Thurl Ravenscroft, Voice of Tony the Tiger, Dies at 91
NY Times
Thurl Ravenscroft, who provided the long, rumbling “They’re Grrrrreeeat!” for Kellogg’s Tony the Tiger and voiced a host of Disney characters, died here on Sunday. He was 91. The cause was prostate cancer, said Diane Challis Davy, director of Pageant of the Masters, a program in Laguna Beach for which he provided the narration for 20 years.
For more than 50 years, Mr. Ravenscroft was the affable voice of Tony the Tiger, TV’s popular cartoon pitchman for Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes.
“I’m the only man in the world that has made a career with one word: Grrrrreeeat!” Mr. Ravenscroft told The Orange County Register in 1996. “When Kellogg’s brought up the idea of the tiger, they sent me a caricature of Tony to see if I could create something for them. After messing around for some time I came up with the `Grrrrreeeat!’ roar, and that’s how it’s been since then.”
He also lent his voice to characters on thrill rides at Disneyland, including the Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, the Enchanted Tiki Room and the Haunted Mansion, and he supplied voices for the films “Cinderella,” “The Jungle Book,” “Mary Poppins,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Lady and the Tramp” and many others.
