Greg Burson

Gregory Lewis Burson (June 29, 1949 – July 22, 2008) was an American voice actor, best known as a replacement for voice actors Daws Butler and Mel Blanc following their deaths in 1988 and 1989, respectively.

Burson was trained by Daws Butler and took over the voicing of most of his characters when he died. Burson was also a voice replacement for Mel Blanc, and voiced many of his characters as well, including Bugs Bunny, for whom he was given the responsibility of voicing in 1995's Carrotblanca, a well-received 8-minute Looney Tunes cartoon originally shown in cinemas alongside The Amazing Panda Adventure (USA and Canada) and The Pebble and the Penguin (non-US). It has since then released on video, packaged with older Looney Tunes cartoons, and was even included in the special edition DVD release of Casablanca, of which it is both a parody and a homage. Burson also voiced Bugs in the 1997 short From Hare to Eternity, which is notable for being dedicated to the memory of the then-recently deceased Friz Freleng, and for being the final Looney Tunes cartoon that Chuck Jones directed. Burson also provided Bugs' voice in new animation for The Bugs and Daffy Show, which ran on Cartoon Network from 1996 to 2003. Alternating with Joe Alaskey and Jeff Bergman, he also voiced several other Looney Tunes characters including Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety, Sylvester, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Marvin the Martian, Tasmanian Devil, Pepé Le Pew, Speedy Gonzales and Foghorn Leghorn on various Warner Bros. animated television series, films, toys, and video games.

He also voiced Yogi Bear on The New Yogi Bear Show (after the death of Daws Butler, who was his acting mentor, as well as one of his influences in 1988) and many other characters in Hanna-Barbera-related shows and Mr. Magoo in the animated segments of the live action feature film of the same name in 1997 (after Jim Backus died in 1989).

His other voice work includes shows such as CatDog, Batman: The Animated Series, All-New Dennis the Menace, Mother Goose and Grimm, The Angry Beavers, Johnny Bravo, Samurai Jack, The Smurfs, Super Friends, The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat and Garfield and Friends, the feature film Jurassic Park and the three Star Wars video games The Phantom Menace, Jedi Power Battles and The Gungan Frontier. In 1995, at the height of popularity of R. L. Stine's "Goosebumps" book and TV series, though not known at the time, and his only performance in it, he was also the voice behind one version of the commercial that promoted the "Goosebumps Fan Club" in some of the old VHS tapes of the TV show of the same name, while Tony Jay recorded a second version of exactly the same promo. Burson also lent his voice to several promos for Fox Kids as well.

His career came to an end in May 2004 when Burson was arrested by detectives after barricading himself inside his home in Tujunga for six hours before surrendering. Initial reports have claimed that an armed S.W.A.T. team had responded to a call from two of his female roommates that he was inebriated, armed and holding a third female roommate hostage.Burson also screamed a stream of nonsensical words at the police when they were alerted to his home. Officers had later discovered that Burson had a collection of guns in his home. One officer said, "He was so drunk, we couldn't tell if he was trying to do one of his voices or was just slurring his words." Officer Rudy Villarreal confirmed that all three women involved in the incident lived with Burson, but none of them were harmed.

Greg Burson died on July 22, 2008, at the age of 59 from complications due to diabetes and arteriosclerosis. He had been struggling with alcoholism in the later part of his life from being depressed over losing voice-over work.

He was survived by his two sons and his brother.