Donald Earl "Don" Messick was an American voice actor, best known for his work in Hanna-Barbera cartoons, where he voiced numerous characters, such as Boo-Boo Bear and Ranger Smith in The Yogi Bear Show, Astro in The Jetsons, the titular character of the Scooby-Doo franchise, Papa Smurf in The Smurfs, Dr. Benton Quest and Bandit in Jonny Quest, and Dick Dastardly's dog sidekick, Muttley (including his trademark wheezing laugh), in Wacky Races. He was also well-known as the original voice of Hamton J. Pig in the Warner Bros. animated series Tiny Toon Adventures.
His only known Disney roles were voicing Fergus McDuck (Scrooge McDuck's father) in DuckTales and the Mayor in Bonkers.
Messick had been involved in voice acting for half a century, keeping busy until 1996, when one day he remarked, "I can't do this anymore," and ambled off the set. The following day, his agent released a statement that he had suffered a stroke during a recording session at Hanna-Barbera and decided to retire. Although Messick had retired from voice acting afterwards, he did make one final TV appearance as a guest in The Maury Povich Show, being interviewed about his 50 years in voice acting. In 1997, a second stroke ended Messick's life.
He was also a friend of Daws Butler.
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Messick with a number of different Hanna-Barbera characters he voiced throughout his career.
