For close to 50 years, Clarence Nash gave voice to Donald Duck, one of Disney's most popular characters. A native of Oklahoma, Nash had a natural gift for imitating animals and as a young man would perform them as part of a tour on the Chautauqua circuit. In the early '30s, he landed in Southern California where he performed radio advertisements for a dairy. Walt Disney heard the ad and called Nash in for an audition. He hired Nash. After hearing him read a quacked-up version of a nursery rhyme one day, the excited Disney knew he had found the right voice for his foul-tempered new character, Donald. Nash voiced over 100 Donald Duck cartoons and even performed them in several languages, thanks to phonetically written scripts. He remained the sole voice of Donald until his death in 1985. Nash also became the second voice of Jiminy Cricket after his originator, Cliff Edwards, died.
by Sandra Brennan
biography
