Today Donald Duck turns 81.
In his film debut The Wise Little Hen (also his voice actor Clarence Nash's film debut) he played a supporting role in a basic fairy tale based Silly Symphony cartoon. He easily steals the film. Donald's easy to recognize, but always so easy to understand voice was provided by Clarence Nash. Walt had heard Nash do voices on the radio. He was impressed and Nash came over to audition. When Walt heard him do his Duck voice, he knew that was perfect for the duck character in this cartoon. Clarence Nash would not only do the Duck's voice in this 1934 film, but he would continue doing it until 1983's Mickey's Christmas Carol.
Notice that in the previous cartoon Donald never lost his temper. His trademark temper tantrums would first appear in his second film appearance Orphan's Benefit. This cartoon would also be the first time he and Mickey Mouse would share the screen. This 1934 cartoon is in black and white, but would be remade in color (and with later character designs) in 1941.
Donald would appear in many more films (both short and feature-length), comic books, TV shows, and much more. He would soon replace Mickey as the most popular, character in the Disney shorts (partly because as a non-role model he could get away with things Mickey couldn't).
-Michael J. Ruhland
