Tuesday, May 18, 2010

AT MIKE PATAKI'S MEMORIAL SEVICE



Mike Pataki, as most people reading this will know, was the voice for John K's George Liquor, and was famous for playing Klingons (above) on the original Star Trek series.  Mike recently passed away and last Saturday I went to Mike's  memorial service at Valhalla Park in North Hollywood.  Valhalla is sort of "The Other Forest Lawn," A lot of early film actors are buried there,  including Oliver Hardy.  Lots of gangsters, too.


 A number of show business friends of Mike spoke, including his buddy Ed Asner, who called him "Wacky Pataki." The speeches were so funny that the service sometimes felt more like a roast.



















I was a little disappointed to see that few of the speakers talked much about Mike's voice work for George Liquor (above).  It really is one of the all-time great cartoon voices.  George even looks a little like Mike Pataki. He's tightly packed just like Mike, a size five body in a size three skin.


Somewhere after middle age Mike's voice became gravelly. It probably hurt his ability to get work.  Amazingly Mike turned a liability into an asset by developing an absolutely unique delivery style to fit his new voice.  John K picked up on it, worked with Mike to refine it,  and the rest is history...or would have been had TV executives had the sense to give George his own animated show.

I guess I'm surprised to see that his peers failed to realize the magnitude of what Mike accomplished with George Liquor. It's a layered voice full of nuance and music and Mike's own experience of life.  Lots of actors can do Irish policemen, snooty upper-class Englishmen and all that. George-s voice was  unique...one of a kind.  


















But I don't want to dump on actors.  One of the delights of being at the memorial was being surrounded by show people. They really are a breed apart.  No matter what the occasion, they're always on, always looking for ways to entertain.


A couple of them of struck me as being a little crazy,  maybe a consequence of devoting themselves so singlemindedly to hope, and to things intuitive.  They're like the salesmen famously described by Willie Lohman's wife at the end of "Death of a Salesman." I'm beginning to wonder if that play was really about actors.





10 comments:

  1. Michael was also great as the voice of The Cow in the Bakshi "Mighty Mouse" show. He really captured the utter lunacy of that character.

    And I just found out that Mike was also the voice of the teacher in a Dexter's Lab episode "Detention". I still crack up everytime he says "I...AM...A...CRIMINAL". At the same time, I was terrified of that character (I mean that in a good way).

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  2. Wow, when I directed a production of Death of A Salesman, that's the insight I gleaned from the play myself, that Miller observed the lives of actors, dancers and other Broadway and off-Broadway denizens and perhaps got the inspiration. You have to delude yourself a lot in hopes of that one big break, that you have loads of potential, that you have lots of friends who will remember you, who know you have quality, even if others are snickering a lot behind your back and other are hinting it may be time to retire or at least change your profession or things aren't as rosy as you may imagine them to be.

    So sorry about Mr. P, but at least he's at peace and not suffering anymore. And he did have a lot of friends who did remember and who loved him. It makes one wonder, "Who's gonna' show up at my funeral, and what will they say?"
    Ahhh ... mortality.

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  3. He was legendary, that Mike.

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  4. >>>I'm beginning to wonder if that play was really about actors.<<<<

    Really interesting observation, point, etc...

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  5. "Attention must finally be paid to such a person."

    Mike Pataki will be hard to replace. He really seemed to click with John's comic timing.

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  6. i had no idea he was that klingon dude!! i grew up with this guy! i was an original trekkie back when i was a kid in the mid seventies, saw that episode and others he was on, often wondered "what happened to that guy?" jump ahead a few years, watching ren and stimpy on dvd, see "mans best friend" for the first time and wondered"who is that guy doing the voice?" never imagining they were one and the same! thats an accomplishment for a true actor, he fleshed out the part so completely he got lost in it. bravo mike pataki bravo!

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  7. lastangelman, that also goes for other types of artists too, even us cartoonists.

    Just today I was watching an episode of All in the Family inwhich Mr. Pataki made an appearance. He played a modern artist who dared to put Archie's chair into one of his pieces.

    A good fine talent. He will be missed.

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  8. Anonymous6:12 PM

    Very sad news. Mike was great.

    Jaime Weinman at Macleans Magazine has an article about Mike and his aging character actor generation.

    http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/04/23/michael-pataki-and-tv-character-acting/

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  9. Brubaker: Yeah. It's an intimidating voice that's simultaneously funny and appealing.

    Last: I forgot that you made a comment once about another play that you directed, maybe Noises Off. I'm envious!

    Rooni, Thomas, Pappy: Thanks!

    Craig: No, he didn't speak. I think he was too emotional. He gave Mike's wife, "T" a terrific marker drawing commemorating Mike.

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