Clarence Nash, the voice of Donald Duck for over 50 years, died on 20th February 1985 at the age of eighty. We print this interview between Father Robert Murphy and Clarence Nash as a tribute to one of cartoon-lands best known voices.
Clarence Nash with his Donald Duck ventriloquist dummy.
Interspersed throughout the following article is a three-way interview conducted by Father Robert Murphy. The other two participants are Clarence “Ducky” Nash and in a very real and totally believable way, Donald Duck himself through the guise of Clarence’s ventriloquist dummy!
On January 25, 1983, I walked through the front gate of the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California with a small but sprightly couple. The wife defers to the animated little man dressed like any other California septagenarian – colourful shirt, cardigan sweater, and alpine hat. He walks with a fast, almost jumpy gait. The stories and names – like Donald, Walt, Mickey, etc. – all pour out in an almost incomprehensible rate. Mid-sentence, the man is stopped by a security officer who has stepped out of his booth at the entrance to Dopey Drive. He eyes our little group and demands to know: “Where do you think you’re going?” “You’re new here, aren’t you?” the little man asked the guard. The guard acknowledged that he was and, in that voice the whole world knows, Clarence “Ducky” Nash said:
“Well, that’s okay! I’m Donald Duck!” The guard looked in amazement and then smiled a broad smile and waved us on in.
[…]
