Jack Angel (born October 24, 1930) was an American actor, who worked on many radio programs, animated television series, movies and video games. He died on October 18, 2021.
Life and career[]
Angel was born in Modesto, California. His father was a Greek immigrant who had arrived in America during the 1900s, and years later became famous as the Bean King of Central California.
Jack Angel would go from an enlisted soldier to an officer during the Korean War, all the while attending Army Ranger Training School. After his discharge, he was accepted to the University of San Francisco.
He graduated from San Francisco State University in 1957, and at the same time, he was hired as a disc jockey for a California radio station and decided to focus on a career in radio programs. A decade later, he had become one of the most popular radio personalities with his radio programs being heard on stations KMPC and KFI, Los Angeles. In the early years of his career, he also landed roles in stage productions at The Actor's Ring and the Portland Civic Theater.
Angel's first jobs in the voice-over industry came in the mid-1970s, voice acting on the series Super Friends, in which he played Hawkman, The Flash and Super Samurai, including The All-New Super Friends Hour, Challenge of the Super Friends, Super Friends (1980 TV series), The Legendary Super Powers Show and Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians. During that time, he made guest appearances in Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo and The Smurfs.
In the Transformers series, he was the voice of Astrotrain, Smokescreen, Ramjet, Cyclonus (following the death of Roger C. Carmel), Omega Supreme, Sentinel Prime, and Ultra Magnus (animated television series only). He did reprise Ramjet and Astrotrain in The Transformers: The Movie. He also lent his voice to the character Dr. Zachary Darret in the 1984 CBS animated series Pole Position, and also voiced Wet Suit on Sunbow's G.I. Joe and several characters on Dino-Riders. In the Transformers and G.I. Joe series, he performed alongside Frank Welker, Chris Latta, Michael Bell, Peter Cullen and Charlie Adler.
In 1988, Angel plays the voice of The Minister in Beetlejuice (Tim Burton's dark comedy movie).
In 1995, he was the voice of Nikki in the animated film Balto. He played the SWATbots on Sonic the Hedgehog, The Liquidator on Darkwing Duck, The Chief of Police in Goof Troop and Nick Fury on Spider-Man: The Animated series.
In 2001, Angel was the voice of "Teddy" in the movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence. He provided voices for animated films such as A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Cars, Horton Hears a Who, The Prince of Egypt, The Iron Giant and Aladdin.
Angel has also ventured into video games, narrating the cult hit Killer7 as well as playing Wonkers the Watilla in Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, The Mayor in Ratchet & Clank, and Captain Teague in the video game version of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
From 2002-12, shortly after the death of Gene Moss, Jack Angel voiced Smokey the Bear in a few public service announcements and radio spots. In 2007, he voiced an alien called Technorg on Ben 10, Comrade Chaos on El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, and The Pirate Captain on an episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender. He also voiced Papa Smurf in the 2011 special, The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol.
He has played several characters in the Pixar Toy Story film franchise; Rocky Gibraltar in Toy Story, The Shark in Toy Story 2 and Chunk in Toy Story 3.