John Erwin was an actor who voiced He-Man and Morris the Cat, among many other roles.
- Died: December 2024
- Details of death: Died at his home in Camarillo, California of natural causes at the age of 88.
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John Erwin’s legacy
For children of the 1980s, Erwin’s big, booming He-Man voice was unmistakable. He starred as the superhero in the entire 1983–1985 original run of “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe,” as well as in the spin-off cartoon “She-Ra: Princess of Power” and the 1985 “He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special.” His iconic characterization of He-Man helped inspire later adaptations of the Masters of the Universe, including an upcoming live-action theatrical release. In addition to voicing He-Man, Erwin also provided the voice of his enemy, Beast Man, a henchman of supervillain Skeletor.
He-Man wasn’t Erwin’s first major voice role. In fact, he broke into voice acting 15 years earlier on “The Archie Show,” playing Reggie Mantle, one of the Archie gang and bassist for The Archies. He voiced Reggie for 10 years across various spin-offs, including “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” “Archies TV Funnies,” and “The New Archie and Sabrina Hour.” While he starred as Reggie, Erwin was also providing the voice of the finicky cat Morris in a series of commercials for 9Lives cat food. He voiced Morris from 1969 to 1978.
Erwin’s other voice credits included “Aesop’s Fables,” “Fred and Barney Meet the Thing,” “Babe,” and a 2005 episode of “Family Guy” in which he reprised his role of He-Man. Though he focused exclusively on voice acting in later years, Erwin also appeared onscreen early in his career. Most notably, he had a recurring role on “Rawhide” as cattle driver Teddy.
Tributes to John Erwin
Full obituary: The Hollywood Reporter
