Tom Keith

Tom Keith (1946-2011) was a radio sound effects artist and actor best known for his work on NPR's A Prairie Home Companion. For the 1993 audiobook version of One Frog Can Make a Difference, he supplied manual and vocal sound effects, including buzzing flies and others and repeating Kermit's affirmation mottos, and received front cover billing for his work.
Keith spent most of his career working for Minnesota Public Radio, beginning as an engineer in the 1970s. He worked with Garrison Keillor on The Morning Show, developing the character Jim Ed Poole (who he continued to play as co-host after Keillor's departure, until the series ended in 2008). He was a mainstay on Keillor's long-running A Prairie Home Companion, playing periodic speaking roles (such as headwaiter Maurice) but primarily as the resident sound effects wizard, responding to sometimes improvised cues, creating footsteps, door slams, gunfire volleys, vocalizing as animals, and bizarre ultra specific sounds as needed.
Keith collaborated periodically with another MPR radio personality, Peter Schickele, working on his 1990s series Schickele Mix, performing in a 1993 New Year's Eve special, and heard on his 1996 CD collection The Dreaded P.D.Q. Bach Collection, Vol. 1 as the librarian of the Vanguard vaults.
His sparse on-screen appearances included a few A Prairie Home Companion TV specials and the 2005 film version directed by Robert Altman, playing himself as the sound man.
==External links==
*MPR obituary
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Category:Sound Crew