Years active 1960s— Name Danny Goldman | Role Actor Spouse Mary Gillis (m. 2001) | |
Born 1939 (age 75–76) New York City, New York, US Occupation Actor, casting director Movies and TV shows The Smurfs, Young Frankenstein, Where the Buffalo Roam, Cartoon All‑Stars to the Rescue, The World's Greatest Similar People Mary Gillis, Robert Scheerer, Art Linson, Neil Young, Mel Brooks | ||
Danny Goldman
Daniel "Danny" Goldman (born 1939) is a retired American actor and voice actor, and casting director. He is most widely recognized as the voice of Brainy Smurf in Hanna-Barbera's The Smurfs (1981–1989) and as the inquisitive medical student in the opening of Young Frankenstein (1974).
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Early life
Goldman graduated from Far Rockaway High School in Queens, New York City, New York, in 1957. He subsequently attended and graduated from nearby Columbia University in Manhattan, New York City, in 1961.
Career
One of his first roles was that of Nick Dutton, the son of an industrialist who knew the truth about his family's new butler and housekeeper, and helped them get acquainted in their new jobs in the 1971 situation comedy The Good Life. Among his other early roles on television were appearances in the TV shows That Girl, Room 222, The Partridge Family, Love, American Style, Needles and Pins, Columbo, Baretta and Chico and the Man. He was a regular member of the cast of the situation comedy Busting Loose in 1977. Goldman was also featured as Ozzie the Answer in the 1980s detective drama Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer and as Dr. Denton on Get Smart, Again!. He acted in the episode "I'll Kill 'Em Again" of police drama Hawaii Five-O and in the episodes "Brain Child" and "42" in Trapper John, M.D.. Goldman appeared as a panelist on the What's My Line? TV program during its syndicated run, and on the live stage version in Hollywood several years later. In 2005, he appeared in an episode of the sitcom The King of Queens.
His other feature film credits include a small role as a persistent medical student who asks Dr. Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) about his grandfather in Young Frankenstein (1974), and roles in Busting (1974), Linda Lovelace for President (1975), Tunnel Vision (1976), The Missouri Breaks (1976), Swap Meet (1979), Wholly Moses! (1980) and My Man Adam (1985). He also portrayed Captain Murrhardt in M*A*S*H (1970) and Porter in Where the Buffalo Roam (1980).
A lasting achievement for Goldman is his voicing of pedantic Brainy Smurf (1981–89) on the long-running animated series The Smurfs. He returned to the voice of Brainy Smurf for the television show Robot Chicken in a segment that parodied the movie Seven. The show's creators remarked that of all the casting coups on their show, of which there are many, their greatest was getting Goldman to voice Brainy Smurf in The Smurfs. He has reprised the role several more times on Robot Chicken, whenever Brainy Smurf appears in a sketch, only missing one appearance in "House of Smurfs".
For nearly 30 years, Goldman was a prominent casting director of television commercials in Hollywood.