Clarence Charles "Ducky" Nash (December 7, 1904 – February 20, 1985) was an American voice actor. He was best known as the original voice of the

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

cartoon character

Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...

. He was born in the rural community of

Watonga, Oklahoma Watonga is a city in Blaine County, Oklahoma. It is 70 miles northwest of Oklahoma City. The population was 5,111 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Blaine County. History Watonga is located on former Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian Res ...

, and a street in that town is named in his honor. In 1993, he was posthumously made a Disney Legend for his contributions to Walt Disney films.

Career

Nash made a name for himself in the late 1920s as an impressionist for KHJ, a

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

, on their show, ''The Merrymakers''. He later was employed by the Adohr Milk Company for publicity purposes. Dubbed "Whistling Clarence, the Adohr Bird Man", Nash rode the streets with a team of

miniature horse A miniature horse is a breed or type of horse characterised by its small size. Usually it has been bred to display in miniature the physical characteristics of a full-sized horse, but to be little over in height, or even less. Although such hor ...

s and gave treats to the children. In 1932, Nash happened by the Disney Studio with his team of horses, and decided to leave a copy of his Adohr publicity sheet with the receptionist. As it turns out, his name was recognized from a reprise appearance on ''The Merrymakers'' a few days previous, and

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

himself had been impressed by Nash's vocal skills. He was asked to make an informal audition. ClarenceNashfootprints

Donald Duck

One source indicates Nash auditioned before a casting director for Walt Disney Studios and did a voice impression of a billy goat that Nash had started doing as a child in Watonga. The director then reached for the intercom and told

, "I think we have found our duck." Another version indicates Nash went through several of his voices, and Walt Disney happened by when Nash gave his impersonation of a family of

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form ...

s. Disney declared Nash perfect for the role of a talking duck in their upcoming animated short, ''

The Wise Little Hen ''The Wise Little Hen'' is a 1934 Walt Disney's ''Silly Symphony'' cartoon, based on the fable '' The Little Red Hen''. The cartoon features the debut of Donald Duck, dancing to the Sailor's Hornpipe. Donald and his friend Peter Pig try to avoi ...

''. The duck was Donald Duck, who Nash went on to voice for 51 years, in over 120 shorts and films. The last film to feature Nash's famous voice was 1983's ''

Mickey's Christmas Carol ''Mickey's Christmas Carol'' is a 1983 American animated family comedy-drama featurette directed and produced by Burny Mattinson. The cartoon is an adaptation of Charles Dickens's 1843 novella ''A Christmas Carol'', and stars Scrooge McDuck as ...

'', although he continued to provide Donald's voice for commercials, promos, and other miscellaneous material until his death. As early as 1938, promoters from lecture circuits were approaching him on his unique voice of Donald. Disney reportedly didn't like the engagements at first, feeling that a human doing the voice would be spoiling the illusion, but then long after he had second thoughts. In early 1941, Nash was traveling on an personal appearance tours sponsored by Disney. During World War II, Nash, with his ventriloquist puppet of Donald, which was built by Disney's character modeling department, became a regular performer at USO bond rallies and other events to support the war effort. In the mid-1940s, Roy and Walt approved the Donald puppet and they decided to harness it for the 1944 re-release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. RKO and Disney were unsure how the film would do the second time around at the box office after its initial blockbuster run, so they did a promotional campaign with Disney characters including Nash performing with the Donald puppet. During the promotional period of ''

Fun and Fancy Free ''Fun and Fancy Free'' is a 1947 American animated musical fantasy package film produced by Walt Disney and released on September 27, 1947 by RKO Radio Pictures. It is the ninth Disney animated feature film and the fourth of the package films th ...

'', he did multiple radio appearances from May to September 1947, with one of those appearances starring Disney himself. He voiced Donald for 1950s TV commercials. Nash's Donald Duck voice was achieved by what is called buccal speech: an alaryngeal form of vocalization which uses the inner cheek to produce sound rather than the

larynx The larynx (), commonly called the voice box, is an organ in the top of the neck involved in breathing, producing sound and protecting the trachea against food aspiration. The opening of larynx into pharynx known as the laryngeal inlet is about ...

. also published as He first discovered it while trying to mimic his pet goat Mary. In his days before Disney, Nash performed in

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

shows where he often spoke in a "nervous baby goat" voice. Donald Duck became one of the world's most famous cartoon characters, in great part due to Nash's voice. The voice is distinctive both for its ducklike quality and the fact that it is often very difficult for anybody to understand, especially when Donald flew into a rage (which happened fairly often). To keep Donald's voice consistent throughout the world, Nash voiced the character in all foreign languages the Disney shorts were translated to (with the aid of the phonetic alphabet), meaning Donald retained his same level of incoherency all across the globe.

Other characters

In addition to Donald's voice, Clarence Nash also voiced Donald's nephews

Huey, Dewey and Louie Huey, Dewey, and Louie are triplet cartoon characters created by storyboard artist ( screenwriter) Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company from an idea proposed by cartoonist Al Taliaferro and are the nephews of Donald Duck and the grand-nephe ...

and his girlfriend

Daisy Daisy, Daisies or DAISY may refer to: Plants * ''Bellis perennis'', the common daisy, lawn daisy or English daisy, a European species Other plants known as daisy * Asteraceae, daisy family ** '' Euryops chrysanthemoides'', African bush daisy ** ' ...

. He provided the meows and yowls of Figaro the kitten in ''

Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel '' The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan ...

'' and in a handful of shorts; in ''Pinocchio'' he also provided the

Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.Bambi ''Bambi'' is a 1942 American animated drama film directed by David Hand (supervising a team of sequence directors), produced by Walt Disney and based on the 1923 book ''Bambi, a Life in the Woods'' by Austrian author and hunter Felix Salten ...

'' and also did some dog sounds in ''

One Hundred and One Dalmatians ''One Hundred and One Dalmatians'' (also simply known as ''101 Dalmatians'') is a 1961 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and based on the 1956 novel '' The Hundred and One Dalmatians'' by Dodie Smith. Th ...

'', and also voiced

Jiminy Cricket Jiminy Cricket is the Disney version of the " Talking Cricket" (Italian: ''Il Grillo Parlante''), a fictional character created by Italian writer Carlo Collodi for his 1883 children's book ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'', which Walt Disney adap ...

for a brief period of time after

Cliff Edwards Clifton Avon "Cliff" Edwards (June 14, 1895 – July 17, 1971), nicknamed "Ukulele Ike", was an American singer, musician and actor. He enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standar ...

's death in 1971. Nash's iconic Donald Duck voice would be impersonated elsewhere in animation, most notably in the Tom and Jerry cartoons directed by

William Hanna William Denby Hanna (July 14, 1910 – March 22, 2001) was an American animator and cartoonist who was the creator of ''Tom and Jerry'' as well as the voice actor for the two title characters. Alongside Joseph Barbera, he also founded the anim ...

and

Joseph Barbera Joseph Roland Barbera ( ; ; March 24, 1911 – December 18, 2006) was an American animator, director, producer, storyboard artist, and cartoon artist who co-founded the animation studio and production company Hanna-Barbera. Born to Italian ...

with the characters

Little Quacker This is a complete list of the 164 shorts in the ''Tom and Jerry'' series produced and released between 1940 and 2014. Of these, 162 are theatrical shorts, one is a made-for-TV short, and one is a 2-minute sketch shown as part of a telethon. ...

(voiced by

Red Coffey Merle Herman Coffman, better known by his stage name Red Coffey (April 24, 1923 – August 1, 1988), was an American voice actor and comedian known for playing Quacker in the ''Tom and Jerry'' cartoons at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio f ...

) and Yakky Doodle (voiced by

Jimmy Weldon Jimmy Weldon (born Ivy Laverne Shinn, September 23, 1923) is an American retired voice actor, ventriloquist, and former television host. He is best known as the voice of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Yakky Doodle and the host and ventriloq ...

). As with most Hanna-Barbera productions, these characters used celebrity impersonations, in these cases an impersonation of Clarence Nash's Donald Duck voice. Because both were so similar to Nash's voice they were often mistakenly attributed to Nash. Likewise, contrary to popular belief, he did not perform the duck voice for

Rick Dees Rigdon Osmond Dees III (born March 14, 1950), best known as Rick Dees, is an American entertainer, radio personality, comedian, actor, and voice artist, best known for his internationally syndicated radio show '' The Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 Coun ...

' "

Disco Duck "Disco Duck" is a satirical disco novelty song performed by Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots. At the time, Dees was a Memphis disc jockey. It became a number-one hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for one week in October 1976 (and ranked #97 out ...

"; it was one of Dees' acquaintances. Nash would also use his duck voice on '' The Burns & Allen Show'' during the 1940s, playing Gracie's pet duck. Nash appeared as himself in the 1941 film '' The Reluctant Dragon'', which shows how Disney films are produced, and was a contestant on a 1954 episode of ''

What's My Line ''What's My Line?'' is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebrity panelis ...

'' and a 1964 episode of '' To Tell the Truth''. Nash also appeared as himself in a 1956 episode of ''

Disneyland Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envisio ...

'' entitled "

A Day in the Life of Donald Duck "A Day in the Life of Donald Duck" is a 1956 episode of the ''Disneyland'' TV show. As the name of the episode implies, viewers experience Donald Duck himself as he struggles through a typical day at the Walt Disney Studios. In the process, he m ...

", in which he interacts with an animated Donald who blames him for his speech problems: the two end up arguing mainly due to Donald's short temper. He was also a guest on a 1976 episode of ''

The Mike Douglas Show ''The Mike Douglas Show'' was an American daytime television talk show that was hosted by Mike Douglas. It began as a local program in Cleveland before being carried on other stations owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting. The show went into natio ...

''. The 1984 special ''

Donald Duck's 50th Birthday ''Donald Duck's 50th Birthday'' is a 1984 television special broadcast on '' The Magical World of Disney'' on November 13, 1984 on CBS. As the title suggests, it was produced to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Donald Duck character, who first ...

'' included several clips from Disney films and ''Disneyland'' episodes.

Later years

When Disney shut down their shorts department in 1962, Nash continued to voice Donald in various projects over the next two decades. In the late 1970s, Nash was known for often taking walks in the neighborhood around Fremont Elementary School in

Glendale, California Glendale is a city in the San Fernando Valley and Verdugo Mountains regions of Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2020 U.S. Census the population was 196,543, up from 191,719 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth-larges ...

, entertaining children with his Donald Duck voice. As he passed the age of 70, he found the harsh voice increasingly straining on his throat and so limited public performances to groups of children. During recording sessions, he would take frequent breaks and drink plenty of water to avoid overexerting himself. One of Nash's final performances was in ''

'' (1983), which made Donald the only character in the film to be voiced by his original actor. His career at Disney was the subject of the premiere episode of '' Disney Family Album'', a 1984 series of documentaries about behind-the-scenes personalities at the studio.

Personal life

Nash married Margaret Seamans in 1930; they had two children, Kay and Peggy.

Death

Nash died on February 20, 1985, of

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

in the

Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center is a Catholic hospital in Burbank, California. The hospital has 446 beds, and is part of Providence Health & Services. Its address is 501 South Buena Vista Street, Burbank, California 91505. On the oppo ...

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, who ...

, at the age of 80 and was interred in the

San Fernando Mission Cemetery The San Fernando Mission Cemetery is a Catholic cemetery located in the Mission Hills community of the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. The property adjoins the San Fernando Mission and Bishop Alemany Catholic High School. ThSan Fernando Mi ...

in Mission Hills, Los Angeles, California. The tombstone of the grave he now shares with his wife Margaret Nash depicts a carving of Donald and Daisy Duck holding hands.

Successor and upcoming biography

After Nash's death, Donald's voice has been taken up by Disney animator

Tony Anselmo Tony Anselmo (born February 18, 1960) is an American voice actor and animator. He has been the official character voice of Donald Duck since 1985 following the death of the original voice actor, Clarence Nash. He has also provided voices for Do ...

, who was trained under Nash personally. Anselmo is also among the many voiceover artists to have voiced Huey, Dewey and Louie over the years. Later characters whose voices owe considerable credit to Nash's duck voice have been voiced by actors such as

Frank Welker Franklin Wendell Welker (born March 12, 1946) is an American voice actor. He began his career in the 1960s, and holds over 860 film, television, and video game credits as of 2022, making him one of the most prolific voice actors of all time. With ...

, Luba Goy and

. The most prominent of these is Weldon's Yakky Doodle for

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

. Disney historian

J.B. Kaufman J.B. Kaufman is a film historian and author who specializes in Disney animation history and silent films. His books include ''The Fairest One of All'', ''Pinocchio: The Making of the Disney Epic'', and ''Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse''. He is the consu ...

is currently working with Margaret Barnes, Nash's granddaughter, on a biography of Nash.

Filmography

Radio

Shorts

Film

Television

Discography

* ''Mickey and the Beanstalk'' (Capitol, 1947)"Walt Disney's Fun and Fancy Free on Records, Part 2"
Retrieved October 7, 2017. as Donald Duck * ''Donald Duck's Singing Lesson''/''Pluto, The Pup'' (Golden, 1949) as Donald Duck * ''Cinderella'' (RCA, 1949) as Lucifer, Bruno, Major, Additional Animal Voices * ''Mickey's New Car''/''Donald Duck at the Opera'' (Golden, 1950)"Golden Records-78 RPM-Label Discography Page 2"
Retrieved November 25, 2018. "Original Voices..." as Donald Duck * ''Donald Duck, Babysitter''/''Mickey Mouse and Farmer Rush Rush'' (Golden, 1950) as Donald Duck * ''Donald Duck Cowboy'' (Golden, 1950) as Donald Duck * ''Trick or Treat'' (RCA Victor, 1952) as Donald Duck * ''Mr. Television'' (RCA Victor, 1952)''Billboard''. June 30, 1951, P.20. "Milton Berle and Clarence Nash, the voice of Disney's Donald Duck, waxed two singles for RCA Victor last week titled respectively "Mr. Television" and "Mr. Animated Cartoon."" as Donald Duck * ''Mr. Animated Cartoon'' (RCA Victor, 1952) as Donald Duck * ''Donald Duck, Fire Chief'' (Golden, 1953) as Donald Duck * ''Mickey Mouse's Birthday Party'' (Capitol, 1954) as Donald Duck * ''School Days'' (Golden, 1954)"Golden Records-78 RPM-Label Discography Page 4"
Retrieved November 25, 2018. "Original Voices..." as Donald Duck * ''Mickey Mouse's Christmas Party'' (Golden, 1954) as Donald Duck *''Happy Birthday to Mickey Mouse''/''Donald Duck's Unbirthday'' (Golden, 1955) as Donald Duck * ''Walt Disney's Song Parade from Disneyland'' (Golden, 1956) as Donald Duck * ''Goofy's Dance Party'' (Disneyland, 1959) as Donald Duck * ''Donald Duck and His Friends'' (Disneyland, 1960)"Donald Duck's Quacked Records"
Retrieved October 7, 2017. as Donald Duck * ''Chipmunk Fun'' (Disneyland, 1963) as Donald Duck * ''Mickey and the Beanstalk'' (Disneyland, 1963) as Donald Duck * ''Dickens' Christmas Carol Presented by the Walt Disney Players'' (Disneyland, 1975) as Donald Duck * ''Yankee Doodle Mickey'' (Disneyland, 1980) as Donald Duck * ''Goin' Quackers'' (Disneyland, 1980) as Donald Duck * ''Pardners'' (Disneyland, 1980) Hollis, Tim; Ehrbar, Greg (2006). ''Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records''. University Press of Mississippi. . Retrieved October 7, 2017. as Donald Duck * ''Merry Christmas Carols'' (Disneyland, 1980) as Donald Duck * '' Mousercise'' (Disneyland, 1982) as Donald Duck * ''Mickey Mouse Splashdance'' (Disneyland, 1983)Mouse - Splashdance at Discogs"
Retrieved October 7, 2017. as Donald Duck

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nash, Clarence 1904 births 1985 deaths 20th-century American male actors American male voice actors Animal impersonators Burials at San Fernando Mission Cemetery Deaths from cancer in California Deaths from leukemia Disney people Inkpot Award winners Male actors from Oklahoma People from Watonga, Oklahoma