Alan Reed

Alan Reed (born Herbert Theodore Bergman; August 20, 1907 – June 14, 1977)[1] was an American actor, best known as the original voice of Fred Flintstone on The Flintstones and various spinoff series. He also appeared in many films, including Days of Glory, The Tarnished Angels, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Viva Zapata! (as Pancho Villa), and Nob Hill, and various television and radio series.

Alan Reed
Born	Herbert Theodore Bergman August 20, 1907 New York City, U.S.
Died	June 14, 1977 (aged 69) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other names	Alan Reed Sr. Teddy Bergman
Alma mater	American Academy of Dramatic Arts Columbia University
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1930–1977
Spouse(s)	Finnette Walker ​ (m. 1932)​
Children	3

Early years

Reed was born Herbert Theodore Bergman in New York City to Jewish parents. His father was a Lithuanian-Jewish immigrant and his mother was born in the United States to Ukrainian-Jewish parents from Galicia.[2] He attended Washington High School[3] (now George Washington Educational Campus) and majored in journalism at Columbia University.

Between graduating from WHS and entering Columbia, he studied drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.[4] He began his acting career in the city, eventually working on Broadway.

For several years, Reed toured in vaudeville with his cousin, Harry Green.[5] He also had two other jobs—operating a wholesale candy factory and working at the Copake Country Club as "social director, entertainment producer and actor."[4]

For a time, he continued to list himself either as Teddy Bergman or Alan Reed, depending on the role he was playing (Reed for more comedic roles, Bergman for more serious ones). He was able to act in 22 foreign dialects, and made a career as a successful radio announcer and stage actor.

Career

Radio and stage

As early as 1930, Reed (billed as Teddy Bergman) co-starred with Herbert Polesie in Henry and George, a CBS program that featured "minute dramas, popular laughmakers ... interspersed with dance music selections."[6]

Reed's radio work included having two roles in Valiant Lady,[7] the role of Solomon Levy on Abie's Irish Rose, as the "Allen's Alley" resident poet Falstaff Openshaw on Fred Allen's NBC radio show, and later on his own five-minute show, Falstaff's Fables, on ABC, as Officer Clancey and other occasional roles on the NBC radio show Duffy's Tavern, as Shrevey the driver on several years of The Shadow, as Chester Riley's boss on the NBC radio show The Life of Riley, as Italian immigrant Pasquale in Life with Luigi on CBS radio, various supporting roles on Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, and as Lt. Walter Levinson in several episodes of Richard Diamond, Private Detective.

Reed was "heard regularly on the Crime Doctor series,"[8] and "was the original Daddy to Fanny Brice on Baby Snooks."[9] Billed as Teddy Bergman, he had the title role on Joe Palooka.[9]

Billed as Teddy Bergman, Reed appeared on Broadway in Double Dummy (1936), and A House in the Country (1937),[10] and Love's Old Sweet Song (1940).[11]

Television and later roles

From 1957 to 1958, Reed appeared in a recurring role as J.B. Hafter, a studio boss, on the CBS sitcom Mr. Adams and Eve, starring Howard Duff and Ida Lupino, then married in real life, but appearing as a fictitious acting couple living in Beverly Hills, California. He also played the same character in The Bob Cummings Show. In 1963, he appeared as Councilman Jack Gramby in episode 8 of the CBS sitcom My Favorite Martian. In 1964–65, he had a recurring role as Mr. Swidler in the ABC sitcom Mickey, starring Mickey Rooney as the owner of a resort hotel in Newport Beach, California.

Voice acting

In animation, Reed provided the voice of Boris the Russian Wolfhound in Walt Disney's Lady and the Tramp in 1955. In 1960, he began the voice role for Fred Flintstone, the lead character of Hanna-Barbera's prime-time animated series The Flintstones. Reed provided Fred's voice for the entire six-season run of the show, as well as in several spin-off series (The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, The Flintstone Comedy Hour) and specials. His final performance as Fred Flintstone was a cameo guest role on an episode of Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics. Among his other voice roles for Hanna-Barbera was Touché Turtle's sidekick, Dum Dum.

Radio playwright and director Norman Corwin cast Reed as Santa Claus in the 1969 KCET television reading of his 1938 play The Plot to Overthrow Christmas.

In television commercials Reed was the voice over for J.J. Keebler, a creation of the Leo Burnett Agency.[12]

Personal life

In May 1932, Reed married the former Finette Walker[13] (1909–2005), a Broadway actress whom he met at television station W2XAB (later WCBS-TV) in New York City.[3] She appeared on stage in the early 1930s and was a chorus member in the original 1934 Broadway production of Anything Goes with Ethel Merman.[14] They had three sons, including actor Alan Reed, Jr. (born May 10, 1936).[15] Once his son started acting, Reed took the professional name Alan Reed, Sr.

Death

Reed, a smoker, was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 1967. His bladder was removed, which eradicated the cancer,[15] but he later developed emphysema. On June 14, 1977, he died after having a heart attack.[15] His body was donated to medical research.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1937	Porky's Romance	Opening announcer (voice)	Short film
	Teddy Bergman's Bar-B-Q	Teddy Bergman
1944	Days of Glory	Sasha
1945	Nob Hill	Dapper Jack Harrigan
1946	The Postman Always Rings Twice	Ezra Liam Kennedy
1950	Perfect Strangers	Harry Patullo
	Emergency Wedding	Barber
1952	The Redhead and the Cowboy	Col. Lamartine
	Here Comes the Groom	Walter Godfrey
1953	Viva Zapata!	Pancho Villa
	Actor's and Sin	J.B. Cobb	Segment "Woman of Sin"
1953	Pickup on South Street	Detective	Uncredited
	I, the Jury	George Kalecki
	Geraldine	Frederick Sterling
1954	Woman's World	Tomaso
1955	The Far Horizons	Charboneau
	Lady and the Tramp	Boris (voice)
	Kiss of Fire	Sergeant Diego
	The Desperate Hours	Detective
1956	Time Table	Al Wolfe
	The Revolt of Mamie Stover	Captain Gorecki
	He Laughed Last	Big Dan Hennessy
1957	The Tarnished Angels	Colonel Fineman
1958	Marjorie Morningstar	Puddles Podell
1959	1001 Arabian Nights	The Sultan (voice)
1960	Stop! Look! and Laugh	Prince (voice)	Uncredited
1961	Breakfast at Tiffany's	Sally Tomato
1966	The Man Called Flintstone	Fred Flintstone (voice)
1969	Get Smart	Little girl (voice)	Uncredited
	A Dream of Kings	Fig King
1971	Shinbone Alley	Big Bill (voice)
1978	The Seniors	Professor Heigner	Final role, posthumous release

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1956	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Uncle Leo	Episode: "Alibi Me"
1958	Make Room for Daddy	Joe Ferbus	Episode: "The Reunion"
1959	Have Gun – Will Travel	Dirks the Clamjumper	Episode: "Gold and Brimstone"
1960	Peter Gunn	Garson	Episode: "The Maître d"
	Make Room for Daddy	Howard Sloan	Episode: "The Apple Polishers"
1960–1966	The Flintstones	Fred Flintstone, Professor Von Messerschmidt, J.L. Gothrocks, The Prowler, Grandpa Rocky Flintstone (voices)	166 episodes
1962–1963	The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series	Dum Dum (voice)	52 episodes
	Touché Turtle and Dum Dum
1963	Don't Call Me Charlie!	Private Winthrop Fairchild	Episode: "Raise Your Right Hand"
	The Dick Van Dyke Show	Auctioneer	Episode: "The Masterpiece"
	My Favorite Martian	Councilman Jack Gramby	Episode: "The Awful Truth"
1964	Hoppity Hooper	Filmore Bear, Additional voices	Episode: "Ring-A-Ding Spring"
1964–1968	The Beverly Hillbillies	Gene Booth	Episodes: "Teenage Idol", "The Great Tag-Team Match"
1966	Space Ghost	Glasstor	Episode: "Glasstor"
	Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?	Fred Flintstone (voice)	Television film
	The Impossibles	Smogula	1 episode
1967	Batman	General MacGruder	Episode: "Penguin Sets a Trend"
1968	Petticoat Junction	The Bandit	Episode: "Bad Day at Shady Rest"
1970	Where's Huddles?	Mad Dog Mahoney (voice)	10 episodes
1971	The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show	Fred Flintstone (voice)	16 episodes
1972	The Flintstone Comedy Hour	Fred Flintstone (voice)	18 episodes
1975	The Story of Heidi	Sebastian, Mr. Usher (voices)	English version
1977	Laff-A-Lympics	Fred Flintstone (voice)
	Energy: A National Issue		Television film
1977–1980	Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels	Additional voices	39 episodes Final television role

Radio

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1930	Henry and George
1932	Joe Palooka	Joe Palooka
1938	Valiant Ladt	Various roles
1940	The Baby Snooks Show	Daddy
1940–1947	Crime Doctor
1942	Abie's Irish Rose	Solomon Levy
1944–1951	Duffy's Tavern	Officer Clancy, various characters
	The Life of Riley	Chester Riley's boss
1948–1953	Life with Luigi	Pasquale
1948–1954	The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show	Various roles
1949–1962	Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
1949–1953	Richard Diamond, Private Detective	Lt. Walter Levinson

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1936	Dounle Dummy	Various characters	Broadway
1937	A House in the Country
1940	Love old Sweet Song

References

1. "Alan Reed profile". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 2015-09-27. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
2. "Fred Flintstone: A Stone Age Star With A Jewish Voice." Jewish Humor Central.com, October 10, 2010. Retrieved August 19, 2014.
3. Schmidt, Bill Jr. (April 24, 1932). "Airy Chats". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. p. E9. Retrieved December 12, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
4. Witte, Lawrence (December 9, 1960). "Static". Denton Journal. p. 10. Retrieved December 13, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
5. Cox, Jim (2007). Radio Speakers: Narrators, News Junkies, Sports Jockeys, Tattletales, Tipsters, Toastmasters and Coffee Klatch Couples Who Verbalized the Jargon of the Aural Ether from the 1920s to the 1980s—A Biographical Dictionary. McFarland & Company, Inc. pp. 234–235. ISBN 978-0-7864-6086-1.
6. "Henry and George In Lincoln". The Lincoln Star. August 3, 1930. p. D5. Retrieved December 12, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
7. Buxton, Frank and Owen, Bill (1972). The Big Broadcast: 1920–1950. The Viking Press. SBN 670-16240-x. P. 249.
8. "Fanny Brice on the Air Tonight". Belvidere Daily Republican. September 26, 1940. p. 8. Retrieved December 13, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
9. DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960. McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 223. ISBN 978-0-7864-2834-2.
10. "Teddy Bergman". Playbill Vault. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
11. "CBS Actor Has Head Shaved for Summer". El Paso Herald-Post. May 31, 1940. p. 2. Retrieved December 13, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
12. Cerny, JoBe (May 11, 2015). "Icons of Advertising". Screen. Archived from the original on June 7, 2015. Retrieved August 17, 2019.
13. "Behind the Microphone" (PDF). Broadcasting. May 1, 1932. p. 19. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
14. "Finette Walker: Performer." Playbill Vault Retrieved August 19, 2014.
15. Thomas, Nick (September 23, 2015). "Alan Reed Jr. remembers 'The Flintstones' at 55". USA Today. Retrieved November 1, 2017.

Further reading

• Reed, Alan. The Alan Reed Story. Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media, 2009. ISBN 1-59393-313-4
• Terrace, Vincent. Radio Programs, 1924–1984. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1999. ISBN 0-7864-0351-9

External links

• Alan Reed at IMDb
• "Alan Reed". Find a Grave. Retrieved September 3, 2010.
• Alan Reed at the Internet Broadway Database (billed as Teddy Bergman)