Walker Edmiston

Walker Edmiston (February 6, 1925 – February 15, 2007) was an American actor and voice actor.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Edmiston appeared on various television programs in character roles during the 1950s–1970s, such as Star Trek, Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, Knots Landing, and The Dukes of Hazzard, all on CBS. He also played a character based on "Chester" in "Gun-Shy," the famous Maverick parody of Gunsmoke starring James Garner. In 1966, Edmiston had a recurring role as Regan in the short-lived ABC comedy western series, The Rounders with co-stars Ron Hayes, Patrick Wayne, and Chill Wills.

Edmiston also did many television commercials and cartoon character voices, such as "Ernie the Keebler Elf" in hundreds of commercials for the cookie products of the Keebler Company, and voices for characters on H.R. Pufnstuf and The Bugaloos from the studios of Sid and Marty Krofft, as well as a recurring role as Enik the Altrusian on that studio's Land of the Lost. He also did many character voices on the Focus on the Family radio program, Adventures in Odyssey, in which he played the beloved Tom Riley and the infamous Bart Rathbone (and numerous other one-shot characters), for more than twenty years. At times the two characters would argue; however, Edmiston would require little redubbing or editing. He simply switched between the two characters without pause. Some of his voice credits were under the stage name Walter Edmiston. In 1985 he also voiced the Autobot Inferno from the original Transformers cartoon.

In the 1950s and 1960s, he hosted The Walker Edmiston Show, a children's television program in Los Angeles, California. The program featured puppets of his own creation including "Kingsley the Lion" and "Ravenswood the Buzzard".

Edmiston died from cancer in Woodland Hills, California on February 15, 2007. He was survived by a daughter, Erin Edmiston.

He is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.

• Beany and Cecil (1949) — Dishonest John
• The Flintstones (1962) — J. Montague Gypsum
• The Monkees (1967) — Newspaper Publisher ("Monkee Mayor")
• The Beach Girls and the Monster (1965) — Mark and Kingsley the Lion
• Pufnstuf (1970) — Additional Voices
• Yogi's Ark Lark (1972) — Squiddly Diddly, Yakky Doodle
• Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973) — Sigmund
• Land of the Lost (1974–1976) — Enik, Jefferson Davis Collie III
• Trilogy of Terror (1975) — voice of Zuni fetish doll
• Wholly Moses! (1980) — God
• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1981) — Koldar ("The Dorian Secret")
• Spider-Man (1981) — Magneto ("When Magneto Speaks... People Listen")
• Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981) — Kingpin ("Pawns of the Kingpin"), Frankenstein's Monster ("The Transylvanian Connection")
• The Smurfs (1981) — Walden Edmiston
• Dumbo's Circus (1985) — Sebastian
• Ludwig's Think Tank (1985) — Ludwig Von Drake
• The Transformers (1985–1986) — Inferno
• The Great Mouse Detective (1986) – Thug Guard #1
• The Transformers: The Movie (1986) — Inferno (scenes deleted)
• Adventures in Odyssey (1988-2008) — Bart Rathbone and Tom Riley
• Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears (1989–1991) — Sir Thornberry
• Whisper of the Heart (1995) — Kita (2006 Disney dub)
• Avatar: The Last Airbender (2006) — Fire Lord Azulon
• Ben 10 (2006) — Marty/Ice Cream Employee ("Permanent Retirement")