Robert Wayne Amsberry (June 2, 1928 – November 21, 1957) was an American actor, and one of the original cast members on the first two seasons of

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...

's ''

The Mickey Mouse Club ''The Mickey Mouse Club'' is an American variety television show that aired intermittently from 1955 to 1996 and briefly returned to social media in 2017. Created by Walt Disney and produced by Walt Disney Productions, the program was first te ...

'', working as both a writer and actor. Amsberry also worked as a

voice actor Voice acting is the art of Acting, performing a character or providing information to an audience with one's voice. Performers are often called voice actors/actresses in addition to other names. Examples of voice work include animation, animated, ...

, with a posthumous credit in Disney's ''

Sleeping Beauty "Sleeping Beauty" (, or ''The Beauty Sleeping in the Wood''; , or ''Little Briar Rose''), also titled in English as ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods'', is a fairy tale about a princess curse, cursed by an evil fairy to suspended animation in fi ...

'' (1959).

Early life

Amsberry was born in 1928 in the small town of

Boring, Oregon Boring is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States. It is located along Oregon Route 212 in the foothills of the Cascade mountain range, approximately southeast of downtown Portl ...

, the third child of Ernest and Cassie Amsberry. Amsberry graduated from Franklin High School in Portland, where he was a friend and classmate of

Johnnie Ray John Alvin Ray (January 10, 1927 – February 24, 1990) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Highly popular for most of the 1950s, Ray has been cited by critics as a major precursor to what became rock and roll, for his jazz and blu ...

. Amsberry was musically inclined from a young age, and in 1954, began an entertainment radio program in

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

titled ''Uncle Bob's Squirrel Cage'' on the KEX radio station.

Career

Amsberry's friend,

George Bruns George Edward Bruns (July 3, 1914 – May 23, 1983) was an American composer of music for film and television. His accolades include four Academy Award nominations and three Grammy Award nominations. He is mainly known for his compositions fo ...

, whom he had grown up with in Oregon, worked as an acclaimed

film composer A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

for Walt Disney Studios in Los Angeles, and invited Amsberry to join the Disney studio department in 1955. Amsberry worked on ''

'', a then-new series, writing skits as well as acting on the show in various characters. Bob-O, a clown character played by Amsberry on the series, became a minor celebrity, and the character was featured as a live character impersonator at the

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, ...

theme park.

Bill Walsh William Ernest Walsh (November 30, 1931 – July 30, 2007) was an American professional and college football coach. He served as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers and the Stanford Cardinal, during which time he popularized the West Coast off ...

maintained Amsberry's contract with Disney until September 1957, and Amsberry appeared on Disney's

Hardy Boys The Hardy Boys, brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional characters who appear in a series of mystery novels for young readers. The series revolves around teenage amateur sleuths, solving cases that often stumped their adult counterparts. ...

television serial In television and radio programming, a serial is a show that has a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode-by-episode fashion. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the complete run of t ...

installment ''Mystery of Ghost Farm'', which premiered on September 13, 1957. His voice work also appears in ''

'' (1959) as one of

Maleficent Maleficent ( or ) is a fictional character who first appears in Walt Disney Productions' animated film, ''Sleeping Beauty (1959 film), Sleeping Beauty'' (1959). Maleficent is the self-proclaimed "Dark lord, Mistress of All Evil" based on the Wic ...

's goons. On the morning of November 21, 1957, Amsberry was involved in a car accident as a passenger with Roy Williams, another Disney employee, in Portland. Amsberry died of injuries sustained in the accident. Roy Williams, a known drinker, was implicated but other local sources claim Amsberry was the driver, alone, not a passenger, and went off a cliff; he went through a utility pole and the pole impaled him and his vehicle.https://www.facebook.com/groups/ForgottenOregon/permalink/2338209829780275/

Filmography

References

Bibliography

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Amsberry, Bob 1928 births American male voice actors Male actors from Oregon Male actors from Portland, Oregon People from Boring, Oregon Franklin High School (Portland, Oregon) alumni 1957 deaths Road incident deaths in Oregon Accidental deaths in Oregon The Mickey Mouse Club 20th-century American male actors