Danny Webb (American actor)

Daniel 'Danny' Webb (born David Weberman May 24, 1906 — September 16, 1983)^{[2][unreliable source?]}, also known professionally as Dave Weber, was an American voice actor, vaudeville comic, and radio/TV comedian.

Early life

Webb was born David Weberman on May 24, 1906, in New York City to Herman Weberman, a Hungarian Jewish furrier, and Lena (née Rubin) Weberman. Herman left Budapest and moved to the United States in 1887. He worked as a salesman.^{[2][unreliable source?]}

Voice actor

The young comedian arrived in Hollywood in 1935, using the professional name Dave Weber. He did celebrity impersonations on the Burns & Allen anniversary show along with doing voice work for a Screen Gems cartoon called Sing Time, where he impersonated Bing Crosby, Rudy Vallee, Eddie Cantor, Andy Devine and others.^[2] He started working for Warner Bros. in the mid-1930s and his first cartoon was The Coo-Coo Nut Grove. He also voiced Egghead in Daffy Duck & Egghead, Elmer Fudd in Cinderella Meets Fella (1938) and in Believe It or Else (1939). Weber also did voices for the 1939 Merrie Melodies short A Day at the Zoo.

Weber voiced the Disney character Goofy for four years, after Goofy's traditional voice Pinto Colvig had a falling out with Walt Disney and left the studio.^[3]

Hollywood films

Dave Weber's comedic versatility was noticed by Columbia Pictures. In October 1938 Columbia signed him to star in 12 two-reel comedies. Columbia changed his professional name from Dave Weber to Danny Webb.^[4] The first short was A Star Is Shorn (1939), directed by Mack Sennett veteran Del Lord, with Webb as a hot-shot talent agent.^[5] Webb's screen personality resembled that of 1950s star Bobby Van.^[6] The short-subject series was abruptly called off, however, after the one film. Webb was transferred to Columbia's Community Sing series -- also directed by Del Lord that season -- where Webb made comic remarks between vocals by the King Sisters.

Webb then signed with industrial-film producer Wilding Pictures, where he worked on promotional films for Chrysler automobiles.^[7]

Webb returned to Columbia to provide voices for its animated cartoons, and continued to work behind the scenes in Hollywood, offering his trick voices in feature films like Universal's Sing Another Chorus and Hellzapoppin' (both 1941).

Return to voice work

In 1941, after Mel Blanc signed a contract with Leon Schlesinger in which he exclusively did voice work for Warner Bros., Webb became the first person to succeed Blanc as the voice of Woody Woodpecker for Walter Lantz Productions. He only partially voiced the character in Pantry Panic, which also contained a few spoken lines Blanc had recorded prior to leaving the Lantz studio, before Webb enlisted in the army and was succeeded by Kent Rogers (sources claiming that Ben Hardaway was the first person to succeed Blanc as Woody's voice are incorrect, as Hardaway would not voice the character until The Barber of Seville in 1944).^[8]

Webb enlisted in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, worked his way up to staff sergeant, and ended up entertaining troops in North Africa. Dwight D. Eisenhower was sufficiently impressed by his technique to deem him as 'Comedy Commando', a tag which stuck around for several years after World War II had ended. Webb later returned to radio, became the voice of Sad Sack, and hosted the quiz show "Guess Who" starting May 11, 1945, replacing Peter Donald.^[9]

Television

Danny Webb joined local New York television station WPIX-TV in 1949 as a children's entertainer. He co-starred with Toby Sommers on Comics on Parade -- the "comics" referring not to comedians but to newspaper comics. "Uncle" Danny Webb and Toby Sommers would read comic strips on the air on this seven-days-a week, 15-minute program.^[10] Webb followed this with another brief kids' show, Small Time. During 1950 Webb was also "The Little Professor", commercial spokesman for Dr. Posner's Shoes, seen during broadcasts of WPIX's Six-Gun Playhouse.^[11] On December 9, 1950 Webb debuted as the emcee of a juvenile amateur show, Junior Talent Time.

Danny Webb and Toby Sommers were reteamed on April 21, 1951 in The Danny Webb Show, a Saturday-morning comedy series starring Webb as an Army private opposite Sommers as a USO hostess.^[12] The 15-minute programs were aired by WPIX until June 16, 1951.

Webb remained in television behind the scenes. In 1957 he joined NBC's Wide Wide World as an assistant producer, alongside producer-director Ed Pierce and unit manager Ed Faught. It turned out, as Variety reported, that all three were former vaudevillians who "worked the same bill together at the Metropolitan in Boston 15 years ago",^[13] where Webb was the emcee and comedian. Webb remained with NBC as an assistant producer (and later production supervisor) for other programs, like the network's annual broadcasts of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.^[14]

Death

Danny Webb died on September 16, 1983, according to The New York Times; he was 77. He died of Parkinson's disease.^{[2][unreliable source?]}

Filmography

References

External links

• Danny Webb in A Star Is Shorn (1939) on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGvVVloe_YA
• Danny Webb at IMDb