Announcer and Actor Art Gilmore Passes
In a career spanning more than five decades, Gilmore was the voice of numerous television series and thousands of movie trailers.
Art Gilmore, an announcer and sometime actor whose voice introduced television shows and narrated thousands of movie trailers for more than three decades, died September 25, 2010, in Irvine, California. He was 98.
According to news reports, Gilmore died of age-related causes.
Born March 18, 1912, in Tacoma, Washington, Gilmore got his start in broadcasting while studying at Washington State University, where he worked at the campus radio station. He later worked at a commercial station in Seattle, and in the 1930s relocated to Los Angeles, where he became a staff announcer for KFWB in Hollywood. He later moved to KNX, which was owned by CBS.
Before the advent of television, Gilmore announced various radio shows, including Amos ’n’ Andy, The Sears Radio Theater and Red Ryder. He served in the Navy during World War II. For a time in the 1960s he was president of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the entertainment industry labor union.
Although the vast majority of his work consisted of voice-overs, Gilmore also had roles in scripted television series, including episodes of Dragnet, Emergency! and Adam 12.
Among the series he announced for were The Red Skelton Show, Climax! and Highway Patrol.
Feature films whose trailers he narrated included Dumbo, It’s a Wonderful Life, A Place in the Sun, Roman Holiday, Shane, Born Yesterday, The War of the Worlds, Rear Window, South Pacific, Vertigo, Ocean’s 11, White Christmas and Bye Bye Birdie.
He is survived by his wife of 72 years, two daughters, two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.