The name Donald Duck strikes a chord in the memory, but how many Oklahomans knew the man behind the famous quacking voice was born in Oklahoma?
Clarence Charles Nash was born December 7, 1904, in Watonga, Okla. Watonga istheArapahoandCheyenne Indian Reservation named afterArapahoChiefWatonga meaning Black Coyote. The area was allotted to these removed tribes. Years later, reservation territory was opened to non-Indian settlement in the Land Run on April 19, 1892, eventually becoming Oklahoma in 1907.
Young Nash seemed to have a natural inclination for imitating animal voices and performed at the age of thirteen in a school talent show where he sang the famous nursery rhyme Mary had a Little Lamb in his Billy goat voice. Nash auditioned for Walt Disney with some of his bird calls and animal sounds ending with his Mary had a Little Lamb routine.
It is rumored that Jackson, who was conducting the audition, discretely, switched on the intercom which went directly to Disney’s office and then asked Nash to continue. Within moments, Disney rushed into Jackson’s office and said excitingly, “That’s our talking duck!”
Nash didn’t tell Disney that the voice was supposed to be a Billy goat. This seemed to be the beginning of a career with Disney where he mimicked animal voices including Mickey Mouse and other cartoon characters but mostly, the iconic voice of Donald Duck.
Nash made the switch from Billy goat voice to quacking duck in 1933 while crafting the elegant linguist of Donald Duck. The first movie with his voice over was in 1934 in Donald Duck’s first movie, “The Wise Little Hen”. Some of Nash’s other voiceperformancesthatmost cartoon enthusiasts would recall are Donald Duck’s nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie as well as Daisy Duck and Uncle Scrooge Nash’s Donald Duck and other voices career spanned from 1934 to 1972, and Disney studio called him back from retirement, where he was devoted to charity work, to perform a bear voice in The Fox and the Hound as well as Donald Duck for Mickey’s Christmas Carol in 1981 and 1983.
Nash passed away February 20, 1985, at the age of 80. His retirement years turned him towards devoted charity work cheering up folks in hospitals. The famous and iconic voices that he created have left a permanent mark on the world and the mere sound of a talking duck will forever be his legacy.