Arthur Timothy Read is a fictional

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

aardvark The aardvark ( ; ''Orycteropus afer'') is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa. It is the only living species of the order Tubulidentata, although other prehistoric species and genera of Tubulidentata are known. Unlike ...

created by American author Marc Brown. He is in the third grade and lives in the fictional city of Elwood City.

Physical appearance

Arthur is an anthropomorphic aardvark. In Brown's first ''Arthur'' book, ''Arthur's Nose'' (1976), Arthur is shown with a long nose and resembles an actual aardvark, though as the books progressed (as seen in the first season of ''Reading Rainbow'' in its 13th episode, ''Arthur's Eyes'') and eventually became an animated TV series. The character's most recognizable form is a light brown, slanted face with small ears and nostrils with signature round brown-rimmed eyeglasses. Arthur wears a yellow V-neck sweater over a white dress shirt, blue jeans, and red and white sneakers. He also occasionally wears a red rugby-style sweater. In the series finale "All Grown Up", Arthur's 28-year-old appearance features him with straight hair, slight facial hair, a green vest with a hood, and a red and yellow shirt with a Dark Bunny insignia.

Arthur's relationships

Family

The tensions between Arthur and his 4-year-old sister, Dora Winifred "D.W." Read, are a common theme in the ''Arthur'' series. Arthur is constantly pestered by D.W., who goes out of her way to get Arthur into trouble, which often causes Arthur to retaliate, by getting into quarrels with his friends. Arthur's parents are his mother, Jane Read, who is a work-at-home

accountant An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certifi ...

, and his father, David L. Read, who runs a

catering Catering is the business of providing food service at a remote site or a site such as a hotel, hospital, pub, aircraft, cruise ship, park, festival, filming location or film studio. History of catering The earliest account of major services be ...

business. Appearances from Arthur's extended family include Grandma Thora (David's mother), Grandpa Dave (Jane's father), Uncle Fred (Jane's brother), Uncle Richard, Uncle Bud, Uncle Sean, Aunt Jessica, Aunt Loretta, Aunt Lucy, and his cousins Cora, Monique, Ricky, George, and other unnamed relatives. However, the only two members of Arthur's extended family who have appeared more than once are Grandma Thora and Grandpa Dave. Grandma Thora lives in a house not too far from Arthur's in Elwood City and is known to be a bad cook, but a loving grandmother and a world-class marbles player. She loves to play

bingo Bingo or B-I-N-G-O may refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * Bingo, a game using a printed card of numbers ** Bingo (British version), a game using a printed card of 15 numbers on three lines; most commonly played in the UK and Ireland ** Bi ...

every Friday night, and in some episodes has to watch over Arthur and D.W. She is good friends with Mrs. McGrady, the school cafeteria monitor. Grandpa Dave lives in a convalescent home and has a roommate who was a ship captain.

Voice actors

These are the people who have been the voice actor for Arthur in the TV series: *

Michael Yarmush Michael Lawrence Yarmush (born June 19, 1982) is an American actor. He is known for providing the original voice of Arthur Read in the PBS children's animated television series '' Arthur''. Early life Yarmush was born in Miami, Florida, the so ...

(Seasons 1–5; "All Grown Up") (1996-2000, 2022) *

Justin Bradley Justin Bradley is a Canadian former actor. Early life He started his career at the age of six, modelling on various department store advertisements. Bradley also appeared in commercials for McDonald's, Danone and Canadian Tire as a child. C ...

(Season 6) (2001) *

Mark Rendall Mark Rendall (born October 21, 1988) is a Canadian film, television and voice actor whose roles include the lead in the 2004 film, ''Childstar'' and Mick in season 1 of the Canadian television drama series ''ReGenesis''. He played Bastian Bux i ...

(Season 6 (U.S. reruns only), Seasons 7–8) (2002-2003) *

Cameron Ansell Cameron Ansell (born November 28, 1992) is a Canadian voice and television actor, best known for voicing Arthur in the television series of the same name, Cheng in ''Skyland'', and Prince Lumen in ''Spider Riders''. He was born in Picton, Ontari ...

(Seasons 9–11) (2004-2007) * Dallas Jokic (Season 12–15) (2008-2012) * Drew Adkins (Season 16–17) (2012-2014) * William Healy (Season 18–19) (2014-2016) * Jacob Ursomarzo (Season 20–Season 21) (2016-2019) * Roman Lutterotti (Season 22–Season 25) (2019-2022) Arthur was originally voiced by

for the first five seasons. Due to reaching puberty, Yarmush was replaced with

for the 6th Season. After that, he was replaced with

who started voicing Arthur in Season 7. After Season 8 ended, Rendall redubbed all of Bradley's dialogue in Season 6. Starting with the 9th Season until the 11th Season, he was replaced with

. Soon after, Ansell was replaced by Dallas Jokic starting with Season 12 and ending with Season 15. From Seasons 16–17, Drew Adkins replaced Jokic for the role of Arthur. After Adkins got too old to play the character, William Healy replaced him for the role for Season 18 and Season 19. Healy was later replaced by Jacob Ursomarzo in the 20th Season. After Ursomarzo ended his role of Arthur after the 21st Season, Roman Lutterotti replaced him for the last four seasons. Michael Yarmush reprised his role in the series finale "All Grown Up", voicing the adult Arthur.

International voice actors

Since ''Arthur'' is shown in more than 80 countries, Arthur is dubbed by these voice actors shown here: * Alfredo Leal (Season 1–2), Hector Emmanuel Gómez (Season 3–5),

Kalimba Marichal Kalimba Kadjaly Marichal Ibar (born 26 July 1982), known mononymously as Kalimba, is a Mexican singer and actor. Career Kalimba was born in Mexico City to Afro-Cuban parents. He and his sister M'balia were both given traditional African nam ...

(singing voice) (

Latin American Spanish The different varieties of the Spanish language spoken in the Americas are distinct from each other as well as from those varieties spoken in the Iberian peninsula, collectively known as Peninsular Spanish and Spanish spoken elsewhere, such as in ...

) * Diego Larrea (

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

) * Matko Knešaurek (Season 1–4) ( Croatian) * Olli Parviainen (

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

) * Lawrence Arcouette (Season 1–3), Kim Jalabert (Season 4–6) (First dub in Quebec French), Vincent de Bouard (Season 7–15), and Émilie Guillaume (Season 16–present) (2nd dub in European French) ( French) * Argiris Pavlidis, Andria Rapti, Vasia Lakoumenta, Nektarios Theodorou (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

) * Baráth István ( Hungarian) *

Debbi Besserglick Debbi Besserglick ( he, דבי בסרגליק; November 19, 1955 – March 10, 2005) was an Israeli actress and voice actress. Biography Born in Jaffa, Besserglick studied at Tel Aviv University and the Levinsky College of Education. She then w ...

and Shiri Gadni (Besserglick voiced Arthur from its first run until her death from

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

in 2005. After her death, she was replaced by Shiri Gadni as the voice of Arthur in the following seasons.) (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

) * Simone D'Andrea (

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

) * Lee Mi-ja (Daekyo) and Jeong Ok-joo (EBS) (

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

) * Iman Bitar (1st voice) and Eman Hayel (2nd voice) (

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

) * Fariba Shahin Moghadam (

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

) * Håvard Bakke (

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

) * Teresa Chaves (1st voice) and Carlso Martins (2nd voice) (

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

) * Petre Ghimbăşan (

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

) * Elisabet Bargalló (

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

) *

Leo Hallerstam Leo Hallerstam (born July 26, 1986 in Stockholm) is a Swedish actor. He has done the voices for several Swedish language dubbed versions of movies and cartoons, including the voice of Charlie Brown and Arthur Read from the TV series of the same ...

(

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

)

Reception

Arthur Read was listed as number 26 in the

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

article, 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time.

References

External links

Arthur , PBS Kids
{{DEFAULTSORT:Read, Arthur Arthur (TV series) Fictional aardvarks Fictional anthropomorphic characters Fictional characters who break the fourth wall Child characters in television Literary characters introduced in 1976