Shepard Menken (November 2, 1921 – January 2, 1999) was an American film, television, voice, radio

character actor A character actor is a supporting actor who plays unusual, interesting, or eccentric characters.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrieved 7 August 2014, "..a breed of actor who has the ability to b ...

.Photographs and other images associated with Shepard Menken
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Early life

Menken began his career at the age of 11, when he started appearing on children's radio programs. After high school, Menken attended

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, and later studied performing arts at the Neighborhood Playhouse Theatre and the

Juilliard School of Music The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...

Career

Menken made his film debut in 1949 with a supporting role in '' The Red Menace'', and eventually appeared onscreen in 17 movies. Menken worked steadily as a television actor, appearing on such series as ''

I Love Lucy ''I Love Lucy'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning six seasons. The show starred Lucille Ball, her husband, Desi Arnaz, along with ...

'', ''

I Spy I spy is a guessing game where one player (the ''spy'' or ''it'') chooses an object within sight and announces to the other players that "I spy with my little eye something beginning with...", naming the first letter of the object. Other players a ...

'', and ''

The Wild Wild West ''The Wild Wild West'' is an American Western, espionage, and science fiction television series that ran on the CBS television network for four seasons from September 17, 1965, to April 11, 1969. Two satirical comedy television film sequels w ...

''. He was also in demand as a voice talent, working on animated cartoons 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 ...

, UPA, and

Marvel Productions New World Animation Ltd., formerly known as Marvel Productions, was the television and film studio subsidiary of the Marvel Entertainment Group, based in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. It later became a subsidiary of ...

, as well as advertising spots for

StarKist Tuna StarKist Tuna is a brand of tuna produced by StarKist Co., an American company formerly based in Pittsburgh's North Shore that is now wholly owned by Dongwon Industries of South Korea. It was purchased by Dongwon from the American food manufactu ...

and

Mattel Toys Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in more ...

; his was the voice intoning, "The only way to fly!" in

Western Airlines Western Airlines was a major airline based in California, operating in the Western United States including Alaska and Hawaii, and western Canada, as well as to New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Miami and to Mexico City, London and N ...

' spots in the 1960s. Menken voiced the

Clyde Crashcup Clyde Crashcup is a fictional character from the early 1960s animated television series ''The Alvin Show''. He is a scientist in a white coat who tends to "invent" things that had already been invented; his experiments invariably fail. He usuall ...

character in ''

The Alvin Show ''The Alvin Show'' is an American animated television series that aired on CBS in the early 1960s. This was the first series to feature the singing characters Alvin and the Chipmunks. ''The Alvin Show'' aired for one season, from October 4, 1961, ...

'', as well as the character

Tonto Tonto is a fictional character; he is the Native American (either Comanche or Potawatomi) companion of the Lone Ranger, a popular American Western character created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker. Tonto has appeared in radio and televi ...

in the 1966-69 animated series ''

The Lone Ranger The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend Tonto. The character has been called an enduring icon of American culture. He first appeared in 1933 in ...

''. He also voiced the Spelling Bee and Chroma the Great in the

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

live-action/animated film ''

The Phantom Tollbooth ''The Phantom Tollbooth'' is a children's fantasy adventure novel written by Norton Juster, with illustrations by Jules Feiffer, first published in 1961. The story follows a bored young boy named Milo who unexpectedly receives a magic tollb ...

'', and provided the voice for the title character in ''

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" is a short story in the 1894 anthology ''The Jungle Book ''The Jungle Book'' (1894) is a collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and ...

''. In 1963, Menken formed his own company, Malibu Films, which specialized in educational and industrial films.

Death

Shepard Menken died in the

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' ...

neighborhood of Woodland Hills two months after his 77th birthday.

Selected filmography

* ''

The Great Caruso ''The Great Caruso'' is a 1951 biographical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring Mario Lanza as Enrico Caruso. It was directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Joe Pasternak with Jesse L. Lasky as associate producer from a screenplay b ...

'' (1951) as Fucito * '' David and Bathsheba'' (1951) as Police Guard (uncredited) * '' Tangier Incident'' (1953) * ''

Captain John Smith and Pocahontas ''Captain John Smith and Pocahontas '' is a 1953 American historical film directed by Lew Landers. The distributor was United Artists. It stars Anthony Dexter, Jody Lawrance and Alan Hale. While most scenes were filmed in Virginia's Blue Ridge ...

'' (1953) as Natanquas * ''

Killers From Space ''Killers from Space'' (a.k.a. ''The Man Who Saved the Earth'') is a 1954 independently made American black-and-white science fiction film, produced and directed by W. Lee Wilder (brother of Billy Wilder), that stars Peter Graves, Barbara Besta ...

'' (1953) as Major Clift * ''

I Love Lucy, Episode 77, 'Lucy Has Her Eyes Examined' I, or i, is the ninth letter and the third vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''i'' (pronounced ), plural ...

'', billed as "Shep Menken" (1953) as the optometrist * ''

King Richard and the Crusaders ''King Richard and the Crusaders'' is a 1954 American historical drama film made by Warner Bros. The film stars Rex Harrison, Virginia Mayo, George Sanders and Laurence Harvey, with Robert Douglas, Michael Pate and Paula Raymond. It was direct ...

'' (1954) as Muezzin (uncredited) * ''

Bengal Brigade ''Bengal Brigade'' is a 1954 American adventure war film directed by Laslo Benedek and starring Rock Hudson, Arlene Dahl and Ursula Thiess. The film was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures, based on the 1952 novel ''Bengal Tigers'' by ...

'' (1954) as Bulbir

References

External links

*
Shepard Menken
at the

American Film Institute Catalog The ''AFI Catalog of Feature Films'', also known as the ''AFI Catalog'', is an ongoing project by the American Film Institute (AFI) to catalog all commercially-made and theatrically exhibited American motion pictures from the birth of cinema in ...

Shepard Menken
at

AllMovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Menken, Shepard 1921 births 1999 deaths American male voice actors American male radio actors American male film actors Male actors from New York City 20th-century American male actors Juilliard School alumni Columbia University alumni Burials at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery