Arthur Timothy Read
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Arthur Timothy Read is a fictional
anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...
aardvark Aardvarks ( ; ''Orycteropus afer'') are medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammals native to Africa. Aardvarks are the only living species of the family Orycteropodidae and the order Tubulidentata. They have a long proboscis, similar to a pi ...
created by the author Marc Brown. The main character of the book and television series ''
Arthur Arthur is a masculine given name of uncertain etymology. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. A common spelling variant used in many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages is Artur. In Spanish and Ital ...
'', he is in the third grade and lives in the fictional city of Elwood City.


Physical appearance

Arthur is an anthropomorphic aardvark, who is 8 years old. In Brown's first ''Arthur'' book, '' Arthur's Nose'' (1976), Arthur is shown with a long nose and more closely resembles an actual aardvark, though as the books progressed (as seen in the first season of PBS's ''
Reading Rainbow ''Reading Rainbow'' is an American educational children's television series that originally aired on PBS and afterward PBS Kids from July 11, 1983 to November 10, 2006, with reruns continuing to air until August 28, 2009. 155 30-minute episodes ...
'' in its 13th episode, titled "Arthur's Eyes") and eventually became an animated TV series, Arthur’s appearance changed. The character's most recognizable form is a light brown, slanted face with small ears and nostrils with signature round brown-rimmed eyeglasses. Normally, Arthur wears a yellow V-neck sweater over a white dress shirt, blue jeans along with red and white sneakers. He also occasionally wears a red rugby-style sweater. In the series finale ("All Grown Up"), Arthur's 28-year-old appearance features him with straight dark brown hair, slight facial hair, a green vest with a hood, and a red and yellow shirt with a Dark Bunny insignia.


Arthur's relationships


Family

The tensions between Arthur and his 4-year-old (later 5-year-old) sister, Dora Winifred "D.W." Read, are a common theme in the ''Arthur'' series. Arthur is constantly pestered by D.W., who goes out of her way to get Arthur into trouble, which often causes Arthur to retaliate, by getting into quarrels with his friends. Arthur's parents are his mother, Jane Read, who is a work-at-home
accountant An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certif ...
, and his father, David L. Read, who runs a
catering Catering is the business of providing food services at a remote site or a site such as a hotel, hospital, pub, aircraft, cruise ship, park, festival, filming location or film studio. History of catering The earliest account of major service ...
business. Arthur's toddler sister is Baby Kate. Appearances from Arthur's extended family include his grandparents: Thora (David's mother) and Dave (Jane's father). His uncles: Fred (Jane's brother), Richard, Bud, and Sean. His aunts: Jessica, Loretta, and Lucy. His cousins: Cora, Monique, Ricky, George, and other unnamed relatives. However, the only two members of Arthur's extended family who have appeared more than once are his grandparents. Grandma Thora lives in a house not too far from Arthur's in Elwood City and is known to be a bad cook, but a loving grandmother and a world-class marbles player. She loves to play
bingo Bingo or B-I-N-G-O may refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * Bingo, a game using a printed card of numbers ** Bingo (British version), a game using a printed card of 15 numbers on three lines; most commonly played in the UK and Ireland ** B ...
every Friday night, and in some episodes has to watch over Arthur and D.W. She is good friends with Mrs. McGrady, the school cafeteria monitor. Grandpa Dave lives in a convalescent home and has a roommate who was a ship captain.


Voice actors

Canadian child stars who have voiced the character of Arthur in the TV series: *
Michael Yarmush Michael Lawrence Yarmush (born June 19) is an American-Canadian actor. He is known for providing the original voice of Arthur Read in the PBS children's animated television series ''Arthur''. Career He was the very first voice actor of Arthur ...
(Seasons 1–5) (1996–2000) *
Justin Bradley Justin Bradley is a Canadian actor. Early life Bradley was born to Barbara (née Hellings) and Jonathan Bradley, who was born in British Guiana. He started his career at the age of six, modelling in various department store advertisements. Bradle ...
(Season 6) (2001) *
Mark Rendall Mark Rendall (born October 21, 1988) is a Canadian film, television and voice actor whose roles include the lead in the 2004 film, '' Childstar'' and Mick in season 1 of the Canadian television drama series ''ReGenesis''. He played Bastian Bux i ...
(Seasons 7–8) (2002–2003) *
Cameron Ansell Cameron Joseph Amell, known professionally as Cameron Ansell, is a Canadian voice and television actor, best known for voicing Arthur in the television series of the same name, Cheng in ''Skyland'', Prince Lumen in ''Spider Riders'' and Franklin ...
(Seasons 9–11) (2004–2007) * Dallas Jokic (Seasons 12–15) (2008–2012) * Drew Adkins (Seasons 16–17) (2012–2014) * William Healy (Seasons 18–19) (2014–2016) * Jacob Ursomarzo (Seasons 20–21) (2016–2018) * Roman Lutterotti (Seasons 22–25) (2019–2022)
Michael Yarmush Michael Lawrence Yarmush (born June 19) is an American-Canadian actor. He is known for providing the original voice of Arthur Read in the PBS children's animated television series ''Arthur''. Career He was the very first voice actor of Arthur ...
provided the voice for the character during the first five seasons from 1996 to 2000, before experiencing puberty. He later returned to voice the adult version of Arthur in the series finale, " All Grown Up," in 2022. In 2001,
Justin Bradley Justin Bradley is a Canadian actor. Early life Bradley was born to Barbara (née Hellings) and Jonathan Bradley, who was born in British Guiana. He started his career at the age of six, modelling in various department store advertisements. Bradle ...
took over for Season 6, marking a transition that coincided with his own puberty.
Mark Rendall Mark Rendall (born October 21, 1988) is a Canadian film, television and voice actor whose roles include the lead in the 2004 film, '' Childstar'' and Mick in season 1 of the Canadian television drama series ''ReGenesis''. He played Bastian Bux i ...
succeeded him for Seasons 7 and 8, from 2002 to 2003.
Cameron Ansell Cameron Joseph Amell, known professionally as Cameron Ansell, is a Canadian voice and television actor, best known for voicing Arthur in the television series of the same name, Cheng in ''Skyland'', Prince Lumen in ''Spider Riders'' and Franklin ...
voiced the character from Seasons 9 to 11 between 2004 and 2007, followed by Dallas Jokic, who took on the role in Seasons 12 to 15 from 2008 to 2012. Drew Adkins continued as the voice in Seasons 16 and 17 from 2012 to 2014, with William Healy following in Seasons 18 and 19 from 2014 to 2016. Jacob Ursomarzo voiced the character in Seasons 20 and 21 from 2016 to 2018, while Roman Lutterotti rounded out the series in the final four seasons from 2019 to 2022.


International voice actors

Since ''Arthur'' is shown in more than 80 countries, Arthur is dubbed by these young voice actors (in several languages) shown here: * Alfredo Leal (Seasons 1–2), Hector Emmanuel Gómez (Seasons 3–5), Kalimba Marichal (singing voice) (
Latin American Spanish The different dialects of the Spanish language spoken in the Americas are distinct from each other, as well as from those varieties spoken in the Iberian Peninsula and the Spanish Mediterranean islands—collectively known as Peninsular Spanishâ ...
) * Diego Larrea, Caio César (second voice), Thiago Farias (third voice), Melania Pontillo (fourth voice), Wirley Contaifer (fifth voice) & José Leonardo (
Brazilian Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese (; ; also known as pt-BR) is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of Portuguese language native to Brazil. It is spoken by almost all of the 203 million inhabitants of Brazil and widely across the Brazilian diaspora ...
) * Matko Knešaurek (Seasons 1–4) ( Croatian) * Jan Maxian (
Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...
) * Olli Parviainen ( Finnish) * Lawrence Arcouette (Seasons 1–3), Kim Jalabert (Seasons 4–6) (First dub in Quebecois French), Vincent de Bouard (Seasons 7–15), and Émilie Guillaume (Seasons 16–present) (2nd dub in European French) ( French) * Argiris Pavlidis (ERT), Andria Rapti (Audio Visual), Vasia Lakoumenta (Good Brothers Studios), Nektarios Theodorou (City Studios) (
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
) * Baráth István ( Hungarian) * Debbi Besserglick and Shiri Gadni (Besserglick voiced Arthur from its first run until her death from
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
in 2005. After her death, she was replaced by Shiri Gadni as the voice of Arthur in the following seasons.) (
Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
) * Simone D'Andrea (
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
) * Lee Mi-ja (Daekyo) and Jeong Ok-joo (EBS) (
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...
) * Iman Bitar (1st voice) and Eman Hayel (2nd voice) (
Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
) * Fariba Shahin Moghadam (
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
) * HÃ¥vard Bakke ( Norwegian) * Teresa Chaves (1st voice), Paula Seabra (2nd voice) and Carlso Martins (3rd voice) (
European Portuguese European Portuguese (, ), also known as Lusitanian Portuguese () or as the Portuguese (language) of Portugal (), refers to the dialects of the Portuguese language spoken in Portugal. The word "European" was chosen to avoid the clash of "Portugues ...
) * Petre Ghimbăşan (
Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...
) * Marko Marković (
Serbian Serbian may refer to: * Pertaining to Serbia in Southeast Europe; in particular **Serbs, a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans ** Serbian language ** Serbian culture **Demographics of Serbia, includes other ethnic groups within the co ...
) * Elisabet Bargalló (
Castilian Spanish In English, Castilian Spanish can mean the variety of Peninsular Spanish spoken in northern and central Spain, the standard form of Spanish, or Spanish from Spain in general. In Spanish, the term (Castilian) can either refer to the Spanish langu ...
) * Leo Hallerstam ( Swedish)


Reception

Arthur Read was listed as number 26 in the
TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...
article, 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time.


References


External links


Arthur , PBS Kids
{{DEFAULTSORT:Read, Arthur Arthur (TV series) Fictional aardvarks Anthropomorphic aardvarks Fictional characters who break the fourth wall Child characters in literature Child characters in television Literary characters introduced in 1976 Fictional American people in television Fictional students Male characters in comics Internet meme characters