Trivia

Voice of 'Donald Duck' for 50 years

He dubbed the voice of Donald Duck into French, Spanish, Portugese, Japanese, German and Chinese. None of these languages could he understand - Nash had the words written out phonetically and gabbled them in 'Duckspeak'.

Voiced Daisy Duck, Donald's girlfriend; and Huey, Dewey, and Louie, his nephews, in a higher octave.

Besides doing many character voices in cartoons, Nash also supplied the bird sounds in the Tiki Room at Disneyland.

He also did the voice of Jiminy Cricket after Cliff Edwards died.

When Nash began working at Disney on December 2, 1933 the studio had 125 employees. His starting salary was $35 per week. When he left in 1984, it had 20,000.

He based Donald Duck's voice on a sound made by his pet goat Mary, who would make a "wa-ah-ah-ah" sound whenever she needed to be fed by bottle. In fact, it was a goat, not a duck, that he was playing on the radio when Disney heard him for the first time.

Scuba divers coined the affect of helium gas on the human voice as "The Donald Duck Effect".

Nash also played Gracie Allen's pet duck Herman on the "Burns and Allen Radio Show," but because of contractual considerations with Disney, he wasn't allowed to say any dialogue, only quack.

4th cousin twice removed of Scott Trimble.

Profiled in "American Classic Screen Interviews" (Scarecrow Press). (2010)

In the TV special ''Roger Rabbit and the Secret of ToonTown'', He was miscredited as ''Charlie Nash''.

He has appeared in seven films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: El Viejo Molino (1937), Blanca Nieves y los siete enanos (1937), Pinocho (1940), Bambi (1942), La Cenicienta (1950), La dama y el vagabundo (1955), & La bella durmiente (1959).

Nash made a name for himself in the late 1920s as an impressionist for the Los Angeles radio station KHJ on their show, "The Merrymakers".

Nash's Donald Duck voice was achieved by what is called buccal speech: an alaryngeal form of vocalization which uses the inner cheek to produce sound rather than the larynx.

Nash made voice impressions of billy goats for stage performances before being hired by Disney. He reportedly repeated his regular act while auditioning for a Disney casting director, but he was told that they wanted him to voice a duck instead of a goat.

During World War II, Nash, with his ventriloquist puppet of Donald Duck became a regular performer at USO bond rallies and other events to support the war effort.

To keep Donald Duck 's voice consistent throughout the world, Nash voiced the character in all the foreign languages which the Disney shorts were translated into during his career. Since he did not speak most of these languages, he was using the phonetic alphabet to record his lines.

When Disney shut down their short films department in 1962, Nash continued to voice Donald Duck in various projects over the next two decades. In 1971, he devoted himself to charity work, making personal visits to hospitals and homes and entertaining children with his Donald Duck voice.

Nash shares a tombstone with his wife Margaret Seamans. The carving on the tombstone depicts the romantic couple of Donald and Daisy Duck holding hands.

Besides being the official voice of Donald Duck, Nash voiced various other Disney characters throughout his affiliation with the animation studio. He voiced Donald's nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie, Donald's girlfriend Daisy Duck, Mickey Mouse in a number of Pluto-focused short films, Figaro the kitten, and Jiminy Cricket for a number of 1970s recordings. He also provided the animal sounds for a number of mostly unnamed minor characters in Disney's animated feature films.

Nash was asked to come out of retirement to voice Donald Duck again for "Mickey's Christmas Carol" (1983), but the crew at the recording studio was reportedly worried that Nash was too old and infirm to be able to record his lines. A brief coughing fit by Nash was mistaken as a confirmation of their fears. A moment later, Nash started speaking in a perfect Donald Duck voice and improvising a few lines. He had not lost his skills as a voice actor.