Sheldon Allman, 77; Actor, Songwriter, Cartoon Voice

George, George, George of the Jungle,

Friend to you and me.

Watch out for that tree!

Sheldon Allman, who wrote those words introducing the bumbling jungle-savvy cartoon television hero and later Brendan Fraser in the motion picture version, has died. He was 77.

Allman--actor, songwriter, nightclub performer and recording artist who also sang through the mouth of a horse named Mister Ed--died Jan. 22 of heart failure at his home in Culver City.

The cartoon jungle family lasted 17 episodes on ABC Saturday morning television in 1967, but the catchy chorus about George may never die.

That song--”the one song I know that makes everyone smile,” producer Jordan Kerner told The Times in 1997--was a major reason that Walt Disney agreed to make the $50-million film starring Fraser.

Performed by the Seattle-based rock band the Presidents of the United States of America, the number graced the movie’s opening titles.

All in an afternoon’s work, Allman told The Times in an interview when the film was released. He said he wrote the theme song with singer and musician Stan Worth in 1967 at the request of Jay Ward, producer of the cartoon “George.”

The instructions were to name all the characters--head of the jungle George; his wife, Ursula; the well-educated ape friend, Ape; and elephant Shep, who thought he was a dog.

Ward also ordered themes for two other cartoons to run in the “George” time slot--satirical superhero “Super Chicken” and a race-car driver called “Tom Slick.”

“Stan came over to my house,” Allman related. “We started at 1 o’clock, and by 4 o’clock we had the three songs.”

Allman’s wife, Lorraine, returning home, was the first to hear the unforgettable “George, George, George” singsong chant. “You guys,” she chided, “with all of your talent and all of your training, and this is what you find to put your time in on? Shame on you.”

Worth, who died in a plane crash in 1980, primarily composed the music and Allman wrote the words.

To Allman, incorporating the song into the motion picture score seemed natural.

“It’s the connection of the character to the music,” he said. “You cannot imagine ‘George of the Jungle’ without the song, and you can’t sing the song without seeing George of the Jungle.”

Allman, who sometimes did voice-overs for cartoons, including “Undercover Elephant,” also worked with Worth on the music for Ward’s cartoon “The Dudley Do-Right Show,” in 1969.

The songwriter may have prepared himself for his cartoon efforts with the novelty tunes he wrote and then sang for the unusual 1961-65 CBS comedy series “Mister Ed,” which starred Alan Young as architect Wilbur Post, owner of a talking horse. The horse’s speaking voice was provided by former western star Allan “Rocky” Lane.

But when Mister Ed sang, it was Allman vocalizing his original ditties, including “Pretty Little Filly With the Pony Tail” and “The Empty Feedbag Blues.”

Born in Chicago, Allman grew up in Canada and began singing with the Royal National Guard during his World War II service in the Royal Canadian Air Force. He came to Los Angeles in 1949 and graduated from the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music.

He wrote such songs as “A Quiet Kind of Love” and “Christmas in the Air,” and recorded such albums as “Folk Songs for the 21st Century” and the monster-spoofing “Sing Along with Drac,” including the songs “Don’t Maim Me,” “A Coffin for Sale” and “These Ghoulish Things Behind Me Were You.”

Allman also wrote theme songs for a number of TV game shows, including “Let’s Make a Deal,” “Split Second” and “Your First Impression.”

After he met “Monster Mash” songwriter Bobby “Boris” Pickett when both were performing in a play in 1966, Allman joined Pickett to write the musical comedy play “Dracula ... Sorry the Bridge Is Out, You’ll Have to Spend the Night.”

The play was produced at Los Angeles’ Coronet Theatre and on other small stages and turned into the 1995 direct-to-video film “Monster Mash: The Movie,” starring Pickett as Frankenstein.

The video production, especially popular at Halloween, prodded Allman and Pickett to write a sequel for the play, “Frankenstein Unbound.”

Allman also amassed a considerable resume as a character actor, appearing in more than 20 motion pictures and 120 TV shows and countless commercials.

He was the unsympathetic veterinarian Thompson in “Hud,” starring Paul Newman; Judge Harry Evers in “The Sons of Katie Elder,” starring John Wayne; the sheriff in “Nevada Smith,” starring Steve McQueen; and prison chaplain the Rev. Jim Post in “In Cold Blood.”

Allman played the regular character Norm Miller in the 1964 Jack Klugman TV series “Harris Against the World,” and from the 1950s through the 1970s appeared in episodes of such popular series as “Gunsmoke,” “Maverick,” “The Untouchables,” “My Favorite Martian,” “The Fugitive,” “I Dream of Jeanie” and “Little House on the Prairie,” and television movies including “Hunter” and “Miles to Go Before I Sleep.”

Allman is survived by his wife of 35 years, Lorraine Allman; a daughter, Anne Allman Huddleston of Los Angeles; and a brother, Sam Allman of Vancouver, Canada.

The family has asked that any memorial donations be made to the Motion Picture and Television Fund Foundation.