Danny Goldman, a longtime character and voice actor, whose roles included Brainy Smurf, died Sunday at age 80.
Goldman's friend, agent Doug Ely, announced the death in a Facebook post. Ely wrote that Goldman died peacefully after suffering "a couple of strokes around New Years."
Goldman was the voice of Brainy Smurf, distinguished from the others by thick horn-rimmed eyeglasses, on the Saturday morning cartoon show The Smurfs from 1981-1989. He reprised the role in other Hanna-Barbera shows, including several episodes of Robot Chicken between 2005 and 2011. Other voice work includes The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries, Capitol Critters and Batman: The Animated Series.
Goldman's acting career reaches back t0 1969 appearances on That Girl, and includes guest roles on The Partridge Family, Room 222, Columbo, Baretta, Kojak, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, the 1989 TV movie Get Smart Again! and as a Daily Planet copy boy in the 1975 TV movie It's a Bird ... It's a Plane ... It's Superman!
He appeared in the opening scene of Mel Brooks' 1974 horror movie spoof Young Frankenstein as a medical student who challenges Dr. Frederick Frankestein, played by Gene Wilder, about his work.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)