Alan Young (born November 19, 1919) is an Emmy Award-winning prolific character actor, best known for his television role opposite a talking horse, Mister Ed and as the voice of Scrooge McDuck.
Born in North Shields, Tyne and Wear, England, with the given name Angus Young, he was raised in Edinburgh, Scotland and Canada.
He grew to love radio when bed-bound as a child because of severe asthma and became a radio broadcaster on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1944, he made the leap to American radio with The Alan Young Show, NBC's summer replacement for Eddie Cantor. Following a move to ABC two years later, he returned to NBC. He also works on a Christian radio program called Adventures In Odyssey
His television version of The Alan Young Show began in 1950. After the show's cancellation, Young appeared in supporting parts in films such as The Time Machine. His most popular venture, however, was Mister Ed, a CBS television show which ran from 1961 to 1966. He played the owner of a talking horse which would talk to no one but him.
In later life he founded a broadcast division for the Christian Science church and did animation voices. He was the voice of Scrooge McDuck for many Disney films and on the popular cartoon series DuckTales from 1987 to 1990. In Mickey's Christmas Carol, he portrays the character's miserly namesake. He also provided the voice of Jack Allen on the Focus on the Family radio drama, Adventures in Odyssey and voiced Hiram Flaversham in Disney's The Great Mouse Detective. His other cartoon voice appearances include Camp Lazlo, Megas XLR, Static Shock, House of Mouse, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Duckman, Batman: The Animated Series, TaleSpin, The Smurfs, The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and as 7-Zark-7 in Battle of the Planets.
His television guest appearances include The Love Boat, Murder, She Wrote, St. Elsewhere, Coach, Party of Five, The Wayans Bros., Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, USA High, Hang Time, ER and Maybe It's Me.
In 1993, Young recreated his role as Filby for the mini-sequel to George Pal's classic The Time Machine reuniting him with Rod Taylor, who played George, the Time Traveller. It was called Time Machine: The Journey Back directed by Clyde Lucas.
In 1997, he did the voice of Haggis McMutton in the PC game Curse of Monkey Island.
In 2000, he read H. G. Wells's The Time Machine for 7th Voyage Productions, Inc. In 2002, he had a cameo as the flower store worker in Simon Wells' remake of The Time Machine
Currently, Alan Young voices the character of Jack Allen on the Focus on the Family audio series Adventures in Odyssey.
