Paul Frees (June 22, 1920 – November 2, 1986) was a titan of the entertainment industry whose face was occasionally familiar, but whose voice was inescapable. Born Solomon Hersh Frees in Chicago, he possessed a four-octave vocal range and a preternatural ability for mimicry that earned him the title “The Man of a Thousand Voices,” a distinction he shared with his contemporary Mel Blanc. His career began in radio during the 1940s, where his talent for accents and characterizations made him a high-demand performer on legendary programs like Escape and Suspense.
While he appeared in several live-action films, his most enduring legacy remains in the world of animation. Frees became a cornerstone of the Golden Age of Animation, lending his talents to every major studio from MGM to Disney. He is perhaps most famously recognized as the voice of the bumbling villain Boris Badenov in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, and as the eccentric Ludwig Von Drake for Walt Disney. His voice is also immortalized in theme park history as the “Ghost Host” of Disney’s Haunted Mansion, providing the chilling, theatrical narration that has guided millions of visitors through the attraction.
Frees’s versatility made him the ultimate “secret weapon” for directors. In the 1954 thriller Suddenly, which was a significant departure from his vocal work, he appeared on screen as one of the television technicians, working alongside the veteran cast in the high-tension environment of the Benson home. Behind the scenes, he was often called upon to “loop” or re-record dialogue for other actors whose voices were deemed insufficient by the studio; most famously, he re-voiced much of Tony Curtis’s character in Some Like It Hot when Curtis was required to speak in a high-pitched feminine voice.
Beyond animation and dubbing, Frees was a prolific narrator for film trailers and documentaries, and his voice reached every American household through commercials, most notably as the original voice of the Pillsbury Doughboy. He was also a talented songwriter and screenwriter, though these accomplishments were often eclipsed by his staggering vocal output. When he passed away in 1986, he left behind a body of work that spanned nearly every medium of 20th-century entertainment, proving that a single voice—when masterfully utilized—could populate an entire world of imagination.
