Played the role of Wilbur Post in the series Mr. Ed and was also the voice of Scrooge McDuck in the Disney series of cartoons and video games.
He had bad asthma which kept him bedridden for long stretches of his childhood which inspired his love of radio - and by 17 he had his own show on the Canadian Broadcasting Network.
Much of his success came from radio where his Alan Young show started out as a NBC summer replacement for Eddie Cantor, and earned him two Emmy Awards.
He was born in Northumberland, England, where his father was a shipyard worker, and his mother was a descendant of the Founding Fathers of the United States.
He starred alongside Eddie Murphy in the film Beverly Hills Cop III as Uncle Dave Thornton, founder of the Disney-esque Wonderworld.
