Lorenzo Music
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| Lorenzo Music | |
|---|---|
| Born | Gerald David Music May 2, 1937  Brooklyn, New York |
| Died | August 4, 2001 (aged 64) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | actor, voice artist, writer, producer, musician |
| Years active | 1962–1996 |
Gerald David Music, better known as Lorenzo Music, (May 2, 1937 – August 4, 2001), was an American actor, voice actor, writer, television producer and musician. He was perhaps best known for providing the voice of the animated cartoon cat Garfield and Carlton the doorman ("Hello, this is Carlton, your doorman") on Rhoda. He is also known for his roles as Tummi Gummi in Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, the original voice of Peter Venkman in DIC's The Real Ghostbusters, and Larry the Crash Test Dummy in a series of 1980's public service announcements about wearing seat belts in vehicles.
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[edit] Early life
Music was born in Brooklyn, New York City, and was raised in Duluth, Minnesota, where he was educated at the Central High School and the University of Minnesota Duluth. There he met his wife, Henrietta, and they formed a comedy duo Gerald and His Hen. They performed successfully for 8 years. He changed his first name to Lorenzo for spiritual reasons after he became a member of the international spiritual association Subud.
[edit] Career
[edit] Early career
Music got his first professional job providing various voices to the cartoon The Jetsons in 1962. He became a writer and a regular performer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour during 1968 and 1969. His work as a writer on The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1970 would lead him to his big break.
He was the creator of The Bob Newhart Show which went on the air in 1972 and ran for six years. He also co-wrote the theme song to the show with his wife Henrietta. He continued writing for the Mary Tyler Moore Show spin-off Rhoda. While casting Rhoda, the producers were looking for a voice actor to play the part of a character that would be heard but never seen: Carlton the doorman. When they heard Music's sleepy, husky voice, they offered him that role, which made his voice recognizable to a worldwide television audience. Music co-produced and co-wrote a 1980 animated special Carlton Your Doorman which won an Emmy Award.
In 1976, he and Henrietta were given the opportunity to host a television variety show of their own. The Lorenzo and Henrietta Music Show was produced in an era with a glut of television variety shows and did not last.
[edit] Garfield
In 1982, Jim Davis's comic strip Garfield was the most popular strip in America. Compilation books of the strip were topping best seller lists, and Davis was negotiating to make an animated television special. Producers needed someone to voice the main character in the strip: Garfield, a lazy, oafish and demanding cat. After one audition, Music was cast as the voice of Garfield (in Davis's words, "I looked at the room full of (voice) actors, and then in the corner I saw Lorenzo, quietly licking himself").
On a 1988 television special celebrating the 10th anniversary of Garfield, Jim Davis remarked, apparently facetiously, that Lorenzo Music was a man "whose face I've never seen." This may have been a tongue-in-cheek joke referring to the fact that Music avoided being photographed, or possibly was in reference to Music's positioning in the voice recording studio, where only the back of his head was visible from the studio's sound engineering booth.
Music's voice became an American staple: no fewer than 12 Garfield television specials were produced and the Garfield and Friends animated television series ran for seven years. Music was called upon to help write and produce the shows as well. Music became a favorite in the animation community voicing characters for shows such as TaleSpin, The Real Ghostbusters, Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, and Darkwing Duck. In the mid-1990s, after both Garfield and Friends and Darkwing Duck went off the air, Music retired from cartoon voice over work.
Since his death, Frank Welker generally replaces Lorenzo Music as the voice of Garfield the Cat in recent productions based on the Garfield franchise. Also, Bill Murray voiced Garfield in the live-action films Garfield: The Movie and Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties.
[edit] Later career
In 1996, Music's voice could be heard on Stan Freberg's Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America Volume Two album, released as a CD by Rhino Records. Music appears on the album as James Madison and Robert E. Lee. He was also rumored to appear on the final album of the series, Volume Three, but the album has not been released.
In the early 1990s, he served as the voice-over for commercials for Ore Ida Potatoes. He later served as the pitchman for Ruggles Ice Cream (a local brand from Cleveland, Ohio.)
[edit] Death
In 2001, Music died from complications related to lung and bone cancer. He is survived by his wife, Henrietta; his daughters Roz and Leilani and his sons Fernando and Sam. Daughter Roz is a prominent Hollywood make-up artist (Adaptation., The Virgin Suicides).
| Preceded by 'Lou Rawls singing voice in Here Comes Garfield' |
Voice of Garfield the Cat 1982-1994 |
Succeeded by Bill Murray |
| Preceded by Bill Murray |
Voice of Dr. Peter Venkman 1986-1988 |
Succeeded by Dave Coulier |
