Hal Smith
From Adventures in Odyssey Wiki
[edit] Description
Hal Smith (1916-1994) was the original voice of John Avery Whittaker through 1994. He also was the voice of dozens of minor characters during the time he was on the show. He first began working with Focus on the Family in 1984 on several radio dramas. Before that time, he was a well known actor, having played Otis Campbell on the Andy Griffith show and providing the voices for many cartoon characters.
Katie Leigh, Walker Edmiston, and Will Ryan had all worked with Hal Smith before the start of Adventures in Odyssey in 1987, and the fact that Hal Smith was playing the lead character was one of the primary reasons that they each decided to join the show.
Hal Smith's health began deteriorating through the early 90s, after the death of his wife. Initially, the plan was for Whit to die when Hal Smith became unable to continue voicing the role. The Mortal Coil was recorded to explain Whit's death, but this decision was later reversed and the episode was changed so that Whit didn't die after all. Shortly after that in January 1994, Hal Smith died. After that, Whit disappeared from Odyssey for what at the time appeared to be permanent.
