His best-remembered vocal creations include Scooby-Doo, Bamm-Bamm Rubble and Hoppy in The Flintstones, Astro in The Jetsons, Muttley in Wacky Races and Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines, Boo-Boo Bear and Ranger Smith in The Yogi Bear Show, Sebastian the Cat in Josie and the Pussycats; Gears, Ratchet, and Scavenger in The Transformers, Papa Smurf and Azrael in The Smurfs, Hamton J. Pig in Tiny Toon Adventures, and Dr. Benton Quest in Jonny Quest.
Messick was born on September 7, 1926 in Buffalo, New York, the son of Binford Earl Messick, a house painter, and Lena Birch (née Hughes). He was raised by his maternal grandparents[citation needed] in the Bolton Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, where he received his early training as a performer at the Ramsay Street School of Acting.
At first, Messick wanted to be a ventriloquist and even supported himself as one for a time in the late 1940s and early 1950s. At age 15, Messick performed in front of the program manager and chief announcer at radio station WBOC in Salisbury, Maryland, and was given his own weekly show, for which Messick performed all of the character voices and sound effects.

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