Larry Kenney (born August 5, 1947) is an American voice actor and radio personality.

Early life

Larry Kenney was born August 5, 1947 in

Pekin, Illinois Pekin () is a city in and the county seat of Tazewell County, Illinois, Tazewell County in the U.S. state of Illinois. Located on the Illinois River, Pekin is the largest city of Tazewell County and the second most populous municipality of the Pe ...

, the son of George and Joyce Kenney. He has a brother, Steven, and a sister, Jody. He graduated from Pekin Community High School. He attended

Western Illinois University Western Illinois University (WIU) is a public university in Macomb, Illinois. It was founded in 1899 as Western Illinois State Normal School. As the normal school grew, it became Western Illinois State Teachers College. History Western Illin ...

but did not graduate.

Career

In 1963, Kenney began his radio career at the age of 15 as a disc jockey at WIRL in

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria Metropolitan Area in Ce ...

. After WIRL, he worked at WOWO,

Fort Wayne, Indiana Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...

; WKYC (AM, now

WTAM WTAM (1100 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, and carries a news/ talk/sports format commonly known as "Newsradio WTAM 1100". Owned by iHeartMedia, WTAM serves Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Oh ...

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

(1970–1973); WHN,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

; WYNY, New York City; WJJD (now WYLL),

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

; and WKHK (now

WLTW WLTW (106.7 FM) is an adult contemporary radio station licensed to New York City and serving the New York metropolitan area. WLTW is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts from studios in the former AT&T Building in the Tribeca neighborhood o ...

), New York City until 1972. Kenney was part of the regular cast on the '' Imus in the Morning'' radio show from 1973 to 2007, where he recorded impersonations of dozens of characters, including General George Patton,

Andy Rooney Andrew Aitken Rooney (January 14, 1919 – November 4, 2011) was an American radio and television writer who was best known for his weekly broadcast "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney", a part of the CBS News program ''60 Minutes'' from 1978 to 2011 ...

, and

Ross Perot Henry Ross Perot (; June 27, 1930 – July 9, 2019) was an American business magnate, billionaire, politician and philanthropist. He was the founder and chief executive officer of Electronic Data Systems and Perot Systems. He ran an indepe ...

. Also in 1973, Kenney joined 1050 WHN (now WEPN), a country music station in New York City. He originally announced the afternoon drive-time, before taking over the prestigious morning drive-time in 1974. His show was a hit, not only for the music, but also for his comical characters who "joined" him while performing his deejay duties. ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...

'' named him Best Country Disc Jockey "at a station in a metropolitan area of one million, or more" in 1976 and Best Country Music Personality in 1978. He stayed at WHN until the fall of 1979, when he moved to WYNY to host the morning slot for a year before moving to WKHK's (now WLTW) morning show. He was the host of the New York edition of the television show '' Bowling for Dollars'' on WOR-TV (now

WWOR-TV WWOR-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area as the flagship of MyNetworkTV. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Fox flagship WNYW ...

) from 1976 to 1979. He is also known for his voice work as Lion-O on the 1980s

Rankin/Bass Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment (founded and formerly known as Videocraft International, Ltd. and Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.) was an American production company located in New York City, and known for its seasonal television specials, usual ...

cartoon '' ThunderCats'', and Karate Kat, a martial arts blackbelt cat featured as part of ''

The Comic Strip The Comic Strip are a group of British comedians who came to prominence in the 1980s. They are known for their television series ''The Comic Strip Presents...'', which was labelled as a pioneering example of the alternative comedy scene. The ...

''. He was also the voice of Bluegrass in '' SilverHawks'' and Dolph in '' TigerSharks''.. Retrieved 2009-10-22. Kenney also did voice work for several breakfast cereal characters, including Count Chocula and Sonny the Cuckoo Bird. In recent years, he has reprised this role for humorous ''ThunderCats'' references on the animated series ''

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their ch ...

''. In the 2011 ''ThunderCats'' animated series on

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, ...

, Kenney returned to the series, but as Claudus, Lion-O's and

Tygra Tygra is a fictional character from the '' ThunderCats'' franchise. The character is portrayed by Peter Newman in the 1985 ''ThunderCats'' TV series and Matthew Mercer in the 2011 ''ThunderCats'' TV series. In the first TV series, Tygra is kn ...

's father. Kenney provided voice-overs for ''

The State A state is a centralized political organization that imposes and enforces rules over a population within a territory. There is no undisputed definition of a state. One widely used definition comes from the German sociologist Max Weber: a "sta ...

'', the 1990s sketch comedy cult classic which featured his daughter,

Kerri Kenney Kerri Kenney-Silver (born January 20, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and musician. She is best known for starring as Trudy Wiegel on the mockumentary series '' Reno 911!'' and previously for her sketch comedy work on MT ...

. He was also the announcer for VH1's ''

Best Week Ever ''Best Week Ever'' is an American comedy series created and executive produced by Fred Graver. The series originally aired from January 23, 2004, to June 12, 2009, on VH1.Harris, Scott"VH1 Cancels 'Best Week Ever'". ''Inside TV''. January 13, 20 ...

'' during its run from 2004 to 2009, and provides introductions for

Westwood One Westwood One is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1978. The compan ...

's radio coverage of ''

Monday Night Football ''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, ...

'' and various other commercial work, including for Skittles and

Campbell's soup Campbell Soup Company, doing business as Campbell's, is an American processed food and snack company. The company is most closely associated with its flagship canned soup products; however, through mergers and acquisitions, it has grown to become ...

. He was the announcer for The Beat 102.7 in the video game ''

Grand Theft Auto IV ''Grand Theft Auto IV'' is a 2008 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the sixth main entry in the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 2004's '' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'', and the e ...

'' and K.T.I. Radio in the '' L.A. Noire''. He also gives the voice to JB Cripps in ''

Red Dead Online ''Red Dead Online'' is a 2019 action-adventure game developed and published by Rockstar Games as the online component of '' Red Dead Redemption 2''. After several months in beta, it was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in May 201 ...

'', the online component of ''

Red Dead Redemption 2 ''Red Dead Redemption 2'' is a 2018 action-adventure game developed and published by Rockstar Games. The game is the third entry in the ''Red Dead'' series and a prequel to the 2010 game ''Red Dead Redemption''. The story is set in 1899 and f ...

''. In 2008, he was hired to do an impersonation of

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has pr ...

for a gala held by the Mark Twain House and Museum.

Personal life

He and his wife Carol Ann Jacobs Kenney have three children: daughters Kerri and Ashley, and son Tanner. Kerri, the eldest, is an actress, best known for her work on the series '' Reno 911!'' and ''

''. Ashley works in the nonprofit sector and is the bassist and singer for the band Witch Hair out of

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...

. Tanner did a voice of the Intelligent Agenda Caller in the video game ''

''. Kenney now lives in

New Canaan, Connecticut New Canaan () is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 20,622 according to the 2020 census. About an hour from Manhattan by train, the town is considered part of Connecticut's Gold Coast. The town is bound ...

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

References

External links

* *

Interviews

Larry Kenney e-mail interview
(2000) on Thundercatslair.com
Larry Kenney interview
(2002) on Matt Blank website

(2008) on Thundercatslair.com
Larry Kenney
interview (c. 2008) with Rob Shan Lone on insomniacmania.com — transcript
"ThunderCat Has His Tongue"
(2009) with Don E. Smith Jr. on Cosmic Booknews {{DEFAULTSORT:Kenney, Larry 1947 births American game show hosts American impressionists (entertainers) Radio personalities from Illinois American male voice actors Game show announcers Living people Actors from Peoria, Illinois People from Pekin, Illinois People from Westport, Connecticut