Mary Kay Bergman

Blight in Captain Planet and the Planeteers (replacing Meg Ryan), Katie in Family Dog, and Daphne Blake in the Scooby-Doo franchise from 1997 to 1999. Throughout her career, Bergman performed voice work for every aspect in media, including over 400 television commercials. Bergman was born in Los Angeles, California. She had an interest in animation and impersonation early in her life. After acting in her first professional role in the television film Return Engagement, Bergman studied theater arts at UCLA for three years. Struggling to find a job suited for her, Bergman was trained under her voice-acting teacher Kat Lehman and started performing radio voiceovers. Bergman was chosen as the replacement of Snow White after a long search of talent agencies and voiceover classes. She joined The Groundlings to sharpen her voice acting skills, which contributed to her audition for Family Dog. In 1994, Bergman started teaching voice acting classes. In 1997, she was cast as nearly every female character in South Park after giving Trey Parker and Matt Stone ideas they originally did not have. Bergman suffered generalized anxiety disorder in her private life. Her condition, which led to physical symptoms and severe stress, was kept private. On November 11, 1999, Bergman wrote two suicide notes and shot herself in the head.

Bergman was born on June 5, 1961, in Los Angeles, California. An only child, her mother, Patricia McGowen, was an animation cel painter for Max Fleischer on Popeye cartoons in New York City. Her parents performed as a singing duo at lounges and clubs in Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada, and Los Angeles. They settled in Los Angeles after her mother became pregnant. Bergman was piqued by her mother's interest in animation, which led to a shared interest by watching Saturday-morning cartoons together. At an early age, Bergman wanted to be a film star. Her early passion for impersonating was influenced by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a film she watched in theaters at the age of six or seven. Bergman grew up around the corner from the home of Adriana Caselotti, the original voice of Snow White, whom she idolized. Bergman attended Joseph Le Conte Middle School and Hollywood High School.

At age 16, Bergman received her first professional acting job in the television film Return Engagement, which starred Elizabeth Taylor. However, Bergman's scene at the end of the film was ultimately cut out, which left her disappointed. Shortly, Bergman joined the Screen Actors Guild. Upon graduating from Hollywood High School in June 1978 with top academic honors, Bergman enrolled at UCLA and studied theater arts from 1978 until 1981. According to her husband, Dino Andrade, Bergman attended the university because she was a fan of Carol Burnett and wanted to attend the same university as Burnett did. Bergman was a classmate and friend of future The Simpsons voice actress Nancy Cartwright. After three years in the university, Bergman received a role in a play outside of school and dropped out to start her professional life. Bergman joined a small agency in the valley of Los Angeles, which started six months before she joined. Bergman auditioned for an exercise program that was scheduled to appear on cable programming. A week after she received the role, the agency was closed, and reopened as a candy store. Bergman described the experience as "the worst agent story in the business". Her next role was as a receptionist for the Boy Scouts of America. Bergman enjoyed the job and was pleased to work with the people of the organization. She also received compliments about her speaking voice, which added to her frustration. Bergman also worked as a receptionist for an insurance company, and from there, she moved up the ranks to become an assistant underwriter, which she found "extremely boring". To break the monotony, Bergman thought about becoming a disc jockey but could not find information about where to take classes. While working as a receptionist, Bergman received an invitation to a party from one of her co-workers at the insurance company. When Bergman attended the party, she danced and sang with a karaoke machine. Her impersonation of Ethel Merman caught the attention of voice-over teacher Kat Lehman. Bergman studied voice acting and took all Lehman's classes. After her final class, Bergman recorded a demo tape and was delivered to Bergman's first voice-acting agency, Abrams, Rubaloff, and Lawrence. Bergman soon quit her job as a receptionist after realizing that "squeezing auditions into her regular work schedule was not working". Her first voice role was a frightened woman in a radio commercial for a small home security company on a local station in 1986.

While performing radio voiceovers, Bergman found a part-time job at a department store to supplement her income. Bergman went with her personal agent Libby Westby after Westby switched agencies to Sutton, Barth, and Vennari. At around the same time, The Walt Disney Company was looking for a replacement for Adriana Caselotti, the original voice of Snow White, who was not always available to work. Bergman was chosen by former Disney executive Les Perkins after a "long and tedious search" of talent agencies and voiceover classes throughout Los Angeles. Upon learning that she would be the official replacement of Snow White, Bergman expressed trepidation, describing the voice as "very difficult". Her first voiceover appearance as Snow White was for a book on tape, but Bergman needed a day off for the recording. After her boss at a department store refused, Bergman had a choice to keep the job at a department store or do voiceover work as Snow White. She chose the latter, and she agreed to lend her voice only when Caselotti was unavailable. At its peak of popularity, Bergman was chosen to voice Dr. Blight in Captain Planet and the Planeteers by the producers of the show after Meg Ryan opted out. Bergman also voiced two of the Bimbettes, Claudette and Laurette, in Beauty and the Beast. She began doing matches for other actors such as Jodie Foster, Gillian Anderson, Helen Hunt, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Tilly, Emma Thompson, and Alfre Woodard. To further improve her acting skills, Bergman joined The Groundlings, which helped her use her skills while auditioning for Family Dog. During audition, Bergman would be asked on "how [she act] to be sexy". She improvised "her best sexy dog" while feeling "like an idiot", worrying that she did "everything wrong" to the casting director. Three weeks after the audition, Bergman received a call notifying her that she not only received the role of Katie, but her tape was chosen out of hundreds that were submitted by Steven Spielberg. The show became one of Bergman's favorite projects. She stated that she would do five or six voices in each episode, which she enjoyed. Bergman also met Frank Welker, one of her mentors, which was considered a positive experience for her. Family Dog was scheduled to debut on March 20, 1991, but the show was ultimately pushed back until 1993 for the animation to be completed. The show's first episode debuted on June 23, 1993, on CBS.

Bergman married voice actor Dino Andrade on April 7, 1990. They remained married until her death. At the height of her popularity, Bergman started to physically suffer from insomnia, myalgia, and nausea. She was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder by her physician, which was determined to be caused by severe stress. She kept this diagnosis secret to everyone, including her husband, family, and friends. Bergman also privately admitted to her husband that she was afraid of losing her abilities and that her career would end because of her condition.

On the morning of November 11, 1999, Bergman contributed to a radio program celebrating Disneyland's 45th anniversary, performing the voice of Snow White for a radio commercial. Later in the evening, Andrade returned to their home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Venice to find that Bergman had fatally shot herself in the head, with two suicide notes, the first one for Andrade and the second one for John Bell, a close friend of the couple, stating that she could not "handle [her] fear anymore". Attorney Robert Harrison originally stated that Bergman had shown no signs of depression. The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office reported that the cause of death was ruled as a self-inflicted shotgun wound. Bergman is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills. Andrade revealed that she was buried there since one of her biggest thrills was attending private screenings of Beauty and the Beast in the Walt Disney Company's original screening room, which is located near her grave.

News of Bergman's death was published on several websites, including South Park's website. The revelation triggered an outpouring of grief from her fans and friends. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were initially "too distraught" to issue a statement. On March 2, 2000, during an interview at the Paley Center for Media, Parker and Stone spoke about Bergman and the challenge of replacing her work, stating they realized that "one person wasn't going to do it" because of her talent, and that it would take "a lot of talented voice people".

Bergman was known for her distinctive voice acting on her "sweet, cute little characters". Her voice-acting skills also increased over time, which included her experience with The Groundlings. Bergman credited the troupe with "honing her ability to come up with voices on demand", which included her skills when auditioning for Family Dog. In her interview with Entertainment Weekly in 1999, Bergman stated that she had "more of a range as [she has] gotten older".

Bergman's friend and student Grey DeLisle inherited the role of Daphne Blake in the Scooby-Doo franchise. DeLisle said of her: She was just the sweetest, most wonderful person in the world... and then she killed herself. Her husband came and stayed with me at my house, because he said, "I can't stay over there, it's too painful." And about a week later, they asked me to audition for Daphne... and I didn't know what to do, because I just thought, "Gosh, I just don't know if I can do that." I told him, "They asked me to audition, but I'm not going to audition, because it's just weird." And he said, "Grey, you have to do it, because Mary Kay would've wanted you to do it. You were her star student, she loved you, and she would've wanted you to do Daphne. Somebody's going to do it. It might as well be someone who loved her." And I was, like, "I didn't really think about it like that." So I went in, and I didn't study it, because I just thought, "You know what? I'm just going to go in, and I'm just going to do my best interpretation of the character. I'm not going to try and sound-match her, because it would just be too sad to listen to her voice." So I went in, and Eddie – the engineer at the time – and Collette Sunderman, the director, she just said, "When you came in, Grey, it was just eerie. It was like there was some other hand in it, because you sounded exactly like Mary Kay." So I guess it was meant to be, because I didn't try. It just came out that way. Voice actress Tara Strong, another friend and student of Bergman, replaced her as the voice of Timmy Turner in The Fairly OddParents.

On November 15, 1999, Sutton, Barth, and Vennari ran a full memorial to Bergman on the Variety magazine. To honor Bergman and encourage others to seek help, Dino Andrade established the Mary Kay Bergman Memorial Fund at the Suicide Prevention Center of Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center, which raised thousands of dollars toward the cause. Her official website, mkbmemorial.com, was converted to support a mental health program for those diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. The website is no longer active.

At an early age, Bergman envisioned herself becoming a film star. When Bergman was six or seven, her mother took her to watch a theatrical re-release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Bergman cited it as an inspiration to crossover from a mere fan to a performer, stating that the film "made a complete impression" on her. Shortly thereafter, Bergman began impersonating everything, including Lily Tomlin on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and her neighbor's barking dogs. Voice actor Frank Welker, one of Bergman's mentors, was also cited as an inspiration to her outlook.