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Walter Tetley was a prolific character actor in the mediums of film, radio, and animation for many years. Like thousands of others I enjoyed his appearances in old movies, his cartoon voice work, and his steady comedy roles on golden age radio. The thing was, I thought I was enjoying three different people. It took many years for me to figure out that the anonymous bellhop in countless Hollywood films was the same guy I was always hearing on things like the famous 1961 comedy LP Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America Volume One.
Walter Tetley had the voice of a pre-pubescent schoolboy. Born with a rare hormonal disease that prevented him from fully experiencing the changes that puberty normally brings, Tetley's voice is best remembered today as the bespeckled cartoon nerd Sherman, boy companion to Mister Peabody on The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show. Many would surely be surprised to discover that the brainiac dog's boy companion in all ninety-one segments of Peabody's Improbable History was actually a man in his late forties.