Robert Wayne "Bob" Amsberry was an American actor, who starred as one of the original cast members on the Mickey Mouse Club. He also appeared in Disney's Hardy Boys television serial installment Mystery of Ghost Farm and voiced Joe Muffaw in Paul Bunyan and one of Maleficent's Goons in the 1959 Disney animated feature film Sleeping Beauty.
Amsberry was born on June 2, 1928 in Boring, Oregon as the third child of Ernest and Cassie Amsberry. He graduated from Franklin High School in Portland with friend and classmate Johnnie Ray. Musically inclined from a young age, Amsberry began an entertainment career such as a radio program in 1954 titled Uncle Bob's Squirrel Cage on the KEX radio station which he wrote, produced, and hosted.
Wanting to break away from radio, Amsberry was invited by a KEX colleague, George Bruns, to join Disney's music department as a songwriter. While writing music for Mickey Mouse Club, the crew like his energy and enthusiasm and made him an adult cast member alongside Jimmie Dodd and Roy Williams. He perform as a wide variety of characters such as Bob-O the clown, and a Malt shop owner named Bob as well continued to write songs for the studio and segments within the show. He also acted as leader of the Blue Team within the Mouseketeers. He remained with the show until September of 1957 when his contract expired.
On the morning of November 21, 1957, Amsberry was involved in a car accident in Portland, Oregon and died from his injuries. His work in Paul Bunyan and Sleeping Beauty was released posthumously.
Roles[]
(Paul Bunyan)
