Tony Anselmo

Tony Anselmo (born February 18, 1960) is an American voice actor and animator. Since 1985, he has been the official character voice of Donald Duck. One of the Disney stalwarts that Anselmo frequently encountered during his early days at Disney was Clarence Nash, the original voice of Donald Duck. Tony’s friendship with Nash started casually. Anselmo says, “I was really just curious about it, because I could do voices, and that was one voice I couldn’t do.” Unable to duplicate the sound, Anselmo asked Nash to show him his technique. “It took me a long time to learn that, and actually I think it took Clarence a while to perfect that as well” Anselmo says. The year of 1984 was Donald Duck's 50th Birthday, an event celebrated by Disney with events, products, and personal appearances all around the country by Nash. He and Anselmo continued working together and occasionally socializing. During this time, however, Anselmo was unaware that Nash had leukemia. From time to time, the two continued their informal “training” in performing Donald’s dialogue, Anselmo never suspecting that Nash had a larger motive in mind.

Quotes

 * “I think, in hindsight, one of the reasons Clarence spent so much time working with me on Donald’s voice and personality before mentioning his plans for succession is that he wanted to make absolutely sure I would do that legacy justice before telling me”.

Trivia

 * Anselmo formed an early fascination with all things Disney sparked by a screening of Mary Poppins at the age of four. Anselmo says, “I remember leaving the theater and asking, ‘How did they do this? Who did that?’ and so on…So a seed was planted there, and from that time on I never wanted to be a fireman, an astronaut, or anything else. I wanted to work for Disney”.
 * He began his studies in the Character Animation Department at CalArts in the fall 1978. The head of the department was Jack Hannah, whose Disney career had included ten years as director of the unit producing Donald Duck shorts. The school had a standard four-year degree program, but because of its close connection with the Disney Studio, the students’ work was subject to the scrutiny of studio executives. Anselmo was selected to transfer to the Studio after only his second year. On September 1, 1980, he reported for work to the Disney Animation department in Burbank, CA.
 * Although Anselmo moved from a student role at CalArts to a professional one at Disney animation, he was assigned to a new and more intense course of study at the Studio. Anselmo says, “Ron Miller had just set up a program called the Disney School of Animation on the lot with Don Hahn, to train new artists in carrying on Walt’s traditions in character animation. We weren’t even in production. We were being paid to animate tests with Eric Larson, studying life drawing with Walt Stanchfield, and learning more than we had at CalArts. It was an immersion in Disney character animation. That’s never happened since. I was honored to be a part of that. We were assigned Disney animation desks, and Eric would hand out the animation tests to us. We’d animate a scene, bring it in to Eric, and he’d ‘plus’ it and show us how it was done. He was incredibly patient, and generous with his time.”
 * When Nash died on February 20, 1985, Anselmo inherited the role of Donald Duck as Nash had wished. But certain things have remained the same. “We use the same mike Clarence used,” Anselmo says. “It’s the original ribbon mike and it has a much warmer sound.” He has also developed the fine points of his own technique. “I remember Clarence saying, ‘The Duck sounded really good that day.’ I’d ask him, ‘What do you mean?’ and he’d say, ‘Oh, some days Donald just sounded better than others and I don’t know why".