Frank Welker

Franklin Wendell Welker (born March 12, 1946) is an American actor who specializes in voice acting. He began his career in the 1960s, and held around 850 film, television, and video game credits as of 2020, making him one of the most prolific voice actors in history. With his films earning a total worldwide box-office gross of $17.4 billion, he is also the fourth-highest-grossing actor as of 2024.

Welker is best known for voicing Fred Jones from the Scooby-Doo franchise since its inception in 1969 and later the titular character himself since 2002. In 2020, Welker reprised the latter role in the animated film Scoob!, the only original voice actor from the series in the film's cast.

In 2016, he received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award. He was nominated for the Children's and Family Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice Performance in an Animated Program in 2022.

Franklin Wendell Welker was born on March 12, 1946, in Denver, Colorado. His parents were Merrill Welker, a mining engineer, and Lillian.

He moved to California and attended Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, where he majored in theatrical arts. In 1966, he received honors for his performance as the Cowardly Lion in the college's theater production of The Wizard of Oz.

Welker began his career as a stand-up comedian and impressionist in 1967, before transitioning to on-screen acting and later voice acting. His first voice-over role was in a commercial for Friskies cat food. The producer's girlfriend recommended he audition for Hanna-Barbera during the casting of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. Welker initially auditioned for the titular character (and, according to Casey Kasem, the role of Shaggy Rogers, as well) but instead won the role of Fred Jones in 1969. Welker has voiced Fred in almost every series and incarnation of the Scooby-Doo animated franchise (with the exceptions of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Scoob!, and Velma, the latter in which he portrayed Fred's father) and has also provided the voice of Scooby-Doo since 2002. With the death of Casey Kasem in 2014, Welker is the only original voice actor still in the Scooby-Doo franchise.

His next major character voice was for Wonder Dog (who was inspired by Scooby-Doo) and Marvin White on the 1973 series Super Friends (also produced by Hanna-Barbera). That same year, he played Pudge and Gabby on DePatie-Freleng Enterprises' animated series Bailey's Comets. Welker continued to provide voices for many characters for Hanna-Barbera for several years, which include Jabberjaw, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, and the Shmoo in The New Fred and Barney Show and its spin-off, The Flintstones Comedy Show. Welker described the voice he used for the Shmoo as "a bubble voice" (one he later used for Gogo Dodo in Tiny Toon Adventures).

In 1978, he played the title character on Fangface and later in its spin-off, Fangface and Fangpuss. Between 1979 and 1982, he worked for Filmation, providing the voices of Heckle and Jeckle, Quacula and Theodore H. Bear on The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle; Spike, Tyke, Tuffy, Droopy, Slick Wolf and Barney Bear on The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show; Willy, Sipe, Poco and Sportikus XI on Sport Billy; various characters on Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids and The New Adventures of the Lone Ranger; and Rif, Burble and Gossamear on Blackstar.