A Man of a Thousand Voices

by AMY HAIMER

You've got to learn to generate your own game," says Dee Baker '86, a comedian and actor who also is the voice of Daffy Duck, the Tasmanian Devil and a host of other animated characters. "At CC I came to see that, to succeed in my life, I not only had to master the games set up by others but also generate my own games."

Heeding this advice, Baker's love for real life adventure has brought him to Hollywood where, most recently, he had a slew of vocal parts in "Space Jam," the hit Warner Brothers movie. Using wit, wisdom and improvisation, the talented Baker makes the Looney Tunes gang come alive on the big screen.

"After a nationwide search for the right mix of comedic and improv talent and the ability to impersonate Mel Blanc's classic vocal pyrotechnics, I was selected to do the voices for the film," he says.

A man of a thousand voices, Baker also provides the grunts and squeals for a creature in "The Island of Dr. Moreau" as well as a baby character in "Matilda." He has worked with Nickelodeon, Disney Television, Marvel Animation and Hanna Barbera.

But life didn't start out as a comedy routine for Baker. A trained baritone singer who speaks fluent German, Baker attended CC on a Boettcher scholarship, graduating with a degree in philosophy.

"The transition from studying philosophy to stand up comedy and cartoon voices was a logical one for me," he says from his Los Angeles home. "Philosophy is just a series of puzzles or jokes, really."

Baker, who likes to read Nietzsche in original German in his free time, credits Harvey Rabbin as one of the first professors to ignite his enthusiasm for philosophy. "I'll never forget that 19th century philosophy course," he says. Other mentors include Alexandra Vargo, Horst Richardson and Jim Malcolm.

"These professors were very influential. They were really passionate and on fire about what they were teaching," Baker says. "I could see that they were people who had built their lives around what they loved. That is the most important thing to glean from any education - to learn to do what you love to do."

He says CC taught him how to "take advantage of available resources through my own initiative."

Baker, whose whirlwind career is spinning as fast as the Tasmanian Devil's dust cloud, is busy recording voices for Disney's new feature, "The Jungle Book 2." He's also shooting national commercials for Maytag and Toyota, and providing various voices for "Cats Can't Dance," an animated feature from Columbia Pictures, and the "Jurassic Park" movie sequel, "The Lost World." To top it all off, his animated series "Cow and Chicken" and "Johnny Bravo" recently premiered on the Cartoon Network.

"I see life as a vacation," he says. "You can keep on the same road or go and check out the side stuff and enjoy it more."

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