Voice Actor Dick Beals best Known for Playing Characters Like Speedy Alka-Seltzer and Gumby Has Died

The man who provided the voice for the commercial character Speedy Alka-Seltzer as well as the voice of Gumby and the first Davey from the TV series Davey and Goliath, Dick Beals, died last Tuesday in Vista, California, the Los Angeles Times reports.  He was 85. 

Those of you, like me, who grew up during the golden age of TV back in the '50s and '60s, heard his voice a lot.   His Speedy Alka-Seltzer character alone, was featured in more than 200 TV and radio commercials that aired from 1954 to 1964. 

He was not a very big man, due to a glandular condition.  Beals stood just four-feet, six inches tall, weighed less than 70 pounds, and had a voice that never changed from grade school. 

Ron Simon, curator of TV and Radio at the Paley Center for Media in L.A., says Beals was one of the great voice actors of all time.