Alan Young is true American Hero, one that comes from England. Alan's two most prominent roles are so entwined in the American culture, that I had to look up the word 'entwined' just to check if I was using it right.
Alan first rose to prominence as Wilbur Post, a clumsy architect who owned a horse that would only talk to him named Mr. Ed on the TV show "Mr. Ed". Playing straight man to a horse is like, well, playing straight man to a wall with eyes that shits. Mr. Ed ran for 6 seasons, and sure the American public was dumb enough to be entranced by a talking animal that long, Alan Young's bumbling around and guffawing surely had something to do with it. You had to believe a horse would only talk to him to some extent.
Alan's role of a lifetime came in 1983 when he became the voice of the most influential millionaire known to children, Scrooge McDuck. He still voices him to this day. Alan was tasked with bringing a bravado and over the top caricature not only to a Scottish millionaire, but to a Scottish Millionaire who is a duck. Just listen to Alan's performance in Mickey's Christmas carol where he plays Scrooge, the range of emotion he gets out from the voice is a study in commitment to character. Or in DuckTales, where he had to make Scrooge at times miserly but overall a sympathetic character. Alan, as Scrooge, set the bar on what our generation though of Scottish voices. In mockery and in stereotype, he set a bar so high that we could not reach it, no matter how much we hate Scottish people.
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