June Foray Facts: Iconic Voice Of 'Rocky The Flying Squirrel' Dies

Popular voice actor June Foray, who was the voice of “Rocky the Flying Squirrel” from the iconic series the “Bullwinkle Show”, died Wednesdy aged 99. The cause of death is yet to be revealed.

Her death was confirmed by Dave Nimitz, a close friend of the actor, in a Facebook post Wednesday, saying: “With a heavy heart again I want to let you all know that we lost our little June today at 99 years old she is resting peacefully now with her beloved sister Geri and Sam her brother-in-law”.

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Nicknamed the "Cartoon Queen," Foray was best known for giving her voice to cartoon characters like “Lucifer the Cat” from Disney's “Cinderella,” “Grammi Gummi” from Disney's "Adventures of the Gummi Bears” series, and “Magica De Spell” among many others.

Born June Lucille Forer on Sept. 18, 1917, in Springfield, Massachusetts, she forayed into radio at the age of 12 years; she went to Los Angeles at the age of 17 years and gained popularity as a voice actor.

Throughout her long career, Foray worked wih several big studios in the animation industry. She was invited to Warner Brothers Cartoons by animator Chuck Jones where she gave the voice for Granny, the owner of Tweety and Sylvester, and a series of witches, including Looney Tunes' “Witch Hazel," according to the Los Angeles Times. Old ladies, grandmothers and witches were said to be her specialty.

“I was performing witches and grandmothers before I was old enough to be a grandmother,” she once said, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

She was not credited for her work in these cartoons as most Warner Brothers artists— except Mel Blanc— were not. However, Chuck Jones is reported to have said about her, "June Foray is not the female Mel Blanc, Mel Blanc was the male June Foray."

Not just in cartoons, she had appeared in live action films and TV productions too. She played the high priestess of a fire cult in the 1954 feature film “Sabaka." Foray also did a cameo in the 1992 live-action movie “Boris & Natasha."

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According to the Hollywood Reporter, Foray won a Daytime Emmy for “The Garfield Show” in 2012, in which she played Mrs Cauldron who described herself as “your friendly neighborhood old lady, who might be a witch.” She also received a Grammy Award in 1968 for giving her voice to Cindy Lou Who in the 1966 TV special “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” She published her autobiography in 2009, titled “Did You Grow Up With Me, Too?”

In a 2002 interview to the Archive of American Television, she talked about voicing her characters: “"I love everything I do with all of the parts that I do because there's a little bit of me in all of them. We all have anger and jealousy and love and hope in our natures. We try to communicate that vocally with just sketches that you see on the screen and make it come alive and make it human. That's what I enjoy doing."