Allen Swift

Ira Stadlen January 16 1924 April 18 2010 known professionally as Allen Swift was an American voice actor  known for playing characters including Simon Bar Sinister and RiffRaff on the Underdog cartoon show He provided the voices of many of the characters in The Bluffers most of the voices for the 1960s underwater puppet show Diver Dan and the voices in Gene Deitchs 19601962 group of Tom and Jerry cartoons Swift was a childrens television show host on WPIX in New York City as Captain Allen He took his professional name from radio comedian Fred Allen and 18th century satirist Jonathan Swift Swift was an early television star who hosted The Popeye Show from September 10 1956 to September 23 1960 until he was forced to leave the program The reason for his dismissal from The Popeye Show was creative differences with station managementInfo can be found inThe Popeye Showaticle in The NYC Kids Shows Round Upsection ofTV PartyCom Swift did the majority of the voices in RankinBasss Mad Monster Party credited as Alan sic Swift in the movies credits  He supplied most of the character voices for the NBC Howdy Doody Show and when Buffalo Bob Smith who himself did the voice of the lead puppet character Howdy Doody and had many times proclaimed that nobody else could do Howdy suffered a heart attack Swift took home some recordings over the weekend came back on Monday and did Howdys voice for more than a yearInfo can be found in Tv Bloq section of TV PartyCom Swift also served as the second comedy writer for Howdy Doody He took on the job following the abrupt departure of the series first comedy writer and songwriter Edward Keaninfo at TV BloqPast entry 168 at TV PartyCom He also wrote the play Checking Out Swift was married to actress Lenore Loveman and is the father of character actor mimic and singer Lewis J Stadlen holistic health practitioner Maxime Stadlen and psychotherapist Clare A Stadlen He lived in Manhattan Allen had been suffering with a series of health calamities for several years since he fell and broke his hip while walking his dog From that moment one thing led to another said personal friend and director Gene Deitch Even though Ive been here for 50 years hardly a year went by without a visit to his 57th Street apartment nor a day go by without email and most recently Skype visits added Deitch an American expatriate living in the Czech Republic From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia