Joseph Francis Alaskey III (April 17, 1952 – February 3, 2016) was an American actor and comedian. He was one of Mel Blanc's successors at the Warner Bros. Animation studio until his death. He alternated with Jeff Bergman, Greg Burson, Jim Cummings, Bob Bergen, Maurice LaMarche and Billy West in voicing Warner Bros. cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester, Tweety, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepé Le Pew, Marvin the Martian, Speedy Gonzales, Taz, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, among many others. He also voiced Plucky Duck on Tiny Toon Adventures from 1990 to 1995. Alaskey was the second actor to voice Grandpa Lou Pickles on Nickelodeon's Rugrats (taking over after David Doyle's death in 1997). He would later reprise his role in the spin-off series All Grown Up!.
Early life
Joseph Francis Alaskey III was born in Troy, New York, on April 17, 1952, to Joseph Francis Alaskey Jr. and Domenica "Dorothy" De Sorrento De Luca Alaskey. Alaskey was interested in archaeology at the age of ten. He was occasionally seen onscreen impersonating Jackie Gleason, with whom he shared a physical resemblance. After Gleason died in 1987, the project was shelved. Alaskey did voice work for non-Warner Bros. characters as well. He has voiced Grandpa Lou Pickles on Rugrats (inheriting the role after David Doyle's death in 1997). He voiced Lou again in the Rugrats spin-off series, All Grown Up!. He also created the voice of Thomas Timberwolf for the internet series TimberWolf, created by animation legend Chuck Jones. He was heard briefly as a voice-over announcer for the Toon Disney channel (and sometimes Dcom extras on Disney Channel). He was the voice of Lizard in the video game Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man: Friend or Foe (2007). Alaskey was in the independent film The Legend of Sasquatch (2006) and voiced Mermaid Man in the video games SpongeBob SquarePants: Lights, Camera, Pants! (2005) and SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab (2006). He voiced Stinkie in Casper as well as that film's 1996 animated spin-off, The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper. Alaskey played Beano Froelich in Out of This World but left the show early in its final season, making only infrequent appearances in a few episodes. In the 1980s, he worked as the original announcer on the short-lived game show Couch Potatoes, hosted by Marc Summers. Alaskey made several onscreen appearances, portraying the show's "next door neighbor". For the show's final weeks, he was replaced by Jim McKrell and the "next door neighbor" concept was dropped. During this time, he was also a panelist on The New Hollywood Squares, hosted by John Davidson.
In 2003, he took over the roles of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck in the film Looney Tunes: Back in Action. He also, at times, provided the voices for Sylvester, Tweety, and other Looney Tunes characters.
In 2014, Alaskey started narrating the television documentary series Murder Comes to Town, which airs on the Investigation Discovery Network.
Alaskey's only leading role in a live-action film was as lovable loser Ron Douglas in the black comedy Lucky Stiff (1988), directed by Anthony Perkins and co-starring Donna Dixon and Jeff Kober.
Death
Alaskey died in his apartment in Green Island, New York, from cancer with his brother by his side on February 3, 2016, at the age of 63. Five days later, his funeral was held at St Patrick's Cemetery in Watervliet, New York.
Filmography
Film
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ List of voice performances in feature and direct-to-video films
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 1988
| Who Framed Roger Rabbit
| Yosemite Sam
|
|-
| rowspan="2"|1990
| Spaced Invaders
| Doctor Ziplock
|
|-
| The Jungle Book
| Kaa
|
|-
| rowspan="2"|1991
| Bugs Bunny's Lunar Tunes
| Daffy Duck, Marvin the Martian
| Direct-to-video
|-
| A Wish for Wings That Work
| Truffles, The Ducks
|
|-
| 1992
| Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation
| Plucky Duck, Elmer Fudd, Tupelo Toad, Johnny Carson, Ed McMahon
| Direct-to-video
|-
|2009||Looney Tunes: Laff Riot||Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck||Unaired pilot for The Looney Tunes Show Replaced by Jeff Bergman
|}
Video games
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ List of voice performances in video games
|-
! Year!!Title!!Role!!Notes
|-
|1994||Sylvester and Tweety in Cagey Capers||Sylvester||
|-
|1995||Daffy Duck in Hollywood||Daffy Duck||Sega Genesis version
|-
|1996||Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster and the Beanstalk||Plucky Duck||Credited as Joe Alasky
|-
|rowspan=2|1997||Dilbert's Desktop Games||Phil The Prince of Insufficient Light, Accounting Troll||
|-
|The X-Fools||||
|-
|rowspan=4|1998||Microshaft Winblows 98||Additional voices||
|-
|Rugrats Adventure Game||rowspan=2|Grandpa Lou Pickles||
|-
|White Knight Chronicles||Drisdall||English Dub
|-
|2014||Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham||Green Loontern||
|}
Live-action
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ List of acting performances in television and feature films
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 1986
| Night Court
| Thomas Dobbs
| Episode: "Author, Author"
|-
| 1987
| Head of the Class
| Jack
| Episode: "Ode to Simone"
|-
| 1987–88
| Super Password
| Himself
| 10 episodes
|-
| 1987–91
| Out of this World
| Beano Froelich
| 68 episodes
|-
| 1988
| Lucky Stiff
| Ron Douglas
|
|-
| 1989
| Couch Potatoes
| Himself, The Neighbor
| 9 episodes
|-
| rowspan="2" |1992
|Nurses
|Trekker #1
|Episode: "Eat Something"
|-
|The Golden Palace
|Mr. Smith #3
|Episode: "Camp Town Races Aren't Nearly as Much Fun as They Used to Be"
|-
| rowspan="2"|1993
| Bank Robber
| Night Clerk #2
|
|-
| The Waiter
| Producer
| Short
|-
| 1994
| Forrest Gump
| President Richard Nixon (voice)
|