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Harold “Jack” Albertson was an American actor, voice actor, comedian, dancer, and singer. For Disney, he voiced Amos Slade in The Fox and the Hound, just four months before his death on November 25, 1981, from colorectal cancer. His other Disney roles included an uncredited role as a reporter in The Shaggy Dog, Mr. Barley in Son of Flubber, and Sam Grant in A Tiger Walks.

Albertson was born on June 16, 1907, in Malden, Massachusetts. He dropped out of high school and worked at different jobs including the local General Electric plant, a shoe factory and sometimes pool hustling. Later, he joined the vaudeville road troupe known as the Dancing Verselle Sisters before appearing in many Broadway plays and musicals, including High Button Shoes, Top Banana, The Cradle Will Rock, Make Mine Manhattan, Show Boat, Girl Crazy, The Sunshine Boys, and The Subject Was Roses, for which he won a Tony Award for Best Supporting Actor as John Cleary. He reprised the role for the 1968 film adaptation, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Albertson appeared in more than 30 films in his career. He had an early minor role in Miracle on 34th Street as Al, a postal worker who redirects dead letters addressed to "Santa Claus" to the courthouse where Kris Kringle is on trial. His most notable roles are Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, and Manny Rosen in The Poseidon Adventure. His other film appearances included Anything Can Happen, Top Banana, You Can't Run Away from It, Man of a Thousand Faces, Days of Wine and Roses, Kissin' Cousins, Roustabout, How to Murder Your Wife, The Flim-Flam Man, and How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life.

His television credits included Bus Stop, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, Pete and Gladys, The Thin Man, Have Gun – Will Travel, Mr. Quimby, The Jack Benny Program, The Tab Hunter Show, The Twilight Zone, Mister Ed, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Ensign O'Toole, The Andy Griffith Show, Ironside, Here Come the Brides, Bonanza, Land of the Giants, The Virginian, Gunsmoke, Lucius Prince, Daniel Boone, Nanny and the Professor, Love, American Style, Dr. Simon Locke, Night Gallery, The Streets of San Francisco, Gunsmoke, Charlie's Angels, and Chico and the Man where he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.

Two of his last roles were in the television movies My Body, My Child and Grandpa, Will You Run with Me?

Disney Roles[]

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