February 2nd. It was on this day, several billion years ago, that Fred Flintstone came into this world. Or, that's at least what the original series told us. While there's no real-life Fred Flintstone, there have been many people who have voiced him, and four of them stand above the rest. Those are Alan Reed, Henry Corden, Jeff Bergman, and James Arnold Taylor. These are the four who have been primarily tasked with playing the character in his various onscreen appearances. Today, we're going to celebrate each of them by going through their respective histories as the character. We'll look into their backgrounds, how they approached the role, and how they got it in the first place. Let's begin with the original, Alan Reed.
As a lot of you probably know, Reed wasn't the first person to voice Fred. Daws Butler played him in the pilot reel, and for a time, the role went to Bill Thompson. However, Bill and Joe felt that none of the other voices had the gravelly tone they were looking for with Fred. That's where Alan Reed enters the picture. A resident of the Big Apple, Reed had a voice that was equal parts rough and smooth, making him perfect for a character like Fred. He could accurately capture the entire range of Fred's emotional spectrum, from sentimental to anger, and do it well. Also helping him was his years' worth of experience in acting. From radio to the stage, Reed had done it all, and although Fred is the cartoon character people know him most for, it wasn't the only character he portrayed. He also voiced Boris in Disney's Lady and the Tramp, and would go on to give his voice to many other Hanna-Barbera productions.
Reed was the first and only voice for Fred during the entirety of the original Flintstones series. He'd later go on to reprise the role in the early spinoffs, such as The Man Called Flintstone movie, and The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show. Sadly, as time progressed, Reed's health began to decline. Shortly after the show ended, he developed bladder cancer, and though it was treated, he also began to suffer from emphysema. In June of 1977, just two months shy of his seventieth birthday, Reed died of a heart attack. His death left a huge void in the Flintstones voiceover family, but it wasn't long before Hanna-Barbera sought out a replacement.
The actor who would take over for Reed was none other than Henry Corden. Born in Canada, Corden's path to becoming Fred began years before he took over the role from Reed. You see, Alan Reed couldn't sing on pitch, so Hanna-Barbera required a soundalike to provide Fred's singing voice anytime the character sang. In instances like the aforementioned Man Called Flintstone and their line of records, it was Henry Corden who took on those duties. Corden had been working with Hanna-Barbera since around 1964, providing minor roles in episodes of The Flintstones and Jonny Quest. After Reed died, Corden was the obvious pick for his successor, although he did audition for the part alongside several others.
Corden began being heard as Fred in 1977's A Flintstone Christmas, and continued to be heard as the character until 2005. While Alan used his natural voice for Fred, Corden (and by extension, all of the following Freds), had to create Fred's voice. Corden initially focused on closely imitating Alan, but as time progressed, he began to make the character more his own. Many liken his take on Fred to being very Jackie Gleason-esque, and I wouldn't say that's wrong. He was a little bit higher pitched than Alan's, and his voice most definitely had a more cartoony quality to it.
Like I said, Corden voiced Fred for nearly three decades, but towards the end of his run, he began to step back from the role, until he was voicing the character only in Fruity Pebbles commercials. His last major credit as Fred was in the 2000 video game Bedrock Bowling. As far as I can tell, this was due to a few reasons. For one, Corden was beginning to suffer from several health problems, chief among them being sight issues. It also sounds like those who worked on Flintstones productions during these later years felt Corden didn't sound like Fred. In an episode of Johnny Bravo, Fred appears, and Corden originally voiced him. According to series creator Van Partible, they felt his voice didn't sound right, and hired another actor instead. In May of 2005, Henry Corden passed away from emphysema (the same illness Reed struggled with). Since then, Fred has been voiced by two actors.
The first of these is Jeff Bergman. While Reed and Corden got their starts in radio and film, animation voice-acting was always Bergman's area of expertise. He grew up doing impressions of his favorite cartoon characters, and when he was only 29(!), he got the opportunity of a lifetime to take over many of the Looney Tunes characters after Mel Blanc's passing. His ability to imitate Blanc also made him a natural choice for the characters he voiced for Hanna-Barbera, including Mr. Spacely, and, of course, Barney Rubble. He voiced him opposite Corden's Fred in many Fruity Pebbles commercials throughout the nineties and 2000s, but it was in 1993 that he got his first chance to voice Fred, this being through a strange video game crossover between The Jetsons and The Flintstones. Jeff voiced the character periodically in the nineties, mostly in commercials for the Cartoon Network, but got his big break as Fred in 2001's Flintstones: On The Rocks TV movie. Since then, he's voiced the character in the majority of his appearance, such as the 2015 WWE crossover film, Yabba Dabba Dinosaurs, and even Fred's appearances in Family Guy! Out of all the Fred's that have come since Alan Reed, I maintain that Bergman is easily the best of the bunch. I do mean no offense to the others, who I feel have all done a wonderful job, but Jeff's take feels the most like a natural continuation of Reed's Fred. Bergman has actually taken over many Hanna-Barbera characters, from Yogi Bear to George Jetson, and he's done a great job as all of them. To put it simply, he knows his cartoons!
The other voice actor who inherited the role after Corden was James Arnold Taylor. Oddly enough, Taylor is the only one of the four to have had a major voice-acting role before voicing Fred. He's voiced Obi-Wan Kenobi in many Star Wars projects, tons of Marvel and DC superheroes, and in 2005, took over for Fred in the Fruity Pebbles commercials. Henry Corden was personally involved in his selection, which came down to Taylor and three others. While James doesn't look like the type of guy to have Fred's voice, he can actually go even deeper than Corden ever could, showing his skill as a voice actor. James Arnold Taylor also has a really interesting approach to the role of Fred. Rather than just imitating one of the prior actors, Taylor likens his version of the character to an amalgamation of Reed and Corden's performances. To put it more specifically, I'd say he takes Reed's smoothness and combines it with Corden's often over-the-top delivery. It makes for a Fred that sounds like the character, but still manages to be its own thing, a pretty hard feat to accomplish. Sadly, we don't get to hear from this take on Fred too much nowadays. After Post swapped ad agencies sometime around 2010, Taylor was replaced in the role before the entire marketing approach for Fruity Pebbles was changed. Taylor does voice the character on occasion, but not nearly enough if you ask me. Below is a great video of Taylor getting into the headspace for the voice of Fred. It's always lovely to see a voice actor do what they do best!
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