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Ross Bagdasarian
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Ross Bagdasarian (January 27, 1919 – January 16, 1972) was an American pianist, songwriter, actor, and record producer of Armenian ethnic descent, born in Fresno, California. During his professional life he was better known by the stage name David Seville, which he used on his recordings featuring The Chipmunks.
His first musical success was Rosemary Clooney's "Come on-a My House", which he wrote with his cousin, novelist William Saroyan. He had a moderate hit in 1956 under the name Alfi & Harry with the novelty record "The Trouble With Harry." As David Seville, he had another #1 record in his song, "The Witch Doctor", which was also his first experiment with the technique of speeding up the playback of an audio track to get the "most-distinctive" higher pitched squeaky comical sound. This success led to his recording of "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)" with The Chipmunks, for which he won two Grammy Awards in 1959: Best Comedy Performance and Best Recording for Children.
Bagdasarian also appeared in minor film roles, including
Alfred Hitchcock's
Rear Window (1954), in which he plays an obsessed piano-playing
songwriter. He also had bit parts in
The Deep Six (1957),
The Devil's Hairpin (1957),
The Proud and Profane (1956),
Three Violent People (1956),
Hot Blood (1956),
Alaska Seas (1954),
Destination Gobi (1953),
Stalag 17 (1953),
Viva Zapata! (1952), and
The Greatest Show on Earth (1952).
He also provided the voice for the David Seville character in the Chipmunks' 1961 animated television series The Alvin Show.
Bagdasarian died of a
heart attack at the age of 52. He was subsequently
cremated at the
Chapel of the Pines Crematory in
Los Angeles, California. His son,
Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., continued to release Chipmunks recordings and took over as the voice for the Chipmunk characters (except Theodore; his wife, Janice Karman, did his voice as well as all of The Chipettes) in subsequent iterations of the cartoon.
