They’re father and son (which I just learned), and it seems we owe them a lot! How many times have we heard one of the humans or ‘bots exclaim that, “THEY LOVE TO LAUGH, LONG AND LOUD AND HARD?” A bunch, right? Well, that—and the voice—was Ed Wynn, father of Keneen, whose lovable mug shows up in Laserblast and Parts: The Clonus Horror!
I’m so excited to learn of these family ties! (Sorry if this is common knowledge, but it’s news to me, so I had to share!)
Keenan Wynn also appeared in the original Fred MacMurray Absent Minded Professor movies, as Alonzo Hawk, and as the same character in Herbie Rides Again. And don’t forget, he was in Supertrain!
The Keenan Wyn
Comes blowin’ in
From across the sea
The Wynn family goes back before Ed and continues to this day (see Jessica Keenan Wynn)! I think Ed was the most popular, though, if we go by references in cartoons, which is the measure I always use. A parody of him was always turning up in old Looney Tunes. People imitate him to this day (see Alan Tudyk in Wreck-It Ralph).
Here’s a priceless picture of the two of them. You can just see the thought bubble over Keenan’s head, “Dad, I’m trying to make a serious acting career here!”
You may know of Marc Snegoff, who worked his Snegoff doing makeup for Catalina Caper, Agent for H.A.R.M. (in which he appeared as Conrad the Treacherous Frenchman), and The Time Travelers. His son Gregory grew up to be a voice actor and provided the English voice for Ator.
One that was a big surprise for me: Edgar Bergen, especially notable to fans of MST3k for pioneering the use of clever writing in a puppet ventriloquism act rather than just a demonstration of the skill with corny jokes (to the point he was able to have a successful radio show, where the writing was all he had going for him), was the father of Candice “Murphy Brown” Bergen.
Candice Bergen used to say that she had the embarrassing experience of, when people asked her what her father did, she had to say, “He’s a ventriloquist…on the radio.”
But I was trying to explain who Candice Bergen was to my kids (lol)—because I had confused her for Mariette Hartley (lolol)—and then had to go into Edgar Bergen who I believe may be the only beloved, non-creepy ventriloquist in human history.
“Well, son, I saw that episode from Alfred Hitchcock Presents when you wore a tuxedo I wonder I never wore”
It’s called “A Dip In The Pool”, by the way
They were also both in the original TV movie of Requiem for a Heavyweight, in which Ed was extremely nervous about playing a dramatic role for the first time, and reportedly greatly irritated the crew by trying to get more comedy added to the script, only to blow them all away with his moving performance on the live broadcast. It was even dramatized as The Man in the Funny Suit, in which most of the major characters played themselves (and the source of that picture I posted above).