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Jonny Quest inspired a lifelong love of cartoons for Tim Matheson
How one voice actor made the switch from cartoon character to cartoon collector.
You may know Tim Matheson as Eric "Otter" Stratton from National Lampoon's Animal House, or from his extensive television acting career on shows like Bonanza, The West Wing, Virgin River, and Hart of Dixie. But his acting career began on one of our favorite classic cartoons: Jonny Quest.
Matheson was the original voice actor of Jonny Quest, voicing Jonny for all 26 episodes of the original series. In a recent interview with Rob Word of the A Word on Westerns YouTube series, Matheson recalled his audition: "(Joe Barbera) wanted a voice that was not a big cartoon voice but was kind of more reality based, and I got lucky."
Having grown up watching Hanna-Barbera cartoons, the opportunity was exciting, but intimidating. Matheson found himself a young teenage actor in a room full of voice acting powerhouses - Mel Blanc, Don Messick, John Stephenson, Daws Butler, and Mike Road.
In an interview with the San Antonio Express, Matheson recalled, "It was a real special time in my life, I got to work with Mel Blanc and Don Messick, and some of the great, great voice talents of that era. It's an amazing talent to be able to change characters and personalities the way they did."
After Jonny Quest, Matheson got to work with the great Mel Blanc on Sinbad Jr. and His Magic Belt. For 81 episodes, Matheson voiced Sinbad Jr. alongside Blanc's Salty the Parrot. "Mel could talk to himself, create different characters who would talk to each other, back and forth, in character," Matheson told the San Antonio Express, "I had a hard enough time with one voice, which was basically my own."
Matheson went on to star in other Hanna-Barbera cartoons, including voicing Samson in Young Samson & Goliath and Jace in Space Ghost.
Beginning his voice acting career at 15, Matheson felt like he was growing up with Jonny Quest. He would go to the studio after school, complete his homework, and wait for his recording session to begin. While waiting, he took the opportunity to explore Hanna-Barbera's offices. "I'd wander around those offices and there were the animators, they're drawing the cels and then they'd throw them out!" As he moved on to movies and other live-action roles, Matheson always felt a tinge of regret that he hadn't held on to any of the cels from Jonny Quest.
Missing out on the Jonny Quest cels led to Matheson's new hobby: collecting animation cels. He first discovered three animation cels from Peter Pan at an estate sale. From there, his collection grew to include original cels from Fantasia, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp, Space Ghost, and several from Looney Tunes.
Discussing his collection with Journal of Antiques, Matheson said, "Animation is a changing market, but for me it's all about the beauty of the cel. These are classic bits of history. I never think of it in terms of the money. It has to evoke in me an appreciation of the art."
Years after the original Jonny Quest started his appreciation for animation cels, Matheson was invited back to Hanna-Barbera studios to voice additional characters in The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, where Joe Barbera gave him a cel from the original series, as well as cels from the new series, all autographed by Hanna and Barbera. The long-awaited cel was of Jonny, Hadji, and Bandit on a speedboat racing in the water along their island home.
