Casey Kasem, whose voice has been heard by pretty much everyone whether they knew it or not, died on Sunday, June 15th, at the age of 82.
Kasem was probably best known as the host of the radio show American Top 40 where he would count down the top songs of the day on a weekly basis from 1970 – 1988 and again from 1998 – 2003. He also appeared in small television roles throughout the 70’s and even had a cameo as himself (voice only) in Ghostbusters. From 1980 to 1992, Kasem even did a weekly television spin off of his hit radio show, America’s Top 10.
He was also a prolific voice actor, famously portraying the hippy dippy Shaggy in nearly every version of Scooby Doo from 1970 to 2009. He was also the voice of the lesser half of the dynamic duo, Robin, in the Super Friends cartoon as well as the Autobot Cliffjumper in Transformers. He provided the voices of several characters in Sesame Street and did voice over work for a number of commercials.
Kasem started his work in broadcasting during the Korean War when he worked for the Armed Forces Radio. Afterwords, he worked as a DJ for a variety of radio stations before eventually doing the Top 40.
Kasem is survived by his wife Jean, their daughter, and three other children from previous marriage.
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ah, man. that’s too bad.
He was the voice of several generations. He will be missed.
Like, Zoinks, man. Seriously, though…one amazing voice that we all grew up with. He spanned generations. Truly will be missed (and what a shame the way things went at the end for the family).