- He was born in San Francisco. His surname was actually Blank, but he changed it to Blanc at 16 after a teacher told him he would amount to nothing and be like his name, a "blank".
- He was known as “The Man of a Thousand Voices”, which included Bugs Bunny, Sylvester the Cat, Tweety Bird, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Elmer Fudd. He was the first voice actor to receive on-screen credit.
- He holds the record for the longest characterisation of an animated character by one voice actor, having voiced Daffy Duck from 1937 to 1989, a period of 52 years.
- Voices weren’t his only talent. He was also an accomplished violinist, playing with various symphony orchestras. He was a conductor, too, becoming the youngest conductor in the country at the age of 19.
- His normal speaking voice was closest to Sylvester the Cat, without the lisp. Blanc said that Yosemite Sam was the hardest voice to do, because of his loudness and raspiness.
- He once had a serious car accident and was in a coma for a while. Doctors got no response when they talked to him, until one doctor tried "Bugs? Bugs Bunny? Are you there?" to which Mel responded weakly in Bug’s voice. That was the turning point, and he recovered.
- His car had a sneakily rude licence plate. It read “KMIT”. He was asked if it stood for a radio station, which would have amounted to illegal advertising. Mel responded that an old Jewish expression, 'know me in truth'; however, it actually stood for the Yiddish phrase "kish mir im tuchis" which translates as "Kiss my ass".
- A doctor who examined Blanc's throat found that he possessed unusually thick, powerful vocal cords which gave him an exceptional range, not unlike those of opera singer Enrico Caruso.
- He collected antique Watches and had over 300 of them, including one dating back to 1510. It only had one hand and chimed every hour.
- Blanc was a heavy smoker for much of his life, smoking at least pack a day from the age of nine until 1985 when a diagnosis of emphysema prompted him to stop. The habit contributed to his death at the age of 81. The epitaph on headstone at his burial site in Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California reads "That's all, folks!".
New!!!
The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.
Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.
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