Orlando Drummond (Oct. 18, 1919 - Jul. 27, 2021)

Last week, Orlando Drummond, a well-known on-screen and voiceover actor in Brazil, passed away at the age of 101. This reminded me of a post I wrote in May about some of the characters Drummond dubbed (such as Sylvester the Cat) or characters closely related (like Scooby-Doo). Continuing the idea from that post, here are some of the characters that Drummond voiced:

Alf: O ETeimoso is obviously “Alf,” the series that ran on NBC in the late 1980s. But just like Brazilians like to do with movie titles, they sometimes add additional words to TV show titles for some reason. The second part of the title here is a play on “ET” that adds the word teimoso (“stubborn” or “headstrong”). Because.

Vingador is literally “avenger” - not that far off from the original name “Venger” - from the series Caverno do Dragão, which translates literally as “Dragon Cave” but is the animated TV series “Dungeons and Dragons.”

Popeye - okay, this one is the same in Portuguese and English, but it gives me an opportunity to note that “Olive Oyl” is Olívia Palito, literally “Olive Toothpick.” Obviously that’s a play on the character’s physical appearance, but Olive’s relatives (Castor, Deezil, etc.) lose the play with the word “oil.”

Puro Osso (“Pure Bone”) is the Grim Reaper from “The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy.” The English word “grim” is lost from both the character name and the show, which in Portuguese is As Terríveis Aventuras de Billy e Mandy (“The Terrible Adventures of Billy & Mandy”).

Professor Girassol (“Professor Sunflower”) is “Professor Calculus” in English, but this time it’s the English translation that’s curious: This is a character from the Adventures of Tintin and the French original is “Professor Tournesol” … “Professor Sunflower.”