from 2008
GARY DUBIN
talks about his role in "The Aristocats" and being a child actor

by Scott Wolf

Gary Dubin was only ten years old when he played the voice of Toulouse in "The Aristocats." Recently, I met him for the first time, shortly before he was to be introduced to an audience at a special screening of the film.

It was a pleasure to speak with Gary and to gain some insight into behind-the-scenes of "The Aristocats" but also into the life of a busy child actor.

I'm sure you'll enjoy his interview as much as I did.

Scott Wolf: When did you first want to get into acting?

Gary Dubin: I was about six years old and growing up in the San Fernando Valley, and I was taking a tumbling class and it was taught by a teacher that knew a child agent. He saw me as this kind of young little guy that was kind of a smarta** and fun.

SW: Were you?

GD: Yeah, I had a little attitude. So he set me up with this agent... it was Mary Grady Agency, she was a very well-known child’s agent. In fact, she got me “The Aristocats” interview.

So my parents brought me over there and that was how it happened, it was just kind of a "meant to be" experience. I never said I want to be an actor or was interested in it, but it came very natural to me and my parents were very good about it, they didn't push it.

SW: And you've been doing it ever since. What's the latest thing you've done?

GD: I guest-starred on "24" last season. I'm one of the few that have been able to transition from child actor to adulthood without going to rehab or blowing themselves up... but I love it, it's what I love to do and I will pursue it for the rest of my life.

SW: Was the first thing you did, "Accidental Family" with Jerry van Dyke?

GD: The first acting job that I had was a Laura Scudders potato chip commercial and I was out in the field eating potato chips, but "Accidental Family" was one of them. I did a movie called “Fitzwilly” which was a Dick van Dyke movie with Barbara Feldon (from "Get Smart"). It was 1967 and was about a group of kids that take over Macy's on Christmas Eve and rob the place.

Then "Planet of the Apes" soon followed that. I was a boy ape in "Planet of the Apes," the original.

SW: That's a big film.

GD: Yeah, Charlton Heston.

SW: What was it like with makeup and everything?

GD: They put the whole prosthetics on, the mouth and everything. It took a couple hours, it was very primitive back then.

SW: You had the patience for that as a kid?

GD: Yeah, I just loved doing it.

Charlton Heston was escaping thru the caves and I say, "Look! It's a man!" Then it was all over.

SW: You went on to appear in so many shows and films... like "Family Affair."

GD: Yeah, I did three. It was a pretty fun show. "Buffy," the girl, I was her first boyfriend and she was always running around the set kind of trying to attack me with a stick.

SW: Anissa Jones, right?

GD: Anissa Jones, who passed, yes and we've seen Johnny Whitaker at events over the years.

On "Green Acres," I did four or five episodes and it's been released on the DVD. I did a couple shows with Arnold the pig and had my arm around him. On "The Partridge Family" I had a recurring role with Danny.

SW: Punky Lazaar, right?

GD: Yeah, thank you for remembering. I still see Danny every now and then. He was just a wild kid back then and I just kind of watched him, but I was his buddy.

I was in "Diamonds Are Forever" and I get fan mail on that still. It had Sean Connery (as James Bond) and I had a scene with Jill St. John.

SW: With "Aristocats," did you got that thru an audition?

GD: It was a voice audition. My agent, Mary Grady, said that they want to put my voice on tape, I was ten years old at the time. So we sent the tape off and the job was given to me.

SW: What year was that when you auditioned?

GD: 1969. I never got to meet Walt Disney, but this was the last film that he produced.

SW: Did you get to work with any of the cast?

GD: The two other kittens and I worked together. I never got the chance to work with Eva Gabor or Pat Butram or any of those people because we were always separate.

I do have memories of walking onto the Disney lot, the commissary's there, and then they have these little roads and there's the trees and we went into a soundstage and I can distinctly remember seeing a big screen with black and white drawn images. It wasn't finished yet, but was in process, and they put me in the booth with the little headphones.

SW: Usually the voices are recorded before the animation, but you remember actually lip syncing?

GD: Yes.

SW: And you got to sing in the song, "Scales and Arpeggios," a Sherman brothers song.

GD: The songs were done at a separate studio and we all got together and they played the piano and we did the Arpeggios songs and everything.

We did a lot of work on the songs. We did a lot of rehearsal because you can't just walk in and start singing, "Arpeggios," and when you're ten years old it takes time. The three of us worked with a music teacher.

SW: Did you do enough recording that you had to go to school on the set?

GD: Sure. It was the three of us. You know, as a child actor, as much work as I did I may have spent more time in studio schools than a regular school, so in a way I didn't have a normal childhood, I would have liked to go on playgrounds and everything, but in the other way I was brought up in the studio school system and fortunately I had some very good teachers and my mom made sure I did my homework. It was eight hours that you had to get in and do that and I always wanted to be out there and doing things.

SW: After you did "The Aristocats" did your friends realize that you were one of the voices?

GD: No. Only in adulthood did people really react to it. You would think that at that time the young people or my friends would say something, and I was one never to make a big deal of it. The fame and recognition for that came later.

Two weeks ago we were at a party in the kitchen and we look up and we see "Aristocats" cat food, and it was Toulouse, my cat. So I walked around the whole party with the cat food.

SW: Do you remember seeing the film as a kid? (Pictured right, Ollie Johnston, Gary, Dean Clark - the voice of Berlioz and Woolie Reitherman)

GD: I don't believe I've ever seen it in a theatre. I have no memory of that. Of course I've seen it on tape, on VHS, so this is gonna be a great experience tonight.

SW: Tonight you'll be introduced as the voice of Toulouse. Have you done anything in regards to "The Aristocats" in recent years? Any signings or anything?

GD: No, this is a new experience and I love it because this is an icon of a movie, a classic.

SW: Howard Green just found you recently, right?

GD: Yeah, they've been trying to find me and the other cats for years.

SW: Looking at your list of credits, it doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to find you.

GD: I'm active, but I guess the others aren't, but it took them awhile to find me and Howard just called a couple weeks ago.

SW: I've got a story online about how he finds some of the "lost" performers.

It's almost time, are you ready to be out there?

GD: Being in this business for all my life, I find that I just like to see the reaction on people's faces. I kind of get out of my own way. It's not about me, really. I've done films and people have come up to me in the lobby and say things like, "Hey, you're the guy in 'Jaws 2' that just got eaten..."

SW: Is that true? Your character got eaten by the shark?

GD: Yeah, I did, but I always get recognized and I say, "Yeah, that's me. Did you like it?" It's just kind of like a way of making people happy, and if I'm here tonight because someone can say they saw the cat, that's really cool.

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