A different kind of Ravenscroft

[Tom Roche]

Voice of Tony the Tiger dies

Thurl Ravenscroft dead at 91


FULLERTON, California (AP) -- Thurl Ravenscroft, who provided the 
rumbling "They're Grrrrreeeat!" for Kellogg's Tony the Tiger ads and 
voiced a host of Disney characters, has died. He was 91.

Ravenscroft died Sunday of prostate cancer, said Diane Challis Davy, 
director of Laguna Beach's Pageant of the Masters.

For more than 50 years, Ravenscroft was the affable voice behind Tony 
the Tiger, TV's popular cartoon pitchman for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes.

"I'm the only man in the world that has made a career with one word: 
Grrrrreeeat!" Ravenscroft told the Orange County Register in 1996. 
"When Kellogg's brought up the idea of the tiger, they sent me a 
caricature of Tony to see if I could create something for them. After 
messing around for some time I came up with the `Grrrrreeeat!' roar, 
and that's how it's been since then."

Born in Norfolk, Nebraska, Ravenscroft moved to California in 1933 to 
study art. By the mid-1930s he was appearing regularly on radio, and 
by the late-1930s he was singing backup for Bing Crosby.

After military service during World War II, he returned to Hollywood, 
where he sang with the Mellomen, a group that performed with Frank 
Sinatra, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Elvis Presley.

In 1952, Ravenscroft's voice appeared in the first Frosted Flakes commercial.

Ravenscroft is survived by two children and four grandchildren. June, 
his wife of 53 years, died in 1999 at age 80.

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