Gumby is Dead (Dick Beals,85)

  

© Gumby / Courtesy ofEverett Collection

Dick Beals, seen in 1992, was the voice of Speedy Alka-Seltzer for in the 1950s and 1960s and voiced many other characters in advertisements, TV shows and radio programs over a seven-decade career. (Charles Hillinger / June 1, 2012)

Related photos »

Dick Beals, a voice actor best known for injecting youthful enthusiasm into the character of Speedy Alka-Seltzer in mid-20th century television commercials for the pain remedy, has died. He was 85.

Beals, whose radio and television career spanned seven decades, died Tuesday at Vista Gardens Memory Care in Vista, said his friend Peter Gorman

 Dick Beals, the radio and television voice-over star whose work included the animated characters Gumby and Speedy Alka-Seltzer has died in Southern California. Beals.

a friend, Peter Gorman, tells the Los Angeles Times that Beals died in the northern San Diego County community of Vista.

Beals was the original voice of the title character on "The Gumby Show" in the late 1950s. He also was the unseen pitchman in more than 3,000 commercials for such products as Oscar Mayer and Campbell's Soup.