John Winfield Stephenson

 John Winfield Stephenson (August 9, 1923 – May 15, 2015)

Stephenson provided the voice for commercials of the era, including spots for Peter Pan Peanut Butter featuring character actor Jesse White. For several decades, he worked for Hanna-Barbera Productions, performing for many of its 1960s and 1970s animated television series. His first role for the company was for The Flintstones's eleventh episode, "The Golf Champion". He played The Golf Commentator, a lodge member and Left-Foot Charlie. Stephenson's most notable role for Hanna-Barbera was as Mr. Slate. Other notable roles include Fancy-Fancy on Top Cat, multiple characters on Scooby-Doo, Colonel Fusby on Breezly and Sneezly, Chief Winchley on the Squiddly Diddly segments from The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show, Tog, Rollo, Pondo and Ork in Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor and Luke and Blubber Bear in the Wacky Races, among many others. He was cast most often in the Scooby-Doo series as the villains or the red herring scientist. In the episode "High Rise Hair Raiser", he played Mr. Daugherty, Mr. Speck, and the villain of that episode. Another voice Stephenson was often called to do was the high nasal Joe Flynn-inspired voice. This voice was usually given to characters that were either rude, or smart-alecks, or flat out mean. They were also short-tempered; examples include Mr. Peevly from Help! It's the Hair Bear Bunch!, Mr. Finkerton from Inch High Private Eye, Schnooker from Inspector Mumbly, a segment from The Tom and Jerry/Grape Ape/Mumbly Show and Captain Snerdley from Galaxy Goof-Ups.

During the 1980s, he performed on various cartoons of the period such as G.I. Joe, The Smurfs, Galaxy High, Fraggle Rock: The Animated Series and Bionic Six. Stephenson was also the narrator in the classic television series Dragnet (1967–1970), recapping the fate of the perpetrators at the end of every episode. Stephenson died of Alzheimer's disease at the age of 91 on May 15, 2015.