Beaky Buzzard is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He is a young turkey vulture with black body feathers and a white tuft around his throat. His neck is long and thin, bending 90 degrees at an enormous Adam's apple. His neck and head are featherless, and his beak is large and yellow or orange, depending on the cartoon. The character is depicted as simpleminded with drawled speech, a perpetual silly grin, and partially-closed eyes. Beaky was partly based on Edgar Bergen's puppet Mortimer Snerd.
Short subjects
The character first appeared in the 1942 cartoon Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid, directed by Bob Clampett. The cartoon's plot revolves around the hopeless attempts of the brainless buzzard, here called Killer, to catch Bugs Bunny for his domineering Italianmother back at the nest. Beaky's voice was reminiscent of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's character Mortimer Snerd. The voice itself was provided by voice actorKent Rogers. Clampett brought the character back in the 1945 filmThe Bashful Buzzard, a cartoon that closely mirrors its predecessor, only this time featuring Beaky's hapless hunting without Bugs as an antagonist. Rogers reprised his role as the character's voice for the film, but he was killed in a Naval aviation training accident at Pensacola, Florida before finishing all his dialogue, so Stan Freberg was brought in to finish the work. Clampett left the studio in 1946, ending Beaky's career for a time. The character was eventually brought back in the 1950 Friz Freleng film The Lion's Busy, now voiced by Mel Blanc. Freleng made the buzzard smarter, pitting him against a dim-witted lion named Leo. Bob McKimson also featured the character in a film that year, Strife with Father. McKimson's Beaky is again back to his idiotic self, this time under the tutelage of his adoptive father, a sparrow who is trying to teach Beaky how to survive in the wild.
Later minor appearances
Beaky has had minor roles in various Warner Bros. projects, such as Tiny Toon Adventures, where he plays the mentor of the character Concord Condor, and the movies Space Jam and 2003's as an Acme pilot, voiced by Joe Alaskey. Beaky Buzzard appeared in The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries in the episode "3 Days & 2 Nights of the Condor", where he was voiced by Jeff Bennett. Beaky's mother, who appeared in many of his original shorts, also appeared in an episode of the show. Beaky's most recent appearance was in an episode of Looney Tunes Cartoons, namely "Buzzard School", where Bugs Bunny teaches Beaky how to hunt rabbits.
Comics and merchandising
Beaky is featured in several issues of Dell Comics' Looney Tunescomic book series, usually paired with another minor player, Henery Hawk, and additionally appeared in a print spinoff of Space Jam in 1997. The character was licensed for Looney Tunes merchandise such as a metal coin bank, and, in 1973, a collectible Pepsi bottle.
