was in the restaurant business. The ship’s manifest documenting their arrival on the West Coast shows that Julie’s name was Barbera. They returned to the Lake George for several years as that is where the 1940 Census puts them.

Her first voice for the Hanna-Barbera studio was not Cindy, though that was her biggest role for the studio, considering she appeared in the feature film Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear. To the best of my knowledge, the first time she worked for the studio was in the Quick Draw McGraw cartoon Masking For Trouble (1959) as Sagebrush Sal. Prior to that, Daws Butler or Don Messick did almost all the female voices in falsetto. Barbera was looking for new actors when the studio expanded to put Quick Draw on the air, and among the hires were Bennett and Jean Vander Pyl.

Cindy’s voice owed something to Shirley Mitchell’s Leila Ransome on The Great Gildersleeve; I think both characters used the phrase “I do declare!” (Mitchell admitted she borrowed her Southern belle accent from Una Merkel).

Bennett worked for other cartoon studios as well. She provided a few voices for Warner Bros. and filled in for June Foray at the Jay Ward studio on the “Fractured Fairy Tale” cartoons. She turned up at UPA as well.

I hate to do a tally, but it appears Elliot Field is the only voice actor left from the pre-Flintstones days (1960); Jimmy Weldon came on board as Yakky Doodle in cartoons that aired starting in 1961.

She began acting in 1947 at the Oliver Hinsdell Studio of Dramatic Art in Hollywood and quickly went into radio. You can read a few old posts about Miss Bennett by clicking here.

My thanks to reader Luu Hoang for alerting me to the media reports about this, and my sincere sympathies go to her friends.

12 comments:

  1. That's a shame. Condolences to her family, friends, and fans. I'll remember her name whenever I hear Cindy Bear.

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  2. Remember, she was in some 1959=60 Pixie and Dixies.. June Foray(?) in Yogi's early DAFFY DADDY (personal favorite) was the first in a HB, as she played the nasty mom (Ginny Tyler took over for the nnext of these, BEAR ON A PICNIC, with Daws Butler in both of these as the lazy dad in those).. JUlie used that Shirley Mitchell/Leila Ransom voice for a lot of her characters..Sagebrush Sal for instance! RIP, I read about it..

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  3. I think at UPA, Abe Levitow used her as Gerald's mother in what turned out to be the first of the Mr. Magoo TV efforts (though originally done for theaters), and as with Jay Ward, Warners seemed to use her, and some other female voice artists, in the early 60s when June Foray wasn't available. RIP.

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  4. I distinctly remember watching the Yogi Bear feature film on VHS numerous times as a child when visiting my grandparents and obviuously Cindy Bear played a big part in that. Sad to hear of Julie's passing, especially considering that nasty virus that's been going around.

    Leo DeLyon (Spook/Brain from Top Cat) is still with us too as far as I know.

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    1. I also just recalled she's in one of my favourite Bugs Bunny cartoons "Transylvania 6-500" too, as the two-headed vulture.

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  5. Julie Bennett and June Foray provided the voice for the same character at least once. June was Aunt May in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (NBC, 1981-83), and Julie played her in Spider-Man (Fox, 1994-98).

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    1. You're wrong. Julie played her on Fox Kids' ''Spider-Man'' from 1995-1998. She replaced the incomparable Linda Gary who starred as Aunt May from 1994 until her death from cancer in 1995.

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  6. Too bad that this ain't an April Fool's joke.. Mike: They also did Foghorn Leghorn's would be wife/love interest Miss Prissy.

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    1. Bea Benaderet originated the Miss Prissy voice though.

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  7. Thank you so much for this. I used to watch ''Hey there, Yogi Bear" all the time in the 1990s. Such a lovely vocal actress.

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  8. Just watched her in a " Dragnet " episode last week. Pointed out to my wife and youngest son who she was, and all the characters she voiced. So talented. She will be missed. Another part of the soundtrack of our life has passed.

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  9. Saw "Hey There" in the theaters. Her work in that was really great. SO endearing and carried the romantic parts so well. Sorry to read this. Condolences to her loved ones and family.

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