page_title: Bill Thompson (voice actor)
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Bill Thompson (voice actor) / World War II
caption_attribution_description: Photo of radio actor Bill Thompson performing for a US Navy benefit in 1953. Thompson was probably best-known for the many roles he played on the Fibber McGee and Molly radio show.
context_page_description: William H. Thompson was an American voice actor, radio comedian and actor, whose career stretched from the 1930s until his death. He was a featured comedian playing multiple roles on the Fibber McGee and Molly radio series, and was the voice of Droopy in most of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer theatrical cartoons from 1943 to 1958.
context_section_description: Around 1943, however, Thompson's thriving career was interrupted when he joined the US Navy during World War II, and all of his radio characters were temporarily dropped. He returned to Fibber McGee full-time in 1946, however, and also became a semi-regular on Edgar Bergen's radio series as lecturer "Professor" Thompson. On February 21, 1950, he married Mary Margaret McBride.
  Thompson continued to work on radio until the late 1950s, notably in several episodes of CBS Radio Workshop, and his animation voice-over career also began to build steam during the 1950s. At MGM, he returned as Droopy and also played Droopy's recurring bulldog nemesis Spike, known as Butch in his appearances that were produced after Avery's departure from MGM, and many other characters in the studio's cartoon shorts (he used the Wimple/Droopy voice for the titular Native American caricature in Big Heel-Watha and for Tom's lookalike cousin George in a 1957 Tom and Jerry entry Timid Tabby, for two examples).
caption: Thompson entertaining at a US Navy benefit in 1953
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