Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1521235
94 M PS E . O R G BY STEVE LEE n Saturday, March 2, voice actor Mark Dodson passed away. He was 64. Mark is most famous for his work performing the creepy laughter for Salacious Crumb in Return of the Jedi, as well as many creatures in the Gremlins films, and countless video games… Mark was a frequent guest at film and comic book conventions. He was also a dear friend of mine. In the late '70s, Mark worked as a laborer at Industrial Light & Magic's (ILM) Kerner building in San Rafael, California, helping to build offices there—including sound designer Ben Burtt's office. He later worked at Skywalker Ranch as a laborer/ carpenter on the main building. When Ben Burtt was looking for a raccoon to record to use for creature vocalizations, Mark responded—he had a pet raccoon named Mabel that had made the journey north from LA with him. Armed with a tape recorder, Ben visited Mark and Mabel—but Mabel was shy. Ben left the recorder with Mark to try and Artwork by Robb Mommaerts, commissioned by Mark Mangini get some vocalizations from his pet after he left. After Mark had recorded Mabel, he took the opportunity to record some of his own voices in an unsolicited audition of sorts. He did several silly voices and impersonations in the hope that Ben would at best consider using him as a voice artist in the future … or give him constructive feedback at the very least. Ben was impressed. He asked Mark to audition for a particular role, which he didn't get. Mark realized later when he was actually watching the film that he had auditioned for the voice of "E.T." Later, Mark came to Ben to audition for a character in Return of the Jedi named Admiral Ackbar. But Mark was extremely nervous and asked for a moment to prepare on the stage. In an attempt to alleviate stress, Mark started to do a bunch of funny guttural noises and vocal gibberish. Suddenly, Ben came into the booth and ripped the script away from him. For a moment, Mark thought he blew the audition—but O then Ben said, "Forget about Admiral Ackbar—you're going to do the voice of Salacious Crumb!" Mark's voice of the monkey-like creature on Jabba the Hutt's lap really started the ball rolling for voice work in Hollywood. "Ben gave me my career," he once told me. "Lucasfilm was one big family at that time, and it was common to draw voice talent from the ranks of talented employees. I auditioned Mark for vocals of Jabba's minion, Salacious Crumb. When Mark did his comical laugh, he nailed the part and thus became a Star Wars audio icon." –Ben Burtt Because of that performance, Mark got to audition for vocal effects on Gremlins. He would join a group of gremlin voices that included the legendary voice actor Frank Welker and comedian (and future TV host) Howie Mandel. I'll let Mark Mangini, who supervised the creature voices on the Gremlins films, take it from here... "Mark Dodson came giggling and cackling into my life in 1982, fresh off voicing Salacious B. Crumb for Return of the Jedi. He had heard I was auditioning voices for the first Gremlins movie. He sent a cassette tape (remember those?) with a variety of gremlin-esque impressions that was good enough for me to have him in for a proper interview. "That would be a fateful audition. Having already auditioned hundreds of L.A.'s best for the roles of Gizmo and Stripe, Mark faced not only formidable competition but some degree of skepticism on my part. Thinking I'd do myself a favor and build a temp library for the vast array of voices I need for our bar scene, I