The Ghost Host is Dead
My heart is breaking. I don’t know why it took me so long to hear the news, but May 22nd, Thurl Ravenscroft died.
The Blog of Death – Thurl Ravenscroft
He was the voice of The Ghost Host on the Haunted Mansion. He was the voice of Tony the Tiger. He sang, “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch!” The human voice is one of the unique things about us that is irreplaceable and we lost a great one last month.
Very sad to hear about Thurl. I worked on Frosties advertising in London in the 80s, and try as we might could never get a British (and therefore more handily located) actor to do it like Thurl did. So we used to record him down an ISDN line, from his ranch somewhere. His secret was the immortal ‘They Gr-gr-great!” line. It actually spanned something like 5 octaves. Knowing that we’d need a replacement in Thurl’s advancing years, every actor in London was after this gig – it would be a like a pension for life if you could crack it. One guy tried so hard at one of our casting sessions to span those octaves, he actually put his back out in the process. Certainly, in the 5 years or so I worked on stuff, Thurl was irreplaceable.
Comment by Peter — 6/21/2005 @ 12:54 pm
Thurl wasn’t the voice of the ghost host – he was the voice of the cracked singing bust in the graveyard. Paul Frees was the voice of the ghost host. He’s dead now too.
Ironic that both Mr. Frees and Mr. Ravenscroft live on as the voices of the dead. RIP, gentlemen.
Comment by Rob — 9/28/2005 @ 12:09 pm
He wasnt the voice of the ghost host, paul frees was. this is very sad though.
Comment by Autumn — 10/2/2006 @ 8:58 pm
Rob and Autumn,
You’re right! I looked it up in my books. Paul Frees was the Ghost Host and Thurl Ravenscroft sang Grim Grinning Ghosts in the graveyard. Thurl’s face was featured as one of the singing busts. That’s how I got confused.
Thanks for double checking me!
Laura Moncur
Comment by Laura Moncur — 10/2/2006 @ 9:11 pm