First appearing in the 1934 Silly Symphonies short The Wise Little Hen, Donald Duck became The Walt Disney Company’s second most famous star after Mickey Mouse. He is known for his partly intelligible speech, mischievous and pompous personality, and quacking temper tantrums. The character’s voice was provided by impressionist Clarence Nash. Nash achieved the voice through buccal speech, in which the inner cheek is used to produce sound rather than the larynx.[1] He got the role of Donald when Walt Disney heard his animal imitations (particularly his duck) and his recitation of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”.[2] Nash would go on to voice Donald for 50 years, doing the voice for commercials, promotions and other miscellaneous material. In the 1980s, Nash mentored and trained Disney animator Tony Anselmo for the role of the character. He died of leukemia in February 1985, with Anselmo officially inheriting the role. Anselmo first performed Donald’s voice in DTV Valentine the following year in 1986, and continues to voice him to this day.[3]
However, Nash and Anselmo are not the only people known to have voiced the sailor suit-wearing waterfowl. In the 1948 short Donald’s Dream Voice, Donald takes a voice pill that gives him an intelligible voice, provided by Leslie Denison. The Goofy Holler, provided by Hannes Schroll and recorded for the 1941 Goofy short The Art of Skiing, was used for Donald in the shorts Three for Breakfast, Honey Harvester, and All in a Nutshell. In the Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color episode Inside Donald Duck, he and Daisy Duck come to Ludwig Von Drake’s office to thank him for his help. During this instance, Donald has a deeper, intelligible voice until he loses his temper over a 1000 dollar bill. The voice kind of sounds like Paul Frees, but the credits do not list any voice actors. Walt Disney insisted on character consistency and integrity, meaning that during Nash’s lifetime, no one else was allowed to provide Donald’s voice. However, there were some who ignored this rule and broke it. In 1971-1972, actor and comedian Sam Kwasman’s career began as a lead dancer in units such as Snow White, Three Caballeros and Mary Poppins for the touring show Disney on Parade, hired at the age of 19 by choreographer Onna White, and credited in one of the show’s 1971 souvenir books under “The Ensemble” in “Male Chorus” as “Samuel Kwasman”.[4][5][6][7][8] He played Ben Ali Gator,[8][9] and worked with other dancers and actors, such as Patrick Swayze (who was hired for the show’s performance in Kansas City during May 16-21, 1972, and played Prince Charming), Yvonne Green (who played Snow White and Mary Poppins), Roger Seward (who played the Big Bad Wolf), Valerie Smith (who played Snow White), Cathy Rigby (who played Peter Pan), Michelle Randell (who played Alice), Carolyn Stahl (who played Snow White), David Atkins (who played Pinocchio), Kenny Rogers (who played Donald Duck), Peter (who played the White Rabbit), and Suzanne, Ree and Andre Smith/Schweizer,[10][5][11][6][12][13] as recalled in Patrick Swayze: One Last Dance.[6] Clarence Nash provided Donald’s voice for the show (he even recites “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, the song performed by Nash which led to the creation of Donald). However, Kwasman appeared on What’s My Line? to promote the show in August 1971, voicing Donald in his appearance as the Mystery Guest.[8][9] A clip of Kwasman as Donald on What’s My Line? is heard in his Donald Duck demonstration reel (00:17), but Internet Movie Database attributes Kwasman’s credit to What’s My Line? at 25 (1975), which does not seem to feature him at all. After Disney on Parade, Kwasman appeared as a professional dancer in Mame in 1974, and At Long Last Love in 1975. He also acted in stage musicals such as Hello Dolly and Music Man, where he transitioned into acting. He played a Beach Comic imitating Jimmy Durante in Lifeguard, and made guest appearances on Season 6 of The Bob Newhart Show, Family Ties, Lou Grant, Airwolf and MADtv. His appearance on The Bob Newhart Show earned the episode an Emmy Nomination. Kwasman performed stand-up comedy at various comedy clubs and venues, including the Comedy Store, the Riviera, Caesars Palace Lake Tahoe, the Aladdin Hotel, the Improv, Rodneys Place, and the Ice House.[14][15] One of his impressions during the performances was Donald Duck. Meanwhile at Disney, it was customary to cast additional actors for the characters (except Donald) depending on the project and the creative team.[16][17] In 1974-1975, the album Dickens’ Christmas Carol Presented by the Walt Disney Players featured Alan Young, Janet Waldo, Hal Smith, Walker Edmiston and Alan Dinehart, and kept Clarence Nash in the role of Donald.[18] In 1976, Jim Tadevic, a location spotter at Disney, provided Donald’s voice for some freelance educational filmstrips, such as Goofy Goes to Work. According to Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records, a 2006 book by Tim Hollis and Greg Ehrbar of Cartoon Research, Nash produced the Donald voice in his mouth, while Tadevic generated it in his throat.[19][20] That same year, The Son of Football Follies was broadcast, with the credit “Voice Characterizations by Mel Blanc” at the beginning. Amongst the voices that Blanc did (including his Looney Tunes characters) was a low-pitched Donald Duck impression for a referee and two football players, sometimes mistaken as a cameo role by Nash. Interestingly the following year in 1977, Nash unhappily told Jim Korkis, “Everybody thinks Mel Blanc is Donald Duck! He’s not. I’m Donald Duck. We’ve had some problems with people who say they’re the ‘original Donald Duck’ and we’ve even had some problems with them at the Disney Studios in the past.”[21] Around this time, an unknown actor began working as part of a team at Disney, consisting of himself, Peter Renaday (as Mickey Mouse) and Tony Pope (as Goofy).[16] The first project that they worked on was a Fisher-Price Talk-To-Me Book written and produced by Jymn Magon, Ghost Chasers, released in 1978.[22][23] From 1978 to 1980, Tadevic provided Donald’s voice for The Quiet Cowboy, Dumbo’s Day At the Circus, The Clock Cleaners, Mickey Mouse Disco‘s “Macho Duck” (written by Thomas Worrall and produced by Jymn Magon), Mother Goose Rhymes and a Donald Duck Orange Juice commercial.[19][20] In 1980, Clarence Nash returned to the role of Donald on the album Goin’ Quackers! by Will Ryan and Phil Baron. Upon learning that someone else (Tadevic) voiced Donald in the records and commercial, Nash was upset and went to Ron Miller to discuss the issue. Miller apologized for not knowing about it, admonished Tadevic for voicing Donald, and issued a letter saying, “Only Clarence Nash will be used as Donald and no one else.”[24] Anselmo revealed that Tadevic lied in interviews that Nash let him fill in for him. (I initially thought that Donald’s voice in the records and commercial was Corey Burton; Burton was hired by Jymn Magon in 1976 around the age of 20-21 to do character voices for Disney Read-Along titles.[25] He recorded Captain Hook and Mister Smee’s voices for the 1983 update of Peter Pan’s Flight in 1978,[26] is listed on English Voice Over Wikia as doing voices on Dumbo’s Day At the Circus and Mother Goose Rhymes, and has a wide vocal range from baritone to falsetto, so I thought that it was possible that somewhere in that range, he could have done the Donald voice, but that is unlikely. He would use a deeper voice for Robo-Donald in House of Mouse after all.) Nash would also voice Donald in Yankee Doodle Mickey,[27] Pardners,[16] A Family Christmas, Disney’s Merry Christmas Carols,[28] Mousercise‘s “Ducks Dance, Too” in 1982,[29] Mickey Mouse Splashdance‘s “Digital Duck” in 1983[30] (Nash was credited on these albums except Yankee Doodle Mickey and Merry Christmas Carols) and Disney Discovery Series: Counting Fun in 1984. During this time in the 1980s, Jack Wagner was voicing various Disney characters, including Donald, for live entertainment offerings in the parks, Disney on Ice, and live-action clips for television.[31] As mentioned previously, Nash passed away in 1985, with Tony Anselmo taking over the role of Donald in general. For the records, Jim Tadevic disrespectfully voiced Donald again in Mickey Mouse and Friends: Double Birthday Surprise and Disney’s Donald and Daisy: Astro Ducks (which still used some archive recordings of Nash), but Walt Disney’s nephew Roy E. Disney stopped him. Around that time, Good Humor released Disney Frozen Treats.[32][33][34] A commercial for the product was broadcast on television (there are also two uploads of the commercial airing in 1987), with Peter Renaday as Mickey and Tony Pope as Goofy. Donald speaks around 0:11. Anselmo said that the voice in the commercial was Nash,[35] but Donald’s slightly strained “Hiya, Toots!” and quacking, particularly the second, sound nothing like Nash’s elderly take in Donald Duck’s 50th Birthday (1984) to me. In 1986, Worlds of Wonder created the Talking Mickey Mouse, an animatronic character toy that could play cassette tapes in his back. Mickey would move his eyes, nose and mouth to the tape, as he told stories of his travels to foreign countries with Goofy.[17] Two stories, The Impossible Journey and The Magic Boomerang, featured the unknown actor from the Disney Frozen Treats commercial as Donald, who was stopped by Roy E. Disney. (I thought that this actor could have possibly been Frank Welker; Welker had done a bit with singing ducks during his old stand-up comedy routine, and was one of the actors in the Disney Read-Along adaptations of films like Gremlins (1984, as Gizmo, Stripe and other Mogwai and Gremlins) and The Great Mouse Detective (1986, as Fidget), and Donald’s voice in the stories sounds like Welker’s confirmed role as Hanna-Barbera’s Yakky Doodle (17:32, 19:36, 19:42, 19:59) in Laff-A-Lympics in 1977. However, there does not seem to be any proof, so I doubt that it was him.) During this time, Sam Kwasman voiced Donald in “Dear Daisy” on the album Totally Minnie (produced by Chris Montan, Bambi Moé and Jai Winding, a clip from the song is heard in his Donald Duck demonstration reel (01:07)).[7] Archive recordings of Nash would still be used in Disney Discovery Series: Colors and Shapes and Disney Discovery Series: Telling Time the following year in 1987. During this time, impressionist and animation historian Keith Scott would begin doing Donald’s voice in Australian commercials, including Pascall, McDonald’s, Peters Ice Cream and World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, using his impression of the character on television shows like The Daryl Somers Show and Hey Hey It’s Saturday.[36] Tony Anselmo would voice Donald in the Talking Mickey Mouse stories The Great Kite Caper and Secret of the Silver Mine (rightfully taking over from the unknown actor in The Impossible Journey and The Magic Boomerang), and projects like Mickey’s Rock Around the Mouse‘s “Love Struck Duck”, “Quackety-Quack” and “Everything Is Ducky with Donald”, Totally Minnie (the television special), Mickey Mouse: Donald’s Pooch Parlor and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.[37] In January 1988, Imagineer Les Perkins and Roy E. Disney created the department of Disney Character Voices to ensure continuation of character integrity, consistency and quality in recording methods. Anselmo said that Jim Tadevic “was also one of the examples Roy E. Disney used when he established Disney Character Voices”.[38] In Mickey’s 60th Birthday Surprise, Jack Wagner voiced Donald, giving him a higher, slightly rough voice, which sounded different from his usual, deeper take. The same voice was also heard in Rap ‘n’ Roll in 1989. In 2011-2021, Kwasman provided the voices of Cogsworth, Donald, Louie Duck, a B.A.G. Pipes Customer and the Narrator in Robot Chicken, the only known official confirmation of him voicing Donald at the time.[14][15] In 2013, Steve Blum provided Donald’s voice in the MAD sketch McDuck Dynasty, using his impression of the character from a series of outtakes for the video game Vanquish (Blum had also previously done the voice of Yakky Doodle in Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law).[39] Kwasman also reused his Donald voice for Quacker in The Tom and Jerry Show (2014-2021) and Tom and Jerry in New York (2021) (funnily enough, Quacker’s voice in the original Tom and Jerry shorts was done by Red Coffey imitating Clarence Nash’s Donald[21]), and appeared as the product placement guy on Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.[14][15] Continuing to expand his repertoire, Kwasman starred in the play Letters From A Nut and its 2019 film adaptation as Pagliacci and The Messenger as a Barfly.[14][15][40]
In 2015, Kwasman started doing interviews where he would tell interviewers about his career, including working with Bob Newhart and Patrick Swayze. However, in these interviews he mentioned that he did Donald’s voice “live” for Disney on Parade (having begun doing this since January 28, 2006[5]), and also said that he voiced Donald in Ghost Chasers, the Disney Frozen Treats commercial, the Talking Mickey Mouse stories and the Totally Minnie album.[41][7][42][43] Understandably, Disney’s legal team sent Kwasman letters telling him to stop promoting himself as the voice of Donald,[44] since only Clarence Nash and Tony Anselmo were Donald’s official voices at the time. Anselmo stated that no one, including Kwasman, was allowed to do Donald’s voice as long as Nash was still alive.[45] What is confusing to me is that Mark Silverman, the voice actor for Rod Serling in The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, stated in an October 2006 interview that Kwasman was “at one time the voice of Donald Duck for Disney”, meaning that Kwasman must have told him this.[46] There is also this post by Jymn Magon that has a photograph of himself having lunch with Kwasman and other Disney actors, and states that Kwasman was “Donald Duck from … Fisher-Price Toys”, indicating that the latter did indeed voice Donald in Ghost Chasers, the Fisher-Price Talk-To-Me Book. If that is the case and we were to take what Kwasman says in his interviews as truth (minus Donald’s voice on Disney on Parade), then it sadly means that he must have broken Disney’s rule of no one else other than Nash voicing Donald, and that he was the unknown Donald actor from 1977-1978 (Ghost Chasers) and 1985-1986 (Disney Frozen Treats and Talking Mickey Mouse stories). Kwasman’s frequent self-promotion sort of reminds me of a time in the 1980s, where Warner Brothers was splitting up the Looney Tunes voice actors to prevent one of them from being a singular successor to Mel Blanc. They hired someone (not Jeff Bergman) who was given the chance to do Blanc’s character’s voices when required while he was still alive. Unfortunately, after Blanc died in 1989, that someone broke the rules and promoted himself as “the new Mel Blanc”, and he was fired.[47] There is also a comment by Anselmo on The Nostalgia Spot’s A Quiet Change for a Loud Duck in 2017, where he said that in 2015, he was looking forward to voicing Donald on Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures (then known as Mickey and the Roadster Racers), but showrunners Rob LaDuca and Mark Seidenberg ignored his letters and those from Nash’s daughter, and quietly cast Daniel Ross as Donald (Ross’ mother Michel Sadur taught him the voice when he was a child, and it would always be requested from friends or at parties[48][49][50]), taking the role away from Anselmo. Anselmo found this disrespectful to Nash’s legacy as he never took over the role while Nash was still alive, and had not met Ross. He stated, “There is an unwritten law in our voice over community that you never take a character away from a character veteran.”[51] Ross also voiced Donald in Chip ‘n’ Dale’s Nutty Tales, Mickey’s Tale of Two Witches and Mickey and Minnie Wish Upon a Christmas.[48][49][50] Anselmo would fortunately reprise his role as Donald for the DuckTales reboot,[52] and return to the role full time in Mickey Mouse Funhouse. In the reboot episode The Shadow War!, Donald is fed a pill that gives him an artificially intelligible voice, provided by Don Cheadle. This voice returned in the episode Quack Pack![53] Russi Taylor voiced a young Donald in the episode Last Christmas!, using the same voice that she used for Huey, Dewey, and Louie in various Disney media. Cristina Vee took over for The First Adventure! after Taylor died in 2019.[54] Sylvain Caruso, Donald’s French dub voice actor since 1989, provided his vocal effects in Chip ‘n’ Dale: Park Life.[55] In The Simpsons in Plusaversary, Donald appears as one of the many Disney characters at Moe’s Tavern. Dan Castellaneta and Hank Azaria are the only credited male voice actors for the short. Listening to Donald’s voice when he says, “I’m not choking! Leave me alone!” and “He’s here!”, I am leaning more towards Castellaneta. It sounds like Krusty the Clown doing a duck voice, as well as Megavolt in Darkwing Duck, the Guard in Hey Arnold!, and Flux Wildly in Toonstruck.
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