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Jean Vander Pyl

American voice actress (1919–1999) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jean Vander Pyl
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In this Dutch name, the surname is Vander Pyl.

Jean Thurston Vander Pyl (October 11, 1919 – April 10, 1999) was an American voice actress. Although her career spanned many decades, she is best known as the voice of Wilma Flintstone for the Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Flintstones.[1] In addition to Wilma Flintstone, she also provided the voices of Pebbles Flintstone; Rosie the robot maid from The Jetsons; Goldie, Lola Glamour, Nurse LaRue, and other characters in Top Cat; Winsome Witch on The Secret Squirrel Show; and Ogee on The Magilla Gorilla Show.[2]

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Early life and career

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Vander Pyl was born in Philadelphia to John Howard and Kathleen Hale Vander Pyl. Jean's grandfather had come from the Netherlands. Her father was the district manager for Knit Underwear; her mother was from Tennessee.[3] The two died within six months of each other in the early 1950s.[4]

By 1939, Vander Pyl was already working as a radio actress.[citation needed] She was heard during the early 1950s on such programs as The Halls of Ivy (1950–52), as well as Father Knows Best on which she portrayed Margaret Anderson (the role was played on television by Jane Wyatt). Vander Pyl made numerous TV appearances as an actress in programs such as Leave It to Beaver, The Donna Reed Show, Father Knows Best, The Beverly Hillbillies, That Girl, and Petticoat Junction. She also had a cameo appearance in the 1994 live-action film version of The Flintstones as Mrs. Feldspar, an elderly woman in a conga line right behind Dino. One of her final TV appearances was in the opening scene of the season-two Murder, She Wrote episode, "One Good Bid Deserves a Murder".

Voice work

Vander Pyl is best-known as the voice of Wilma Flintstone in the original Flintstones television series. She told an interviewer in 1995 that she received $250 per episode for making The Flintstones, and in 1966, when the series ended, she opted to accept $15,000 in lieu of residual payments from syndication. The Flintstones ran in syndication across the globe for decades. At the time, Vander Pyl lived in San Clemente, California, and remarked: "If I got residuals, I wouldn't live in San Clemente. I'd own San Clemente."[5]

Most of Vander Pyl's voice acting work was for the Hanna-Barbera studio, for which she played her first voice role in 1958 on an episode of The Huckleberry Hound Show, voicing an actress character in "Show Biz Bear", an episode on the Yogi Bear segment. She did additional voices, such as the Narrator and Southern belles and beautiful girls, on The Quick Draw McGraw Show, Snagglepuss, and The Yogi Bear Show. In 1961–62, Vander Pyl played Nurse Larue, Charlie the baby, Goldie, Lola Glamour, and additional voices on multiple episodes of Top Cat and in 1962, she performed a particularly memorable role, that of Rosie, the Jetsons' robotic maid. Twenty-three years later, in 1985, she reprised the Rosie character on the returning series.

In later years, Vander Pyl did the voices of Maw Rugg and her daughter Floral Rugg on a rural-set cartoon, The Hillbilly Bears as well as Winsome Witch, both cartoons being segments on the The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show (1965–1967). She was also the voice of Little Ogee on The Magilla Gorilla Show. In 1969, she guest-starred on the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! episode "Foul Play in Funland", playing Sarah Jenkins.

During the 1970s, Vander Pyl was the voice of Marge Huddles, the main character's wife, on Where's Huddles?, a role similar to that of Wilma Flintstone, and on which she was reunited with her Flintstones castmates Alan Reed and Mel Blanc. She went on to voice Mrs. Finkerton on Inch High, Private Eye, and several female characters on Hong Kong Phooey, The Tom and Jerry Show, and Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Vander Pyl did voices on Mister T, Snorks, and Yogi's Treasure Hunt; as well as The Flintstone Kids as Mrs. Slaghoople. She reprised the Wilma Flintstone character on spin-off series and films such as The Flintstone Comedy Hour, The New Fred and Barney Show, The Flintstone Comedy Show, The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones, I Yabba-Dabba Do!, Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby, and A Flintstones Christmas Carol.

Her final roles were that of Wilma Flintstone on What a Cartoon! episode "Dino: Stay Out!" in 1995; on A Flintstone Family Christmas in 1996; and on The Weird Al Show in 1997.

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Personal life

Vander Pyl was married twice and was a widow twice over. She married Carroll G. O'Meara on March 9, 1939; together they had three children. O'Meara died on February 18, 1962, at the age of 53.[6] She then married her second husband Roger Wells DeWitt in 1963; the couple had one son. They remained married until DeWitt's death in 1992.[1]

Death

On April 10, 1999, Vander Pyl died of lung cancer at her home in Dana Point, California, at the age of 79.[5] She is interred in Ascension Cemetery in Lake Forest, California.[7]

Jean Vander Pyl was the last surviving original cast member of The Flintstones,

Filmography

Film

Television

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References

External links

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