Please Rewind Talent Wall

Bob Bergen

Bob Bergen knew what he wanted to do unusually early. Born in St. Louis on March 8, 1964, he spent childhood hours watching and taping cartoons, imitating their voices and inventing characters of his own. He even told his parents that he wanted to voice Porky Pig—a plan his mother initially resisted. That ambition quickly became practical determination. As a teenager in 1978, Bergen researched phone books and called Mel Blanc. He later slipped into a recording session for the live stage show Bugs Bunny in Space by pretending to be Blanc’s assistant, giving himself the chance to watch the voice actor at work. Bergen also understood that enthusiasm was not enough: he studied voice-over with coaches in Los Angeles, took acting lessons in Daws Butler’s weekly workshop, completed two years at a Meisner conservatory and spent three years studying improv with The Groundlings. By 18, he had secured an agent while supporting himself as a Universal Studios tour guide. In 1990, Bergen joined the group of performers voicing Looney Tunes characters, beginning with Tiny Toon Adventures. He became the current voice of Porky Pig and has also performed characters including Tweety, Marvin the Martian, Speedy Gonzales, Wile E. Coyote and Sylvester Jr. It is a body of work built around vocal control, comic timing and the challenge of keeping familiar characters alive without simply treating them as museum pieces. His range extends well beyond Looney Tunes. Bergen voiced Arsène Lupin III in Streamline Pictures dubs of The Mystery of Mamo, The Castle of Cagliostro and two television episodes released as Lupin III’s Greatest Capers. His anime work also includes No-Face in Spirited Away and Kai and Masaru in the Streamline dub of Akira. Elsewhere, he has voiced Luke Skywalker in more than a dozen Star Wars video games and in Robot Chicken, appeared across animated Muppet productions, and played Wind-Up in several Skylanders games. Bergen has also worked as a Disney Channel promo announcer and, in 2024, was announced as an announcer for MeTV Toons—a fitting continuation of a career shaped by a lifelong attention to how animated characters sound, move and endure.