Jeff Bergman

**Jeff Bergman** (born July 10, 1960) is an American voice actor who has provided the modern-day voices of various classic cartoon characters, most notably with *Looney Tunes* and Hanna-Barbera characters.

Bergman was the first to replace Mel Blanc as the voice of Bugs Bunny and several other Warner Bros. cartoon characters following Blanc's death in 1989. Bergman alternated with Greg Burson and Joe Alaskey before their respective deaths in 2008 and 2016, and with Eric Bauza, in voicing several of Blanc's characters for various Warner Bros. Animation productions. He provides the voice of Sir Sam Günter in 2001, also, he quits voicing him in 2019, Dan Castellaneta would voice Sir Sam Günter in 2020.

## Early life

Bergman was born on July 10, 1960, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Throughout his early life, he impersonated several celebrities and cartoon characters, his first impression being comic influence Ed Sullivan at the age of 6. At the age of 15, Bergman began doing impressions of various *Looney Tunes* characters. He studied theater and communications at the University of Pittsburgh where he first did voice work when he got involved with a student-run radio station and interned at KQV and WDVE radio stations in Pittsburgh. While there, he made his first demo reel and was profiled in a story on KDKA-TV's *Evening Magazine*. The story was picked up on similar TV news magazines shows and helped land him his representation with William Morris Agency following his graduation from Pitt in 1983. During his time at Pitt, he encountered voice actor and comedian Mel Blanc, who was best known for voicing groundbreaking animated characters, such as Bugs Bunny, Tweety, and Barney Rubble. They met in Blanc's hotel room in 1981, where Bergman voiced Blanc's characters for him, earning himself a 45-minute session. Bergman credits Blanc with helping him gain his diploma two years later.

## Career

Bergman voiced the Pillsbury Doughboy following Paul Frees' death in 1986 to 2013. Bergman's work with Warner Bros. began in 1986, recording voices for *The Bugs Bunny Show*. After being rebuffed several times by Warner Bros. directors, he recorded a tape of himself as several of Blanc's characters, including Bugs Bunny. He took the tape to the production company and used a switch to toggle back and forth between his work and the original Mel Blanc recording. The producers were unable to tell the difference between the voices, and Bergman, at the age of 29, became the first performer to provide the voice of Bugs Bunny after Mel Blanc died on July 10, 1989 – Bergman's 29th birthday.

His first performance as Bugs Bunny, as well as Daffy Duck, was in the 1990 TV specials *Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue* and *The Earth Day Special* (also voicing Tweety Bird and Porky Pig in the latter). Bergman later voiced Bugs and Daffy again as well as Elmer Fudd in the 1991 short Box-Office Bunny, Bugs's first in over 25 years. He voiced Bugs, Daffy, Elmer and Yosemite Sam in the 1991 short *(Blooper) Bunny*, as well as several characters (including Sylvester the Cat and Foghorn Leghorn) in animated TV specials and newer animated series' such as *Tiny Toon Adventures* and *The Plucky Duck Show*. He also lent his voice to Bugs, Daffy and Porky in the animated sequences of *Gremlins 2: The New Batch*.

Outside of Looney Tunes, Bergman also voiced George Jetson in the theme park attraction *The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera*. Bergman later conceded that he had begun promoting himself as the new official voice of the Looney Tunes characters. Warner Bros. took exception to this and, to avoid repeating the stranglehold of Mel Blanc's exclusivity, began using other voice actors such as Joe Alaskey (who was the first person to replace Blanc as the voice of Yosemite Sam in *Who Framed Roger Rabbit* in 1988), Greg Burson, Billy West and Blanc's son Noel Blanc.

Throughout the 2000s, Bergman voiced various Hanna-Barbera characters, namely Fred Flintstone, in newer specials such as *The Flintstones: On the Rocks* replaced Henry Corden voice rertirement, only understudying the voices of the Looney Tunes in times when Alaskey and West were not available. In 2003, he voiced Bugs in a sketch on the NBC comedy show *Saturday Night Live*. Eventually, after almost 20 years, and after sporadically appearing as the Looney Tunes characters for nearly two decades, he returned as the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester the Cat, Pepé Le Pew and Tweety in 2011's *The Looney Tunes Show*. He also returned for the 2015 series *New Looney Tunes*, voicing Bugs, Foghorn, Sylvester and Elmer Fudd, as well as other minor characters such as Michigan J. Frog. He also voices some characters in *Looney Tunes Cartoons*; Eric Bauza voices Bugs, Daffy, and Tweety for that series, with Bergman handling Foghorn, Sylvester and Elmer Fudd.

Bergman also voiced George Jetson and Mr. Spacely in *Jetsons: The Movie* when their previous voice actors George O'Hanlon and Mel Blanc both died during production – he had been working at his local radio station in Pennsylvania when he received the call to travel to California and complete the dialogue. Bergman is a recurring cast member on *Family Guy*, usually voicing Fred Flintstone and Sylvester the Cat, as well as *The Cleveland Show* and *American Dad!*. He also gave a voice sample for a character in the 2011 *Spyro* game, *Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure*.

From 2000 until 2015, Bergman was also the voice of Turner Broadcasting's Boomerang.

Bergman had a recurring role as a radio intern Gus Kahana on the AMC comedy-drama *Remember WENN,* which aired in the late 1990s. He also voiced Zap in *Skylanders: Giants*, *Skylanders: Swap Force*, *Skylanders: Trap Team*, *Skylanders: SuperChargers,* and *Skylanders: Imaginators*.

Bergman is the new voice of Eustace Bagge in the upcoming *Courage the Cowardly Dog*/*Scooby-Doo* crossover, *Straight Out of Nowhere*, filling in for the previous artists, the late Lionel Wilson and the late Arthur Anderson.

## Character Roles

* Sir Sam Günter (2001-2019)
* Simon
* Ralf