Charlie Adler


Charles Michael Adler is an American voice actor and voice director, known as Buster Bunny in Tiny Toon Adventures, Ed and Bev Bighead in Rocko's Modern Life, Dinko in Pet Alien and Ickis in Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, among others. He has voice acted in numerous animated series, including Rugrats, The Wild Thornberrys, , Cow and Chicken, and I Am Weasel.

Early life

Adler was born in Paterson, New Jersey on October 2, 1956. In the mid-1960s, his family moved to Nanuet, Rockland County, New York and later to Massachusetts. Charlie was given the nickname "Beanie" due to always wearing a Beanie cap. His sister Cheryl Adler is a psychotherapist who wrote the book Sober University. Growing up, Adler was a "TV junkie", a fan of The Three Stooges, Rocky and Bullwinkle, and Irene Ryan's Granny Moses from The Beverly Hillbillies.

Career

Adler's first professional acting job was in a commercial in 1971. Afterward, he took a break from acting. During this time, Adler worked a variety of jobs, including waiter, janitor, paper delivery man, floor stripper, house painter, remedial reading teacher, and caretaker for an Episcopal church.
In 1984 and 1985 he starred as Arnold Beckoff in Torch Song Trilogy, for which he was nominated for the 1985 Helen Hayes Best Actor Award, in New York City before moving to California in 1986.
Adler's first animation role was recorded in New York, voicing Spike in Rescue at Midnight Castle.
In 1985 after convincing the head of the Abrams, Rubiloff, and Lawrence agency to allow him to audition for their voice over department, Adler went to a private audition for Ginny McSwain and Arlene Thornton. An agent had praised him in front of them as the "next Frank Welker". McSwain recalls that "he blew their minds" but Adler claims that initially they had no interest in him. Having no demo, they arranged for him to record an audition. Adler improvised characters on the spot during the tape, which impressed both McSwain and Thornton, however, left him so embarrassed with his behavior that he performed with his back to them and his face hidden with a hat and sunglasses.
His voice acting career took off when Adler landed the roles of Nat Smurfling in the fourth season of The Smurfs, Rowdy Roddy Piper in Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling, Silverbolt in The Transformers and Eric Raymond, Techrat and Zipper in Jem.
He was completely dissatisfied with working on a TV series after working in The Redd Foxx Show, in which he portrayed Ralph / Rita. In an interview for The Magic Behind the Voices, Adler commented on the experience: "you spend your whole life going, 'God, I just want to be in a TV show and have a parking space.' Then I got it and it was just so not what I wanted to do." That is when animation "grabbed him".
He became active mainly in animation, his roles include reprising Spike in My Little Pony, Low-Light in ', Mr. O'Greasy in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Deputy Fuzz and Tex Hex in Bravestarr, Cavey, Jr. in The Flintstone Kids, Pinky Dalton in The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound, Quark and Zappy in Rockin' with Judy Jetson, the Hamburglar in a few McDonald's commercials, Mad Dog, Hacksaw, and Howard Huge in TaleSpin, Dripple in Tom and Jerry Kids, and the bear from darkest Peru in Hanna-Barbera's version of Paddington Bear.
In 1990, Adler lent his voice to Buster Bunny on Tiny Toon Adventures. The show's producer Tom Ruegger recalled that he and voice director Andrea Romano insisted Steven Spielberg cast Adler due to the "great deal of energy" he brought to Buster. In 1992, during the show's third season, Adler abruptly walked off the show after a dispute and subsequent altercation with the producers. While voice actors with smaller roles in the show were given starring roles in Tiny Toons' successor Animaniacs, Adler had become upset when he had not been given a role in that show. John Kassir replaced him for the remainder of the show.
In 1993, Adler went on to portray Chance "T-Bone" Furlong in ', Bill in The Terrible Thunderlizards, Ickis in Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Ed Bighead, Bev Bighead, and other characters in Rocko's Modern Life, Stalker Slaughter in Captain Planet and the Planeteers and Screwball Squirrel, as well as reprising his role of Dripple for Droopy, Master Detective.
In 1995, Adler voiced several characters on multiple What a Cartoon! episodes such as Gramps, Awfully Lucky, Yoink! of the Yukon and No Smoking. In the latter, he played Cow, Chicken, and The Red Guy. No Smoking was a pilot created by David Feiss, which was greenlit to be a series in 1997 with Adler on board to reprise his characters, which now included a new one, I.R. Baboon, for a new series of segments within the show called I Am Weasel. Cow and Chicken ran from 1997 to 1999, receiving multiple awards and nominations, including an Annie Award for "Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production" for Adler as Cow. Later on I Am Weasel was made into a spinoff series, in which he continued his role as I.R. Baboon.
His voice directing career began in the late 1990s with Rugrats and continued with other Klasky Csupo franchises. Adler has directed The Wild Thornberrys, Rocket Power, All Grown Up!, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, The Replacements and many other shows.
In 2002, Adler, with the help from David Feiss and Michael Ryan, directed his own short movie No Prom for Cindy, a teen dramedy about a high school girl who fears she may be a lesbian after kissing her best female friend and refusing to make out with the boy who asked her to the prom.
Adler also voiced Dr. Peacock in the Froot Loops commercials, Patrick Winks and Mr. Hornsby on Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks, SAVO on Danger Rangers, Mr. Whiskers in Brandy & Mr. Whiskers, Optimatus on Loonatics Unleashed, as well as Dr. Doom and his mom on The Super Hero Squad Show.
In 2007, Adler voiced in Michael Bay's live-action Transformers film series, providing the voice of Starscream after having voiced Silverbolt and Triggerhappy in The Transformers series. Just as Chris Latta voiced both Starscream and Cobra Commander in the Sunbow cartoons, Adler voiced Cobra Commander in ' and '. He also voiced the title character in the webtoon Inspector Beaver.
Adler was the guest of honor at the 2017 edition of AnthroCon.
His subsequent credits as voice director include Nickelodeon's Blaze and the Monster Machines, Wabbit, the film Norm of the North, ' and '. He also plays MODOK on Avengers Assemble.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Live-action roles

Crew work

Helen Hayes Award Best Actor nomination – Torch Song Trilogy
Dramalogue Award for Best Actor – There Used to Be Fireflies
Dramalogue Award for Set Design – There Used to Be Fireflies
Annie Award nomination for Outstanding Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production – for voicing Cow in Cow and Chicken
Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films Jury Award of Merit – for playing Cindy in No Prom for Cindy
Daytime Emmy Award for voice directing in an Outstanding Children's Animated Program – Rugrats
On Behind the Voice Actors, Adler is chosen as the best voice for Buster Bunny, Super-Skrull, MODOK, Mojo, Cobra Commander, Low-Light, Stalker, and Sunstorm.