Post by Tigress on Feb 26, 2009 13:21:54 GMT -5
The late Earl Hammond was born June 21, 1921 in New York City as Erwin Saul and passed away in New York City on May 1, 2002 of a heart failure.
Though he was born in New York City, he was raised in Buffalo, NY. From the time Earl had turned 7, he began his acting career starting with being on radio.
In 1938 he graduated at Bennett High School and began acting on Fred and Ethel Dampier's radio skits on WGR radio. He spent a short time at the radio before leaving for Los Angeles, California and began a new study of acting at Los Angeles City College and graduated with future movie stars Donna Reed and Alexis Smith. During this time he changed his name to Earl Hammond.
After the movie he moved New York City, where Hammond began a television career that included staring "Days of Our Lives" as a lawyer for several years. He then later had feature roles in numerous commercials and was the voice of many TV cartoon characters. His last big voice-over speaking role was the title voice in "The Mummy."
Hammond's most famous voice character he was known for was on ThunderCats as "Mumm-Ra", one of the most fearsome cartoon villains of the 1980s. Sadly, nothing of its kind really exists in children's TV today. He also did characterizations for "Tug-Mug", "Amok", "Jaga", "Rataro", "Top Spinner" in ThunderCats as well.
In 1994, Hammond auditioned and was selected to be the voice of Pope John Paul II on the audiotape version of the Random House book "Crossing the Threshold of Hope." The publisher said the pope personally selected Hammond.
Hammond is survived by a son in USA; a daughter in Germany; and two grandchildren.
RIP Earl, you did one heck of a job as Mumm-Ra, even made this young person, child at the time, cringe in fear when Mumm-Ra would appear.
Though he was born in New York City, he was raised in Buffalo, NY. From the time Earl had turned 7, he began his acting career starting with being on radio.
In 1938 he graduated at Bennett High School and began acting on Fred and Ethel Dampier's radio skits on WGR radio. He spent a short time at the radio before leaving for Los Angeles, California and began a new study of acting at Los Angeles City College and graduated with future movie stars Donna Reed and Alexis Smith. During this time he changed his name to Earl Hammond.
After the movie he moved New York City, where Hammond began a television career that included staring "Days of Our Lives" as a lawyer for several years. He then later had feature roles in numerous commercials and was the voice of many TV cartoon characters. His last big voice-over speaking role was the title voice in "The Mummy."
Hammond's most famous voice character he was known for was on ThunderCats as "Mumm-Ra", one of the most fearsome cartoon villains of the 1980s. Sadly, nothing of its kind really exists in children's TV today. He also did characterizations for "Tug-Mug", "Amok", "Jaga", "Rataro", "Top Spinner" in ThunderCats as well.
In 1994, Hammond auditioned and was selected to be the voice of Pope John Paul II on the audiotape version of the Random House book "Crossing the Threshold of Hope." The publisher said the pope personally selected Hammond.
Hammond is survived by a son in USA; a daughter in Germany; and two grandchildren.
RIP Earl, you did one heck of a job as Mumm-Ra, even made this young person, child at the time, cringe in fear when Mumm-Ra would appear.
