Remembering John Stephenson

 It was 100 years ago today in the town of Kenosha, Wisconsin that voice actor John Stephenson was born. That name might not ring a bell for the average person, but for Hanna-Barbera fans, Stephenson was one of their most prolific and recurring voice actors. He's best remembered for portraying Mr. Slate, Fred Flintstone's boisterous boss on The Flintstones, but he voiced a whole host of other characters for the company. In celebration of his career and the occasion, I thought it was only appropriate to share a post highlighting the life of one of Hanna-Barbera's longest-lived voice actors.

A native of Wisconsin, not much is known about Stephenson's early life, or even his later years. From what I've heard, he liked to keep a low profile, and seldom made public appearances. One thing we do know about him before his entertainment career, however, is that he served in World War II as both a gunner and radio operator, not unlike fellow HB voice actors Daws Butler and Don Messick. He also attended Northwestern University in Illinois and left with a theater degree. After that, Stephenson's next trip was to Hollywood.

Like a lot of the other voice actors Hanna-Barbera employed, John Stephenson made several onscreen appearances in various TV shows of the 1950s and 60s, including The Lone Ranger, Bonanza, and Dragnet, just to name a few. Stephenson even made a feature film appearance, albeit uncredited, in 1960's Spartacus. But it was his working relationship with Hanna-Barbera that truly sealed Stephenson's place in entertainment history. The first show he worked on was, of course, The Flintstones. Most know him for voicing Mr. Slate, but he also portrayed many incidental characters over the show's six-season run. After that, Stephenson began to appear in more and more Hanna-Barbera productions. He voiced Fancy Fancy on Top Cat, Blubber Bear on Wacky Races, and several villains in Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! As the 70s began, John also took over the role of Doggie Daddy, who had been previously voiced by Doug Young. Stephenson would continue to voice the character all the way through to Yo Yogi! in 1991.

John Stephenson continued to do voicework for HB throughout the 1970s (even getting the chance to voice Tom and Jerry in their 1975 outing), but it was the 1980s that saw him branch out and begin to provide voices for other animation production companies. He worked with Marvel Productions on shows like The Transformers, DIC Entertainment for Inspector Gadget, and even had a few gigs at Disney on TaleSpin and Darkwing Duck. As we reached the 90s, he also lent his voice to a few Nickelodeon productions, like Rugrats and AAAHH!!! Real Monsters.

Despite all of these other voices he was doing throughout this time, Stephenson never let go of the chance to voice his most famous character, Mr. Slate. In every Flintstones production of the era, he was always there to give Fred a hard time. Even by the time the 2000s hit, Stephenson continued to voice the character, making him the last major cast member of the show to still be voicing their character. In 2004, he voiced Slate in a crossover episode of Johnny Bravo (Above is a photo of him with the show's crew). It was the last time he voiced him, ending an astounding 46-year run as the character. This also made him the only actor to play opposite three different incarnations of Fred Flintstone: Alan Reed, Henry Corden, and Jeff Bergman.  In 2010, Stephenson provided his final role, a sheriff for the direct-to-DVD movie Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo. On May 23rd, 2015, John Stephenson passed away following complications from Alzheimer's. He was 91 years old. At the time of his passing, he was survived by his wife, a son, a daughter, and a granddaughter.

As I mentioned at the start of this piece, Stephenson liked to keep his life private, so interviews and even photos of him can be hard to come across. That isn't to say they are nonexistent, however. Above is a photo of Stephenson at Joe Barbera's 94th birthday celebration in 2005, alongside Gary Owens and Janet Waldo. Also below is a video of one of Stephenson's rare public appearances at the Transformers convention Botcon 2001, alongside voice actors Gregg Berger and Michael Bell. While the focus is obviously on The Transformers, Stephenson does discuss his work at Hanna-Barbera, so I highly recommend checking this one out. I also recommend reading this post on Yowp's blog, featuring one of the few interviews Stephenson ever gave in his life (it's also the source of the first image in this post!).

And with that, our look back on the career of John Stephenson comes to an end. My heart goes out to Stephenson and his entire family on this occasion, who I hope are all doing well wherever they may be!