Paul Frees (born Solomon Hersh Frees; June 22, 1920 – November 2, 1986) was a prolific American voice actor.
His early talents were used in "re-looping" the dialogue of actors who could not affect foreign accents or other voices accurately (the most famous example probably being his uncredited dubbing of Tony Curtis' "female" voice in Some Like It Hot), and in 1942 he started voicing in animated cartoons.
His regular roles of note include Boris Badenov and Inspector Fenwick in Rocky and Bullwinkle; Prof. Ludwig Von Drake in Disney's Wonderful World of Color; John Lennon and George Harrison in The Beatles (1965); Fluid Man in Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles; Double Q, Morocco Mole and Squiddly Diddly in Secret Squirrel; Judge Oliver Wendell Clutch in Calvin and the Colonel; the titular duo in Barney Google and Snuffy Smith; Ignatz Mouse in Krazy Kat; the Thing in The Fantastic Four (1967); and Vangore in Arabian Knights. He provided the narrative voice for Jerry Mouse in the Tom and Jerry cartoon "Blue Cat Blues". He was the second voice of K.A.R.R. in Knight Rider, after Peter Cullen, in the 1984 episode "K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R." In one of his later roles, he even played a character in The Puppetoons Movie (which was dedicated to him). He was also the voice of the narratornote in Hardware Wars.
Frees was heard in many of Rankin/Bass's animated Christmas specials, including The Little Drummer Boy, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, and Rudolph's Shiny New Year. His voice was also used for a number of characters in Disney Theme Parks attractions: the Ghost Host for The Haunted Mansion, the Auctioneer in Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Narrator in Adventure Thru Inner Space. In commercials, Frees voiced Toucan Sam (channeling Ronald Colman) for Froot Loops cereal, Little Green Sprout for Green Giant vegetables, and the Pillsbury Doughboy. And he lent his voice to some of Stan Freberg's comedy records, most notably serving as narrator for Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America.
In addition to his voice work, Frees had minor live-action roles in films (including The Thing from Another World and Suddenly) and television. He played the title character, Eccentric Millionaire John Beresford Tipton, in The Millionaire (kind of a voice role, since Tipton was The Faceless). He also co-wrote and directed the movie The Beatniks, which was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000, and dubbed the voice of the villain Khali in the English-dubbed version of Ilya Muromets which appeared on MST3K as The Sword and the Dragon.
