Linda Gary Dewoskin (November 4, 1944 - October 5, 1995) was an American voice actress who worked on multiple animated projects. She is known for her roles in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, She-Ra: Princess of Power, Filmation's Ghostbusters, and Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Linda Gary Dewoskin was born in California on November 4, 1944. She married actor charles Howerton on December 21, 1967 and had two daughters, Alexis and Dana. Gary was also stepmother to Howerton's daughter from his previous marriage, Lynn Howerton. She and Charles found acting work in Rome, Italy in the 1970's where they learned Italian and wound up working in films and commercials as well as doing English language dubbing in Italy, Spain and Germany.
Career[]
Live-action appearances[]
Linda was one of the most popular voice-over artist in animation and also appeared in tow live-action films, 1977's Joyride To Nowhere with husband Charles Howerton and 1980's Cruising with Al Pacino. She lent her voice in such movies as Wolfen (1981) and Switch (1991).
Radio[]
Linda played Dr. Maura Cassidy on Lee Hansen's "Alien Worlds."
Voice over work[]
Hanna-Barbera[]
Linda voiced different characters on several Hanna-Barbera television series; Scooby-Doo and scrappy-Doo, The Smurfs as Dame Barbara in one episode, Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats as Mrs. Vandergelt, The Pirates of Dark Water, where she did additional voices and Swat Kats: The Radical Squadron as Doctor Abby Sinian. She voiced Queen Morbidia & Nicara in The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo.
ABC Weekend Special[]
The ABC Weekend Special was a Saturday morning TV series that aired from 1977 to 1997. It featured stories in both the live-action and animated realms. Linda's voice could be heard on Scruffy, The Puppy Saves the Circus, The Amazin Bunjee Venture, The Return of the Bunjee, The Velveteen Rabbit and The Magic Flute.
Disney[]
During the 1980's, Gary did several guest voice-over appearances in such Disney television series as Darkwing Duck, DuckTales, TaleSpin, The Little Mermaid series and Bonkers. She voiced a gazelle and a hippo on the Lion King read-along cassette story, The Brightest Star. She also voiced Maleficent and the Opening narrator in Fantasmic. She voiced Muffy Vanderschmere in TaleSpin.
Read-Alongs[]
She narrated a few Disney read-along stories in 1977; Three Little Pigs, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and It's a Small World. She also narrated a quarter of the Rainbow Brite read-along stories.
Sunbow/Marvel Productions[]
Linda voiced Chromia on the 1985 Transformers animated series as well as several other characters throughout the series.
Marvel Productions[]
Linda Gary voiced Colleen in the episode "Arsenic and Aunt May" in Spider-Man with Ted Schwartz as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. She later voiced Aunt May in Spider-Man: The Animated Series with Christopher Daniel Barnes as Spider-Man.
Filmation[]
Her voice acting was mostly for the Filmation Studio. She voiced characters in several of Filmation's TV series such as The Kid Super Power-Hour with Shazam!, BlackStar, and as the title character in Web Woman.
Linda voiced Jane on an episode of Tarzan: Lord of the Jungle.
Her most recognized work is on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and the sister series She-Ra: Princess of Power. She was reunited with fellow voice over actors Alan Oppenheimer and george DiCenzo from BlackStar. She provided many of the female voices on He-Man such as Tella, Evil-Lyn, the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull and Queen Marlena as well as several from She-Ra like Madame Razz, Glimmer, Shadow Weaver, Scorpia and Entrapta. She also did the voices of many one-off characters, particularly for young boys.
She voiced several films for Filmation such as He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword, Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night, He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special and Happily Ever After as Critterina and Marina.
Universal Cartoon Studios[]
She lent her voice to the matriarch of her herd, Grandma Longneck, in the series of movies that followed Littlefoot ansd his friends' adventures in The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure, The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving, The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists.
Video games[]
In video games, she provided voices in several adventure games such as King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow as the Oracle, Red Chess Queen, Mother Ghost and Queen Allaria, Thayer's Quest as Lady In The Woodlands and Gabriel Knights: Sins of the Fathers as Grandma Knight/Tetelo.
Death[]
She died on October 5, 1995 from brain cancer at the age of 50, one month before her 51st birthday.
Roles[]
Credits[]
Actor[]
May Parker[]
- Night of the Lizard
- The Spider Slayer
- Return of the Spider Slayer
- The Menace of Mysterio
- The Sting of the Scorpion
- Kraven the Hunter
- The Alien Costume, Part I
- The Alien Costume, Part III
- The Hobgoblin, Part I
- The Hobgoblin, Part II
- The Insidious Six
- Battle of the Insidious Six
- Enter the Punisher
- Duel of the Hunters
- Blade, the Vampire Hunter
- The Immortal Vampire
- The Final Nightmare
- Doctor Strange
- Make a Wish
- Attack of the Octobot
- Framed
- The Man Without Fear
- The Ultimate Slayer
- Tombstone
- Carnage
- Turning Point
Chameleon (Disguised as May Parker)[]
Trivia[]
- Linda Gary voiced Aunt May during the first three seasons of Spider-Man: The Animated Series and one episode from season four. However, she died from brain cancer on October 5, 1995 and was replaced by Julie Bennett for the rest of the series.
- Neil Ross revealed in an interview that after Linda Gary developed brain cancer she would be brought into the studio in a wheelchair to record her lines.
- Despite her death being in 1995 it is possible Linda Gary recorded enough dialogue for subsequent seasons before she passed away. This practice of recording lines for several episodes in advanced (some even several seasons out) is not uncommon in animation.