Voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Many Others Dies

Actress June Foray, who gave voice to Rocky the Flying Squirrel and hundreds of other cartoon characters has died in a Los Angeles hospital, the AP reports. She was 99. Foray died Wednesday of cardiac arrest, but she had been in fragile health since a car accident two years ago, her niece said. Foray was the best-known woman among the voice performers who contributed so much to the classic cartoons of Warner Bros., Disney, Hanna-Barbera, and other studios. She had a galaxy of ways to create funny but believable characters, but could also be warm and wise in Disney's Mulan or, in a memorable Twilight Zone episode, chilling. She had over 300 credits as a voice actress.

Perhaps inevitably, Rocky—with his trademark exclamation "Hokey Smoke!"—was Foray's favorite. "Everybody loves Rocky," she said in 2000. "People don't think of him as a squirrel. They think of him as a person. And he's a good little person." The original Rocky and Bullwinkle aired in 326 short installments. The Cold War conflict pitted the moose and squirrel against the bumbling spies Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, to whom Foray also gave a voice. She also voiced Cindy Lou Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas; Talky Tina the killer doll in Twilight Zone; Lucifer the cat in Cinderella; Granny, owner of Sylvester and Tweety Bird; Woody Woodpecker's niece and nephew; and Grandmother Fa in Mulan. (More obituary stories.)