Will Ryan R.I.P.

Will Ryan R.I.P.

November 20th, 2021

Jerry Beck

Our friend, cartoon voice over and songwriter/performer Will Ryan passed away yesterday afternoon, November 19th, from a short battle with cancer. He was 72. Will Ryan’s voice can be heard in more feature roles in more Oscar-winning films than perhaps any other actor, including such other favorites as playing Petrie in “The Land Before Time”, Herald Seahorse in “The Little Mermaid”, Digit in “An American Tail”, and Hero in “Thumbelina”.

Will Ryan (Left) with Nick Santa-Maria in “Biffle & Shooster”

Will Ryan entered his 34th year as a series regular on the radio show Adventures in Odyssey in 2021. In that weekly series (daily in many markets) he performed more than 100 characters – more than any other actor in the show’s history. 2020 marked also his 35th year as the voice of Willie the Giant for the Walt Disney Company, making Will the longest-running continuous-character voice actor for Disney. He performed the voice of Peg-Leg Pete in the Oscar-nominated animated film Mickey’s Christmas Carol and 30 years later he reprised the role in the also-Oscar-nominated Mickey Mouse short, Get a Horse!, which ran with every print of the record-breaking hit “Frozen”. In this 3-D Mickey short, Will had the highly unusual job of working opposite Walt Disney as the voice of Mickey Mouse! Will was also the voice of Peg-Leg Pete, among other characters, in Duck Tails, which was part of the line-up of “DisneyAfternoon”, and played several personalities, including a herd of Ogres in the first of the Disney animated television series ever broadcast, Disney’s Gummi Bears.

He was the voice of Tigger and Rabbit and the singing voice of Eeyore on the long-running Disney Channel’s “Welcome to Pooh Corner”, which ran at twice a day for seventeen years. His book “Duke and Me” is a whimsical memoir of his Army years, i.e., recording the voices of Rock N’ Roll, Mutt, and Footloose in the original “G.I Joe” animated series for Marvel Productions. As a young reader and fan, Will Ryan had letters to Stan Lee in the very first letter columns of “The Fantastic Four”, “The Amazing Spiderman”, and “The Incredible Hulk.” Will’s recent book “Adventures in Oddity”, co-authored book with Katie Leigh, concerns some of his work in radio and television. He also authored “The Tiny Little Book of Cowboy Haiku” from Oxnard University Press.

As a musician, Will Ryan & the Cactus County Cowboys released five CDs. He performed regularly with the Saguaro Sisters at The Autry Museum of Western Heritage. Will had written over 100 songs for Disney’s and for the Jim Henson Company. His songs had been recorded by Mickey, Donald, Goofy and the gang; Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and the gang; The Cat-In-The-Hat, Horton the Elephant, the Grinch and the gang; the Pointer Sisters, the Saguaro Sisters, Patti LaBelle, et al. Among the “others” are such voice-over greats as Clarence Nash, Hal Smith, Janet Waldo, Walker Edmistun, Lorenzo Music and June Foray.

Ryan was also part of America’s favorite fake 1930s comedy team, Biffle and Shooster, co-starring Nick Santa Maria and produced by Michael Schlesinger.

Will’s Internet series Elmo Aardvark: Outer Space Detective!, a co-production between SnappyToons Amusement Company and Renegade Animation, was the Internet’s first weekly animated series. It won Will an Annie Award for Best Song and an Annie nomination as creator of the Best Series in an Electronic Medium. Will also received an Emmy nomination as producer of The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss for Nickelodeon. He has two Gold Records from the R.I.A.A. and a Pioneer Award from BMI for his song-writing. He was a long-time member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and served on several committees when he wasn’t busy learning to swing dance. He also served as a past president of ASIFA, the international animation organization. Will leaves his wife Nancy Niparko Ryan; and Brother and Sisters Patty Ryan, Marsha Ryan Russo, and George Ryan.

Will Ryan and his friend June Foray

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Jerry Beck

Writer, cartoon producer and author of more than 15 books on animation history. A former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney; currently on the faculty at both CalArts in Valencia and Woodbury University in Burbank, California.