Norman Rose, a veteran stage actor whose sonorous baritone gained him national attention as the voice of Juan Valdez, the fictitious coffee grower and advertising spokesman for Colombian coffee, died on Friday at his home in Upper Nyack, N.Y. He was 87. His death was announced by John J. A. Hossenlopp III of the Atlas Talent Agency in Manhattan. Mr. Rose produced and acted Off Broadway, translated and dramatized foreign plays, appeared in movies and television, narrated modern ballet and television specials and recorded books for the blind. He was a co-founder of New Stages, an early Off Broadway repertory company, and more recently appeared in benefit readings at Symphony Space.
Mr. Rose was born in Philadelphia and joined the Washington Civic Theater while attending George Washington University. Moving to New York in the 1940's, he went from theater to radio to television. His first radio engagements were narrations of programs like "The Greatest Story Ever Told."
He had roles on Broadway, including Earl Rivers in Shakespeare's "King Richard III," directed by George Coulouris in 1943. At Actors Studio, he studied with Michael Chekhov and Harold Clurman. In 1947 he and the producer David Heilweil started New Stages; it presented the American debut of Sartre's "Respectful Prostitute," which later moved to Broadway. His Off Broadway credits included his own dramatization of "The Trial of Dmitri Karamazov," derived from Dostoyevsky, in 1958. In the 1970's, he was on the faculty of the Juilliard School's drama department and had roles in Hollywood films.
On television, Mr. Rose was the narrator for a sugarplum fantasy first shown in 1977, George Balanchine's "Nutcracker" starring Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland. He also played in the ABC soap operas "One Life to Live" and "All My Children" and supplied the voice heralding its network news shows. Until recently he was heard on television commercials and for a decade or so had Juan Valdez, the discerning Colombian coffee harvester, assure viewers that, for them, he would pick "only the ripest beans."
Mr. Rose is survived by his wife of 60 years, Catherine Vagnoni Rose; three daughters, Elizabeth Rose and Margaret Wood of Nyack, and Johanna Maria Rose of Piermont, N.Y.; a son, Jack, of Holly Hill, Fla.; a sister, Arlene Gordon; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. In 1992, Mr. Rose, who was also a poet, sensed a yearning for verse in an era of sound bites and created the "Off the Page" series on video. For 72 minutes, it had American poets, as he put it, "looking directly at you and reading their work."
November 18, 2004
HENDERSONVILLE, N.C., Nov. 17 (AP) - Dayton Allen, a comedian and actor best known for his work as the voices of the cartoon character Deputy Dawg and the grumpy marionette Mayor Phineas T. Bluster on "The Howdy Doody Show," died here on Nov. 11. He was 85 and lived in Flat Rock, N.C. The cause was a stroke, said his brother, Bradley Bolke. Mr. Allen was also a regular on "The Steve Allen Show," but his most notable voice work came from his longtime association with the cartoon studio Terrytoons. He provided most of the voices for "The Deputy Dawg Show," a syndicated series that started in 1960. He was also the voice of the cartoon magpies Heckle and Jeckle and many other characters. Earlier, he spent four years on the original "Howdy Doody Show" with Buffalo Bob Smith, giving voice to marionette characters like Mr. Bluster and Flub-a-Dub as well as human characters like Pierre the Chef.
On "The Steve Allen Show," from 1958 to 1960, he often appeared as a bogus expert or in the comic "Man on the Street" interviews. His frequent comment, "Why-y-y-y-y not?," became a favorite catch phrase. In addition to his brother, Mr. Allen's survivors include his wife, Elvi.