Pinto Colvig
| Pinto Colvig | |
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 Pinto Colvig in Jacksonville School |
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| Born | Vance DeBar Colvig September 11, 1892 Jacksonville, Oregon, U.S. |
| Died | October 3, 1967 (aged 75) Woodland Hills, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Lung cancer |
| Resting place | Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City |
| Alma mater | Oregon State University |
| Occupation | Actor, voice actor, newspaper cartoonist, circus performer |
| Years active | 1925–1965 |
| Spouse(s) | Margaret Bourke Slavin (1916–1950) (her death) Peggy Bernice Allaire (1952–1967) (his death) |
| Children | Vance DeBar Colvig William Mason Colvig (1920-1992) Byington Ford Colvig (1921-1996) Bourke L. Colvig (1922-1985) Courtney X. Colvig (1931-1990) |
| Parents | William Mason Colvig (father) Adelaide Birdseye (mother) |
Vance DeBar "Pinto" Colvig (September 11, 1892 – October 3, 1967) was an American vaudeville actor, radio actor, newspaper cartoonist, prolific movie voice actor and circus performer, whose schtick was playing the clarinet off-key while mugging. Colvig is best-known by his stage persona Bozo The Clown, as well as the original voice of the famed Disney character Goofy.
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Personal life [edit]
Colvig was born Vance DeBar Colvig in Jacksonville, Oregon, one of seven children of Judge William Mason Colvig (1845–1936) and wife Adelaide Birdseye Colvig (1856–1912).[1] Although William Colvig was a pioneer, an attorney and a distinguished Oregonian, he was never actually a judge.[2] Pinto graduated from Oregon State University in 1911 at age 18.
After marrying Margaret Bourke Slavin (1892–1950) in 1916, he settled with his wife in San Francisco, where four of their five boys were born (their last son was born in Los Angeles).[3]
A lifelong smoker, Colvig was one of the pioneers in advocating warning labels about cancer risk on cigarette packages in the United States.
Colvig was the father of the character and voice actor Vance Colvig, who was the first actor to play Bozo the Clown on a live TV program.
Career [edit]
in 1916, Pinto Colvig worked with Byington Ford and Benjamin Thackston Knight at the Animated Film Corp in San Francisco. The company produced animated cartoons long before Walt Disney.
Colvig is probably best known as the original voice of Disney's Goofy[4] and the original Bozo the Clown, a part he played for a full decade beginning in 1946.[5] He is also the second known voice of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.[6] Other notable characters he voiced include Practical Pig, the pig who built the "house of bricks" in the Disney short Three Little Pigs, as well as both Sleepy (originally was supposed to be Sterling Holloway) and Grumpy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and the barks for Pluto the dog. Colvig worked for not only the Disney studio, but also the Warner Bros. animation studio, Fleischer Studios (Bluto, Gabby), and MGM, where he voiced a Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz. He helped in the Looney Tunes 1942 cartoon, Conrad the Sailor.
In 1922, Colvig did a newspaper cartoon panel titled "Life on the Radio Wave" for the San Francisco Chronicle. The feature ran 3-4 times per week on the newspaper's radio page, and lasted six months.[7]
Death [edit]
Colvig died of lung cancer on October 3, 1967, in Woodland Hills, California, at age 75.[8] He was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ Medford Pioneers
- ^ "William Colvig".
- ^ Oregon Encyclopedia
- ^ Egan, Timothy (July 14, 1991). "Northwest Noir: An Art of the Serious Goofy". The New York Times.
- ^ "Battling Bozos". Retrieved 2008-02-18.
- ^ "The Walter Lantz Cartune Encyclopedia: 1930". The Walter Lantz Cartune Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2011-04-24.
- ^ "Stripper's Guide Obscurity of the Day, May 4, 2011". Retrieved 2011-05-04.
- ^ "Pinto Colvig, 75, Voice Of Cartoon Characters". The New York Times. October 6, 1967.
External links [edit]
- Pinto Colvig at the Internet Movie Database
- ABC News Investigates Bozo's Origin (2001)
- ABC News: Bozo Finally Unmasked (2004)
- Associated Press: Who's the First Bozo? (2004)
- Pinto Colvig - the original Bozo the Clown
- Find a Grave (parents)
- Ancestry (marriages and children)
- Pinto Colvig Archives at Southern Oregon Historical Society
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- Vaudeville performers
- American cartoonists
- American circus performers
- American radio actors
- American voice actors
- 20th-century American actors
- Oregon State University alumni
- Deaths from lung cancer
- 1892 births
- 1967 deaths
- Cancer deaths in California
- People from Jacksonville, Oregon
- Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City
