John Stephenson RIP

[Paul Agnew]

Knew it was erroneously reported a few years ago that he had passed on. Terrible to hear regardless. :(

http://www.newsfromme.com/2015/05/17/john-stephenson-r-i-p/

Voice actor John Stephenson died Friday night at the age of 91. He had been suffering from Alzheimer's for some time and living in a nursing home. Several years ago, reports of his declining health somehow led to a series of erroneous Internet reports that he had passed. This time, sadly, it's so.

Stephenson's long, prolific career began in 1948 when he moved to Hollywood from his native Wisconsin. He quickly became a working actor on radio dramas and began landing roles in film and on television. In fact, it would be hard to find a TV show filmed in Hollywood between 1953 and about 1968 that he didn't guest on. You can catch him on reruns of The Lone Ranger, The Beverly Hillbillies, F Troop, Get Smart, Green Acres, Hogan's Heroes, Perry Mason, That Girl, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, The People's Choice, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and so many more. In the sixties though, he was getting so much work in voiceovers that he abandoned his "on camera" career.

He did hundreds of commercials and announcing jobs. His was the voice that announced the verdicts at the end of the sixties' Dragnet series.

And he worked incessantly in cartoons, mainly for Hanna-Barbera. He was heard often on the original Flintstones series, voicing Fred's boss Mr. Slate and dozens of supporting characters. On the series Top Cat, he spoke for the character Fancy-Fancy and, again, dozens of supporting characters. On Jonny Quest, he was Dr. Benton Quest. On other H-B shows, he played recurring and guest roles to the extent that he may have been the most-heard actor on their shows. Joe Barbera loved him and the feeling was mutual. (I took the above photo of him at a party for Mr. Barbera.)

Fans here would arguably know him best as the voices of G1 Thundercracker, post-Movie Kup, Alpha Trion, Huffer, Windcharger, Devcon, the cross-series Hector Ramirez & many more.

[Jazzman]

Very sad. RIP. He had one heck of an interesting life.

[GoktimusPrime]

RIP to the voice of my favourite Decepticon Jet. :(

[UltimateGalvatron]

RIP to the voice of my favourite Decepticon Jet. :(

He is also my favourite Seeker/Jet :(

RIP

[Gofigure]

sad

another link to the past gone. Thanks for early morning cartoon memories

[griffin]

That's the second Voice Actor who's been to a BotCon that I've seen to have gone.... and the age of many of them from Gen1 means we should get used to this happening more in the next few years. :(

The Gen1 voices now gone...
Roger C. Carmel - Bruticus, Cyclonus, Motormaster, Unicron (post movie)
Phillip Clark - Dead End, Tantrum, Abdul Fakkadi, Auggie Cahnay
Rege Cordic - Menasor, Quintesson Judge (movie)
Scatman Crothers - Jazz
Walker Edmiston - Inferno
Ron Feinberg - Headstrong
Ron Gans - Dragstrip
Linda Gary - Chromia
Ed Gilbert - Blitzwing, Thrust, Shawn Berger
Jim Gosa - Abominus
Johnny Haymer - Highbrow, Swindle, Vortex
Buster Jones - Blaster
Stan Jones - Scourge, Pounce, Weirdwolf, Lord Zarak
Casey Kasem - Bluestreak, Cliffjumper, Dr Archeville, Teletran 1
Aron Kincaid - Sky Lynx
Bert Kramer - Computron
Chris Latta - Starscream, Defensor, Reflector, Skullcruncher, Wheeljack, Sparkplug, Snake
Don Messick - Gears, Ratchet, Scavenger
Jeff McKay - Fireflight
Leonard Nimoy - Galvatron (movie)
Tony Pope - Wreck-Gar (post movie)
Ken Sansom - Hound
Tony St James - Blot, Brawl, Cutthroat
Robert Stack - Ultra Magnus (movie)
John Stephenson - Huffer, Windcharger, Thundercracker, Alpha Trion, Kup (post movie)
Lionel Stander - Kup (movie)
Orson Welles - Unicron (movie)

[Bidoofdude]

RIP G1 Thundercracker, my favourite G1 character. :( I'd loved to have met him.

[Jazzman]

That's the second Voice Actor who's been to a BotCon that I've seen to have gone.... and the age of many of them from Gen1 means we should get used to this happening more in the next few years. :(

Griffin, do you have a list of which G1 voice actors are still with us? :confused:

[Gofigure]

In so many ways G1 feels like it wasn't that long ago. It seems like only yesterday I was watching these cartoons as a kid.

Then your brought back to reality with this stuff; time really does fly. People get older people die. One day all of a sudden your 38 years old......but still loving G1 and the transformers :)

It's just a big reminder when sad things like this happen.

[TAAUBlaster]

Its really sad to see another childhood favourite leave us :( Growing old sucks.

I knew we'd lost a lot of voice actors, but I didn't realise it was so many. Thanks for the list griffin.

[Hursticon]

Sad to learn of his passing. :(

I've never really been a fan of anything Hanna-Barbera outside of Gobots, even as a 4y/o I detested those toons... but this gentleman delivered one of my most favourites lines to quote from the G1 Transformers series:

"Ok, Reflector, let's see what you can see (https://youtu.be/S2-ZwTJwCNA)" ~ The Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye - Part 1.
(A line fondly remembered (http://heroicdecepticon.blogspot.com.au/2011/05/lets-see-what-you-can-see-reflector.html) by myself & Heroic_Decepticon that we've conversed over a couple of times :))

May John be at peace and be welcomed into the All-Spark of passed Transformers luminaries. :o

[griffin]

Griffin, do you have a list of which G1 voice actors are still with us? :confused:

These ones should still be alive... (I haven't checked these for a couple of years so some of the lesser known people at the end of the list might have died without us hearing about it)

Jack Angel - Astrotrain, Omega Supreme, Ramjet, Ultra Magnus (post movie)
Arlene Banas - Carly
Michael Bell - Bombshell, Brainstorm, First Aid, Prowl, Sideswipe, Scrapper, Swoop
Gregg Berger - Grimlock, Long Haul, Outback, Skyfire
Susan Blu - Arcee, Marissa Faireborn
Wally Burr - (substitute voices & Voice Director)
Michael Chain - Hoist, Powerglide, Red Alert
Peter Cullen - Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Slugslinger, Wingspan
Paul Eiding - Perceptor, Decepti-Traan
Dick Gautier - Apeface, Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime (post movie)
Dan Gilvezan - Bumblebee/Goldbug, Hot Spot, Rollbar
Jason Jenson - Tommy Kennedy
Maurice LaMarche - Six-Gun
Morgan Lofting - Firestar, Moonracer
Michael McConnohie - Tracks, Cosmos
John Moschitta - Blurr, Punch/Counterpunch
Samantha Newark - Elita-1
Hal Rayle - Pipes, Shrapnel, Snarl
Neil Ross - Bonecrusher, Hook, Pointblank, Sixshot, Slag, Springer
-
Charlie Adler - Silverbolt, Triggerhappy
Arthur Burghardt - Devastator
Steve Bulin - Onslaught, Searchlight, Strafe, Sureshot
Corey Burton - Spike, Brawn, Shockwave, Sunstreaker, Wideload, Vector Sigma
Bud Davis - Dirge, Metroplex, Predaking
Laurie Faso - Divebomb, Rampage, Skydive
Michael Horton - Chip Chase
Eric Idle - Wreck-Gar (movie)
Stephen Keener - Hardhead, Hun-Grrr, Fortress Maximus, Mindwipe, Scattershot, Scorponok
David Mendenhall - Daniel
Judd Nelson - Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime (movie)
Alan Oppenheimer - Beachcomber, Breakdown, Seaspray, Warparth
Rob Paulsen - Air Raid, Chase, Fastlane, Slingshot
Peter Reneday - Grapple, Lord Chumleigh
Clive Revill - Kickback
Frank Welker - Megatron, Blades, Chromedome, Frenzy, Groove, Galvatron (post movie), Mirage, Mixmaster, Rumble, Skywarp, Sludge, Soundwave, Trailbreaker, Wheelie, Buzzsaw, Laserbeak, Ratbat, Ravage
-
Marlene Aragon - Elita One
Jered Barclay - Cerebros, Sinnertwin
Roger Behr - Runabout, Runamuck
Victor Caroli - Narrator (movie)
Jim Cummings - Afterburner, Rippersnapper
Brad Garrett - Trypticon
John Hostetter - Ramhorn
Jerry Houser - Sandstorm
Milt Jamin - Blast Off
Joe Leahy - Razorclaw
Danny Mann - Cloudraker, Freeway, Lightspeed
Bill Martin - Broadside
Terry McGovern - Wildrider
Beau Weaver - Octane
Dave Workman - Nosecone, Sinnertwin

[Robzy]

Sad news :(

[Jazzman]

These ones should still be alive... (I haven't checked these for a couple of years so some of the lesser known people at the end of the list might have died without us hearing about it)

Thanks Griffin... man, it'd be great if those guys all had fan mail service! haha

[UltraMarginal]

RIP to the voice of my favourite Decepticon Jet. :(

My thoughts exactly.

At least the living list is still longer than the past list. it's a bit unnerving to see so many have passed on, like others I don't feel like G1 was 30 years ago.

[UltimateGalvatron]

Hey Griffin on your alive list Leonard Nimoy is there... I was very sad when I heard he died.

[griffin]

Hey Griffin on your alive list Leonard Nimoy is there... I was very sad when I heard he died.

I fixed that, as I noticed it before I saw your post.
The list was from another site that hadn't been updated in the last year, so there were three that had died since it was updated (Nimoy, Buster, Stephenson).