Bob McFadden

Bob McFadden was born in East Liverpool, Ohio in 1923, and got his first break singing and doing impersonations in a weekly talent show while stationed in Puerto Rico with the Navy during World War II. After leaving the Navy, he worked in a Pittsburgh steel mill, and got into show business as an opening act at hotels and nightclubs for the McGuire Sisters, Harry Belafonte and others. Although McFadden was not a household name, he was still happy just to be in show business. He met his wife in Boston in 1950, when the two were working together. While he sang onstage, she and her twin sister performed synchronized swimming exercises in a pool below. The McFaddens moved to Queens in the the mid-1960's and Bob became a voiceover talent in advertising and cartoons. He made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling his voice to advertise products for Ban deodorant, Campbell's soup, Ford, Frankenberry cereal, Geritol, Mountain Dew and Pepto-Bismol. Once he was paid $12,000 to make swishing sounds to imitate a jet airplane. Bob McFadden's most memorable commercial was the voice of a parrot for Wisk. He said "Ring around the collar" and "Nice shirt". This commercial would be played over a 25 year timespan. He also barked like a dog for Crest toothpaste. In 1982, TV Guide called Mr. McFadden "one of the elite of TV commercial voice-overs." Among his other works, he did ethnic characters for comedy albums including "The Yiddish Are Coming!". He was a stable voice for Terrytoons and was best known as Cool McCool's "Pop the Cop" for King Features Syndicate in 1966. He was also Milton the Monster. Despite retiring to Delray Beach, Florida, he would perform in supper clubs imitating Jack Benny and Ed Sullivan. He did singing impressions of Frankie Laine, Billy Eckstine and the Inkspots. In 1959 in Cuba (days before Fidel Castro took over), McFadden was asked to perform a show in Spanish but did not know the language. His brother-in-law wrote the show in Spainish allowing McFadden to pronounce everything phonetically. The best part was Roy Roger's sidekick, Gabby Hayes, singing underwater in Spanish He died January 7, 2000 of ALS or Lou Gherig's Disease. Show less «