Misplaced Pages

Charlie Adler
Adler in 2020
Born	Charles Michael Adler (1956-10-02) October 2, 1956 (age 68) Paterson, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupations	Voice actor voice director
Years active	1971–present

Charles Michael Adler (born October 2, 1956) is an American voice actor and voice director. He is known for his roles as Buster Bunny on Tiny Toon Adventures, the Bigheads on Rocko's Modern Life, Ickis on Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Doctor Doom, Wrecker, Sabertooth and others in The Super Hero Squad Show, MODOK in various Marvel media, Cobra Commander in GI Joe: Resolute and Renegades, Starscream in the Transformers film series, Mr. Whiskers of Disney's Brandy & Mr. Whiskers, the titular characters of Cartoon Network's Cow and Chicken along with its main antagonist, The Red Guy, Professor Monkey-for-a-Head in Earthworm Jim, I.R. Baboon in I Am Weasel, T-Bone in SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron and Tex Hex in Bravestarr.

Early life

In the mid-1960s, Adler's family moved to Nanuet, New York and later to Massachusetts. He was given the nickname "Beanie" due to always wearing a Beanie cap. His sister Cheryl Adler is a psychotherapist who wrote the book Sober University.

Growing up, Adler was a self-described "TV junkie", and an avid fan of Rocky and Bullwinkle, The Three Stooges and Irene Ryan's Granny Moses from The Beverly Hillbillies.

Career

Adler's first professional acting job was in a commercial in 1971. Afterward, he took a hiatus from acting. During this time, he worked a variety of jobs, including waiter, janitor, paper delivery man, floor stripper, house painter, remedial reading teacher and caretaker for an Episcopal church.

In 1984 and 1985, he starred as Arnold Beckoff in Torch Song Trilogy, for which he was nominated for the 1985 Helen Hayes Best Actor Award, in New York City before moving to California in 1986.

Adler's first animation role was recorded in New York City, voicing Spike in Rescue at Midnight Castle.

In 1985, after convincing the head of the Abrams, Rubiloff and Lawrence agency to allow him to audition for their voice-over department, Adler later attended a private audition for Ginny McSwain and Arlene Thornton. An agent had praised him in front of them as the "next Frank Welker". McSwain recalls that "he blew their minds" but he claims that initially they had no interest in him. Having no demo, they arranged for him to record an audition. He improvised characters during the tape, which impressed both McSwain and Thornton; however, Adler was so embarrassed with his performance that he performed with his back to them and his face hidden with a hat and sunglasses.

His voice acting career took off when Adler landed the roles of Nat Smurfling in the fourth season of The Smurfs, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper on Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling, Silverbolt on The Transformers and Eric Raymond, Techrat and Zipper in Jem.

He was disenchanted with live-action acting after working on The Redd Foxx Show, in which he portrayed Ralph/Rita. In an interview for The Magic Behind the Voices, Adler commented on the experience: "you spend your whole life going, "God, I just want to be in a TV show and have a parking space". Then I got it and it was just so not what I wanted to do."

He became active in animation, his roles include reprising Spike on My Little Pony, Low-Light on G.I. Joe, Mr. O'Greasy on A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Deputy Fuzz and Tex Hex on Bravestarr, Cavey Jr. on The Flintstone Kids, Pinky Dalton on The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound, Quark and Zappy on Rockin' with Judy Jetson, the TurkeyBoy and sometimes Hamburglar in McDonald's commercials and The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald, Mad Dog, Hacksaw, and Howard Huge in TaleSpin, Dripple on Tom and Jerry Kids, and the titular character on Paddington Bear.

In 1990, Adler lent his voice to Buster Bunny on Tiny Toon Adventures. Producer Tom Ruegger recalled that he and voice director Andrea Romano insisted Steven Spielberg cast him due to the "great deal of energy" he brought to Buster. In 1992, during the show's third season, he abruptly left the show after a disagreement with the producers; while voice actors with smaller roles in the show were given starring roles in its successor Animaniacs, he was offended when he was not offered a role in that series. John Kassir replaced him for the remainder of Tiny Toons.

In 1993, Adler went on to play Chance "T-Bone" Furlong on SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron, Bill on The Terrible Thunderlizards, Ickis on Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Ed and Bev Bighead on Rocko's Modern Life, Stalker Slaughter on Captain Planet and the Planeteers and Screwball Squirrel, as well as reprising Dripple for Droopy, Master Detective.

In 1995, Adler voiced several characters on What a Cartoon!. In the latter, he played Cow, Chicken and The Red Guy. No Smoking was a pilot created by David Feiss, which was greenlit to be a series in 1997 with him on board to reprise his characters, for a new series, titled I Am Weasel. Cow and Chicken ran from 1997 to 1999, receiving multiple awards and nominations, including an Annie Award for "Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production" for Adler as Cow. Later on I Am Weasel was made into a spinoff series, in which he reprised the three characters and also voice I.R. Baboon.

His voice directing career began in the late 1990s with Rugrats and later collaborated with Klasky Csupo. Adler has directed The Wild Thornberrys, Rocket Power, All Grown Up!, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, The Replacements, among others.

In 2002, Adler, with David Feiss and Michael Ryan, directed his own short film No Prom for Cindy.

Adler also voiced Dr. Peacock in Froot Loops commercials, Padrig Winks and Mr. Hornsby on Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks, SAVO on Danger Rangers, Mr. Whiskers on Brandy & Mr. Whiskers, Optimatus on Loonatics Unleashed and Doctor Doom on The Super Hero Squad Show.

In 2007, Adler provided the voice of Starscream in Michael Bay's live-action Transformers film franchise. Just as Chris Latta voiced both Starscream and Cobra Commander in the Sunbow cartoons, Adler voiced Cobra Commander on G.I. Joe: Resolute and G.I. Joe: Renegades. He also voiced the titular character in the webtoon Inspector Beaver.

Adler was the guest of honor at the 2017 edition of AnthroCon.

His subsequent credits as voice director include Nickelodeon's Blaze and the Monster Machines, Wabbit (season 1), Kulipari: An Army of Frogs and Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny. He also plays MODOK on Avengers Assemble.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Live-action

Casting and voice director

• All Grown Up!
• As Told by Ginger
• Blaze and the Monster Machines
• Bratz (Season 1)
• Bratz Genie Magic
• Bratz Rock Angelz
• Bubble Guppies (Seasons 2–4)
• Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic
• Dead Space: Downfall
• DreamWorks Dragons: Rescue Riders
• Harley Quinn
• Holly Hobbie and Friends: Christmas Wishes
• Immigrants
• Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
• Johnny Bravo Goes to Bollywood
• Kite Man: Hell Yeah!
• Kulipari
• Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny
• Madagascar: A Little Wild
• Marvel Super Hero Squad: Comic Combat
• Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet
• Me, Eloise
• Rocket Power
• Rugrats
• Rugrats Go Wild
• Rugrats in Paris: The Movie
• Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch
• Stressed Eric
• Stripperella
• The Bob's Burgers Movie
• The Brothers Flub
• The Buzz on Maggie
• The Emperor's New School
• The Happy Elf
• The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack (Season 1)
• The Nutty Professor
• The Replacements
• The Rugrats Movie
• The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald
• The Wild Thornberrys
• The Wild Thornberrys Movie
• Todd McFarlane's Spawn
• Top Cat Begins
• Wabbit (Season 1)

Awards and nominations

This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. Find sources: "Charlie Adler" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

References

1. ^ Eximius Theme by dkszone.net (September 7, 2012). "Rob Paulsen's Talkin Toons podcast". Techjives.net. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved April 1, 2013.
2. "Top 10 Charlie Adler Roles, Ranked". CBR. June 17, 2020. Retrieved September 3, 2021.
3. "Calabasas Actor Speaks for Many in the 'Toon World". Los Angeles Times. August 6, 1999. Archived from the original on September 3, 2021. Retrieved September 3, 2021.
4. ^ Lawson, Tim; Persons, Alisa (December 9, 2004). The Magic Behind the Voices: A Who's Who of Cartoon Voice Actors. University Press of Mississippi. pp. 5–8. ISBN 978-1-57806-696-4.
5. ^ "I Call On Charlie Adler". Animation World Network. Retrieved September 3, 2021.
6. ^ Meisler, Andy (July 8, 1990). "TELEVISION; Steven Spielberg Promises: 'Th-Th-That's Not All, Folks'". The New York Times. Retrieved June 5, 2010.
7. ^ "I Call On Charlie Adler". Awn.com. n.d. Archived from the original on September 4, 2014. Retrieved April 1, 2013.
8. ^ "Rob Paulsen's Talkin Toons with Ginny McSwain". Techjives.net. January 12, 2013.
9. WRAL (February 26, 2021). "'Rugrats' Reboot Will Feature The Original Voice Cast". WRAL.com. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
10. "Nancy Cartwright Chats with Charlie Adler". AWN. December 21, 2007. Retrieved April 1, 2013.
11. "G. I. Joe: Renegades Is the Franchise's Forgotten Peak". CBR. July 30, 2021. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
12. "2017 Guest of Honor: Charlie Adler". Anthrocon. Archived from the original on July 7, 2017. Retrieved July 3, 2017.
13. ^ "Charlie Adler (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved September 26, 2023. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
14. Milligan, Mercedes (August 15, 2024). "Hitpig! Oinks into Action with November 1 Release Date". Animation Magazine. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
15. "Danse Time - Episode Guide - Rock Jem".
16. "The People Behind Jem - Rock Jem".

External links

• Official website
• Charlie Adler at IMDb

• 1956 births
• 20th-century American male actors
• 21st-century American male actors
• American casting directors
• American male stage actors
• American male television actors
• American male television writers
• American male video game actors
• American male voice actors
• American voice directors
• Hanna-Barbera people
• Living people
• Male actors from Paterson, New Jersey