The Blog of Death

I even remember when Dark would say "Go Where the News Is...with NBC News." He even did a plug for NBC-owned WRC-TV in Washington by saying, "At NBC, we go where the news is. At channel 4, we live where the news is. NBC & Channel 4 News, together, were Washington's Team 4 News."

As a fellow voice over artist and former radio announcer, I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Danny Dark.

While I was the production director at Eagle106 in Philadelphia in 1988, I had the pleasure of directing Danny in session when he became the imaging voice of The Eagle. He was a kind, gracious man with a wonderful voice.
He is missed.

Danny and I met in the seventh grade, we remained friends for 50 plus years. we drank beer and chased girls together. We both liked jazz and during high-school when Danny had a band he had me play bass for the first set until the real bassist showed up. This was pretty amazing since I had never played bass in my life. All though Danny lived away from Tulsa, we would get together with mutual friends whenever he came home to visit his family. He was one of my best friends and I miss him.

One day on my way to work at WNOE in New Orleans,I left my apartment and ran head on into Danny Dark, who was my neighbor in the next apartment and we had never met. Danny became a life long friend. We both moved to WFUN in Miami with Bud Connell and after that our paths departed. We remained friends for over 40 years. Danny introduced me to my first commerical Agent Dick Barth in Los Angeles and I quess is most responsible for my career. Off and one we visited remaining close until the end. Just days before Danny died, Tommy Oliver, a noted song writer and record producer were to have dinner with Dan, He had to cancel and we never saw him again. I miss him, I miss everything he was and stood for. DD. our lives were enriched by you and your wonderful soul. Jim MacKrell

I remember in college, Danny found a baby possum in the street that evidently had been hit by a car. He picked the animal up and took him to a veterinarian and learned that the possum had suffered a broken leg. The veterinarian put a tiny splint on the possum and Danny took the animal to his home to convalesce. He named the possum, "Dick Biondi," after some radio personality he knew. The possum died.

I knew danny dark when we were dj'ing at wfun. like everybody else, i guess, i just loved the guy. i never met anybody who didn't like danny. he was funny on and off the air...and carried that love of people to his audience, without reservation. he opened his heart to all he met.

danny dark was my favorite voice over of all time.
he had an awesome presence in his voice.

Belatedly: Danny & I worked together at KLAC in LA in the mid-60s as the station transitioned from MOR to all-talk, a bumpy ride for both of us. Danny could do more with a short line ("Hi, Mommy...") than anyone I ever knew. When it came to haggling with talk show callers, he was kind and funny - not necessarily what the listeners to the likes of Joe Pyne expected. I always thought that nasty experience was part of the reason Danny guided that golden throat into the VO biz. Ad agency directors are nicer than callers.

Danny was a great father and a wonderful talent. He had two really beautiful daughters who lived in Tulsa for awhile.

He was as big of a fixture and mainstay of 70's and 80's commercial and pop culture as anyone, really.

Danny truly left his mark. He inspired you. He showed you what life could really be if you just had fun with it and learned to laugh at things. He gravitated towards everything positive, because he was positive. He loved life and he loved people. He had an affectionate and very creative name, sometimes two or three versions for everyone he loved, and that was pretty much everybody. He used to leave me fun notes addressed to "Terence" signed "From one of your parents".....I loved him too.
p.s. Thanks for the possum story. I had a belly laugh thinking of it....

Danny came to speak to a summer drama class at Granada Hills High School in 1976, the year I entered the school. His daughter was in the class, but I can't remember her name.

Even though we were technically "in L.A." and had a few celebrities in the neighborhood (Valerie Bertinelli was a year ahead of me), it was just so cool hearing that familiar voice in person. He was great fun, and talked about how being a v/o announcer was really being an actor in many ways.

We kept asking him to do the lines from some of the spots he was famous for, and gave him applause after each, which he was a little embarassed about. The last one he did for us was the tag line for a really popular cat food commercial at the time. "These cats didn't walk away from Friskies Buffet." Well, we were just beside ourselves to hear that one in person.

Thanks, Danny, for a great memory.