Lionel Wilson (born Lionel Lazarus Salzer; March 22, 1924 – April 30, 2003) was an American voice actor, reader of audiobooks, stage actor, and author of children's books. He was known for his roles from Tom Terrific through to his last role, voicing Eustace Bagge on the Cartoon Network's Courage the Cowardly Dog.

Career

As stage actor

Lionel Wilson's interest in acting on the stage began at an early age—his first professional stage performance was in 1936 at the age of twelve. A few years later, he was selected for the 1942 Barter Theatre Scholarship, which included summer in a kind of boot camp for aspiring thespians. Over the course of his career he played in at least 25 professional stage productions, including four on Broadway:

As TV actor

Although his primary interest continued to be the stage, he also undertook supporting roles in several TV series. Since supporting roles are sometimes uncredited, the following list may be incomplete:

As voice actor

Wilson majored in Radio Production at New York University and an early venture in voiceover performance was in 1950, in the NBC radio show Top Secret. To provide an income more stable than that from stage acting he took on more voiceover work in the 1950s with television commercials. In 1957 Gene Deitch invited him to work at Terrytoons, voicing all the characters for the innovative cliffhanger cartoon series Tom Terrific, including Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog and memorable baddie Crabby Appleton. He continued to be involved in Terrytoon cartoons and cartoon series and he also took on projects with other studios. In 1999, at the age of 75, Wilson landed the role of Eustace Bagge on the Cartoon Network animated series Courage the Cowardly Dog, and he reprised that role in the Cartoon Network's Staylongers series in the summer of 2000. In 2001, after completing 33 Courage episodes, Wilson retired due to illness and was replaced by Arthur Anderson. Here is a more comprehensive list of Wilson's voiceover credits: A Filmography in Internet Movie Database (at ) as of 26 October 2018 lists a few additional voiceover credits but does not indicate the source of the information.

As audiobook narrator

In between his other activities, he narrated or helped narrate over 100 children's audiobooks.

As author

Wilson wrote a dozen books for children, the scripts for several of his audiobooks such as the Clifford series, and authored or co-authored the plays Pocket Full O'Rye (with Stanley Schacter), Simon Says (with Fred Ebb), Oh Where Have You Been, Billy Boy (with Lawrence N. Kasha), Come And Be Killed, and The Mischief on Merry Mountain.

Death

Wilson died of pneumonia on April 30, 2003, at the age of 79.

Citations

General references