Dwight Weist: ‘Man of 1,000 Voices’ Was Radio Mainstay

Dwight Weist, radio’s ubiquitous “man of 1,000 voices,” has died while on vacation in Rhode Island.

The Associated Press reported over the weekend that Weist--whose impressions ranged from Adolf Hitler to Franklin D. Roosevelt--was 81 when he died of an apparent heart attack last Tuesday on Block Island.

A former president of the New York chapter of the Screen Actors Guild, Weist maintained homes in Manhattan and on Long Island.

An inveterate performer whose career spanned both the earliest and waning days of radio (“The March of Time” in 1931 and the last network soap opera “The Second Mrs. Burton” in 1960), Weist was a master of dozens of accents which he placed in the mouths of aged and ageless characters.

On “March of Time” alone his impersonations ranged from Hitler to Roosevelt to labor leader John L. Lewis to New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.

He was the original “Mr. District Attorney” when that program first aired in April, 1939.

Never identified by name, the hard-nosed prosecutor was heralded as:

“Champion of the people, guardian of our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Based on the career of racket-busting New York Dist. Atty. Thomas E. Dewey, “Mr. District Attorney” ran through the early 1950s on radio with others later taking over the title role. It became a short-lived TV series in 1951.

Weist also portrayed Police Commissioner Weston on the mystery series “The Shadow,” was host of “We, the People,” an anthology of human interest stories and an announcer of such shows as the quiz game “Grand Slam.”

He did voice-overs for Pathe newsreels during World War II and in 1948 was host when “We, the People” became the first series to be simulcast on both network radio and television.

Weist also was the announcer for TV’s “Search for Tomorrow” and the voice of many TV commercials.

Woody Allen cast him in two films, “Zelig” and “Radio Days” where he was seen announcing the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Weist was a co-founder of the Weist-Barron School of Television and Commercial Acting in New York, one of the oldest in the nation.