DICK BEALS

    Dick Beals and I became quite good friends over the years.  We had very long conversations about his work and even discovered that he was the singing voice for RANKIN/BASS' THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY (1968) Aaron.  His book THINK BIG, was a very detailed account of his life BUT he forgot about working on THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY.  He was so proud of the fact that he did SPEEDY's voice for so many years.  I grew up hearing Dick's voice in THE FUNNY COMPANY.  He loved to talk about that and do the voices for me as well.

    Dick was hired to do the PEANUTS voices until Charles Schulz found out that he wasn't a real kid.  Dick did Supervise the 4th or 5th special and received screen credit.  He loved working for Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera.  He was the voice of Buzz Conroy in FRANKENSTEIN JR. AND THE IMPOSSIBLES and many of the kids featured in THE JETSONS, THE FLINTSTONES, etc.  In fact, he played one of the elves in the Christmas episode of THE FLINSTONES (I think it was Winky).

     To me, he was one of the greater voice actors in animation.  You could always tell it was his voice and he really brought life to the characters he voiced.