Ken Nordine
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Born: April 13, 1920
Died: February 16, 2019 Voice actor Ken Nordine started his radio career in 1938 running a mimeograph machine at Chicago's WBEZ. He moved on to announcing at Florida and Michigan stations before moving back to Chicago where he worked in radio and television commercials, and developed storytelling style he called Word Jazz, recording an album in 1957 which led to his hosting a “Word Jazz” radio show for 40 years (late-night reruns of the program play on NPR to this day). Mr. Nordine told The Chicago Tribune that the goal of his poetry was to “make people think about their thinking and feel about their feeling, but even more important to think about their feeling and feel about their thinking.” His velvety baritone and improvisational poetry led to high-profile collaborations throughout his career, including those with Fred Astaire, Jerry Garcia and Laurie Anderson Tom Waits and David Bowie. He is survived by his three children and his 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. |