Allen Swift
Biography
An actor, writer and magician, Allen Swift built a career in voiceover work. Born in 1924, he grew up in Brooklyn, trained at the High School of Music & Art, and entertained troops while in the Army Air Forces. His cartoon roles included the villain voices Simon Bar Sinister and Riff-Raff on Underdog and Popeye in 1960s Popeye cartoons. For Rankin/Bass he provided most of the voices in Mad Monster Party? (1967) and supplied the voice of Gadzooks the Bear for The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town. On the NBC Howdy Doody show he supplied most of the character voices, took over the title puppet's voice for more than a year, and became its second comedy writer. He also voiced Twinkie the Kid and characters on Diver Dan. He wrote the play Checking Out, which later became a film, and did commercials as the Frito Bandito and The Burger King. He died in 2010.
86years old at death
- Born New York City
- Died New York City
- Star sign: CapricornThe sign runs December 22 to January 19
Movie Career
- Films
- 3
- Career span
- 10 years1967 to 1977
Every film, newest first
- 1977Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical AdventureIMDb rating 6.8
- 1974'Twas the Night Before ChristmasIMDb rating 7.3
- 1967Mad Monster Party?IMDb rating 6.6
Genres
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Behind the camera
After Edward Kean, the first comedy writer and songwriter for Howdy Doody, left abruptly, Swift took over as the show's second comedy writer.
Behind the camera
Swift also wrote a play called Checking Out. It was turned into a film with the same title, starring Peter Falk, Laura San Giacomo, Judge Reinhold and David Paymer.
Beyond film
Swift gave the original voice to the Frito Bandito in the animated commercials for Fritos Corn Chips that ran in the 1960s.
A change of course
Swift could produce a wide range of sounds, tones and accents, which allowed him to voice competing products such as Tip-Top, Braun, Stroehmann or Taystee.
Allen Swift movies on Netflix
Worked with
Allen Swift made one film with each of them. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
Boris Karloff's page
Paul Dooley's page
John McGiver's page
Joel Grey's page
Phyllis Diller's page
Arnold Stang's page
Jules BassDirector, 2 films, 1967 to 1974
All films by Jules Bass
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.