Time at Pitt helped launch the career of Jeff Bergman, voice of Bugs Bunny

As a teenager growing up in the Philadelphia area, Jeff Bergman knew he wanted to pursue something in the world of show business. He loved listening to his mother play the piano by ear and admired her writing. When he told his father, who worked in the fashion industry, about his showbiz aspirations, his father replied asking for his plan B, and he admitted he didn’t have one. “And he goes, ‘good. That’s the right answer,’” Bergman recalls to Pittsburgh City Paper . “So that was a bit of a test. I guess I passed that one.”  It panned out. While enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh to study theatre and communications, he decided to shoot his shot in 1980 and introduce himself to Mel Blanc, the legendary original voice of Bugs Bunny, at his hotel room when he visited the university for a speaking event. In that hotel room, he charmed Blanc enough to earn a key connection in his budding career. A 19-year-old Jeff Bergman in his Pitt dorm room. Credit: Courtesy of Jeff Bergman Years later, Warner Bros. crowned him the first ever person to voice Bugs after Blanc’s passing, a huge accolade that kickstarted a prolific voice acting career that he, in part, credits to his time in Pittsburgh. Bergman began voicing Bugs in Tiny Toons Adventures , he says, and made a big splash introducing the world to his rendition of the character in an animated clip at 1990 Academy Awards introducing the award for Best Animated Short Film. Rick Moranis and the late John Candy introduced the clip. (Bergman’s mother hosted an Oscars watch party to mark the occasion, he says: “It was so much fun.”)  Bergman has a lot of upcoming projects featuring his voice of Bugs, as well as other iconic Looney Tunes characters such as Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig. That includes the short film Daffy Season as well as voices coming this summer in a revamped Looney Tunes Land at Six Flags Magic Mountain. His work extends beyond Looney Tunes , th