Terence McGovern (born May 11, 1942)^[1] is an American actor, television broadcaster, radio personality and acting instructor. He is best known as the original voice of Disney character Launchpad McQuack from DuckTales and spin-off Darkwing Duck. He was also elected into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame as a member of its Class of 2008.^[2]

Career

McGovern was schooled at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh with a double major in journalism and English, and later studied acting with Stella Adler and Milton Katselas. McGovern worked at KDKA radio and KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh from 1965 to 1969, leaving for KSFO in San Francisco during the summer of 1969. At age 30, McGovern traveled to Los Angeles, California, to further pursue his entry into acting. He started his career in films with George Lucas, in Lucas' inaugural film, THX 1138. It was on this film that Terry created the word Wookiee. According to Lucas in a 1977 Rolling Stone interview, he stated: " We were riding along in the car one day and he (Terry) said: 'I think I ran over a Wookiee back there,' and this really cracked me up and I said, 'What is a Wookiee?' and he said, 'I don’t know, I just made it up.'"^[3][4][5]

Lucas and McGovern continued their work together in the 1970s classics American Graffiti and Star Wars. McGovern played the role of the young high school teacher Mr. Bill Wolfe in American Graffiti, and in Star Wars he provided voice-overs for various personalities of the Empire. In 1993, he appeared in Mrs. Doubtfire, playing a voiceover director who argues with Daniel Hillard during the opening scene. McGovern also appeared in Back to the Future in a deleted scene as the McFlys' neighbor, who pressures George into buying an entire case of peanut brittle to help fund his daughter's Little League team.^{[citation needed]}

McGovern played Jim Coyle in the CBS series Charlie & Co. and has helped to create hundreds of television and radio commercials. McGovern starred in Walt Disney’s animated series DuckTales and Darkwing Duck as the characters Launchpad McQuack and Babyface Beagle (only as Launchpad in Darkwing Duck). On theatrical stages, McGovern has had roles ranging from musical comedies to Shakespeare.

Since 1999, McGovern has voiced "Dan Stevens", fictional play-by-play announcer, for the NFL 2K series of sports video games, alongside voice actor Jay Styne (as "Peter O' Keefe"). Both have provided their voices for all seven games in the series, the last being the unlicensed All-Pro Football 2K8. Critics have praised McGovern and Styne's commentary as a great alternative to sports video games featuring real commentary teams.^[6]

McGovern is an instructor of commercial and character voice and scene and monologue acting, and he contributes to the College of Marin with his expertise. He taught script writing and the history of broadcast announcing for the University of San Francisco. He is also the artistic director of The Marin Actors' Workshop, which he founded. He published a poetry booklet entitled Rod McCroon's Look at the Loud, which is a parody of Listen to the Warm by Rod McKuen. The poetry was presented to his KSFO audience.

Since 2012, he has hosted the weekend morning show on Boss Boss Radio. The internet radio station plays the Top 40 hits of the Boss Radio era, 1964 thru 1980.^[7]

Personal life

McGovern and his wife Molly have two sons, Brendan and Anthony,^[8][9] and they live in Marin County, California.

Selected filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Broadcast history

• KDKA Radio and Television, Pittsburgh, 1965–69
• KSFO Radio, San Francisco, 1969–74
• KPIX Television, San Francisco, 1975–77
• KSAN Radio, San Francisco, 1974–79
• KWST Radio, Los Angeles, 1980
• KRLA Radio, Los Angeles, 1982–83
• POWER 104 Radio, New York, 1983
• K-101 Radio, San Francisco, 1988–92
• KYA Radio, San Francisco, 1992–94
• KTVU Television, San Francisco, 1992–94
• KRON-TV and BayTV, San Francisco, 1994–97
• "Profiles in Rock," syndicated radio series from Watermark, Inc., 1980