One of America’s best-known voices, if not faces, is no more. Voice over actor Herb Graham, whose rich avuncular tones were heard on commercials for everything from Campbell Soup to United Airlines and Gatorade, has died at the age of 87.
He was born Herb Grossman to Russian immigrants and raised in Chicago. Though news of his death on August 19 at Chicago’s Skokie Hospital was quietly posted on a Chicago radio and media forum, it did not become widely known until news outlets such as the Chicago Sun-Times and UPI featured eulogies for the widely respected announcer Wednesday evening.
Among the commercials Graham voiced was a spot for Barack Obama’s 2004 Senate run. He also voiced radio dramas and children’s TV shows, but throughout his career refused to work on commercials for tobacco.