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Angus "Alan" Young was an English-born-Canadian-American actor, voice actor, comedian, and radio and television host/personality who starred in his own radio and television shows in the 1940s and 1950s (including the Emmy Award-winning Alan Young Show), with one of his best-known TV roles being that of Wilbur Post on the classic prime time sitcom Mister Ed.

He also co-starred with Rod Taylor (later Pongo in One Hundred and One Dalmatians) in the sci-fi classic The Time Machine.

For Disney, he provided the voice of Scrooge McDuck from 1974 to 2016. Young was the first actor to voice Scrooge with a genuine Scottish accent. He was born to Scottish parents[1] and raised in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh after his Scots father moved the family there when Young was a toddler, and although he had tried to get rid of his Scottish accent when he moved to America, it proved useful when he was cast as Scrooge.[2][3] Young once said in an interview that he based Scrooge's voice on the voice of his own Scottish father.[4] Young was later cast as another well-known Scottish cartoon character: Haggis McHaggis from The Ren & Stimpy Show.

Young's other animated roles include Hiram Flaversham in The Great Mouse Detective and Doctor Cooper in the TaleSpin episode "The Old Man and the Sea Duck". His only live-action role for Disney was Dr. Winger in The Cat from Outer Space.

He also voiced Mickey Mouse and Merlin in the Disneyland record album An Adaptation of Dickens' Christmas Carol, Performed by The Walt Disney Players, for which Young also wrote the script. It would be the first and only time that Young voiced them.[5][6][7] The album also marked Young's first performance as Scrooge McDuck.

Disney Roles

Filmography as Scrooge McDuck

Alan and Scrooge

Arguably Alan Young's most notable animated role was that of Scrooge McDuck, a character he voiced for over 40 years, making him one of the longest-running voice actors for the same character in Disney history. While he is best known for portraying Scrooge as the main character in the popular 1987-90 animated series DuckTales, Young portrayed the role throughout a wide variety of Disney projects, including (but not limited to):

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

Trivia

  • Although his role as Scrooge McDuck had already been recast in the reboot series of DuckTales, Young was originally going to have a cameo on the new series as a different character. However, these plans were canceled, as Young passed away before his lines could be recorded.[8]
    • It has since been revealed that Young would have played Scrooge's father Fergus McDuck.
  • Young and Scrooge's creator, Carl Barks, were in contact with each other and were familiar with each others' work on the character. Barks told Young that he liked Young's portrayal of Scrooge, and thought it fit the character well.[9]

References

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