The duck voice of a voice artist triggered the creation of Donald Duck! 

While the world deems Mickey Mouse as the most reputable Disney personality. But Donald Duck isn’t far behind either. In fact, one might even say that if Mickey Mouse is the yin of the Disney world, Donald Duck is easily the yang.  

With a strong personality, short-temper, never-ending shenanigans and above all, a heart of pure gold, this cranky white duck with a yellowish orange bill, wearing a blue sailor shirt and cap with a distinct red bow tie, has entertained generations of people, irrespective of their age. This much-loved pompous character was born in 1934 in the hands of Walt Disney and animator Dick Lundy. 

But how much do we really know about Donald Duck? Did you know that the entire character exists, courtesy the duck voice of a particular man, or the fact that Donald Duck has a twin? Sounds unlikely, but both are true. Here are some of the most interesting facts about this goofy, animated hero. 

Disney finds the perfect duck voice 
When Mickey Mouse raged a worldwide storm in 1928 right after its launch, Walt Disney studios decided to come up with more such animal characters and create its own animation empire. This is when they started auditioning voice artists to create animal sounds for their upcoming cartoon characters. One fine day in early 1934, struggling voice performer Clarence Nash took his chance, that forever changed his fate. The studio had no plans to create a duck character, but Nash’s duck voice was so on point, that it immediately inspired them to come up with the character Donald Duck. The rest, as they say, is history. While Walt Disney himself concocted the iconic attributes, he onboarded animator Dick Lundy to endow the character with life. In June 1934, before the world even had the first glimpse of Donald Duck, did they hear his duck voice during the theatrical release of Disney’s cartoon series The Wise Little Hen. Since then, Donald and his duck voice have been no less than a global phenomenon. Nash enacted the duck voice from 1934 to 1983. When he retired pertaining to his ill health, he trained Disney artist Tony Anselmo for the role. 

Fun fact: Walt Disney studio used a special microphone called the Neumann TLM-170 that was customised for recording the perfect duck voice. 

Donald Duck has a differently-abled twin 
While the world knows about Donald Duck’s quirky girlfriend Daisy Duck, what is not known to many is the fact that, he has a twin sister named Della Duck. Often nicknamed as Dumbbells Duck or Thelma Duck, Della happens to be the mother of Donald’s nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie. A distinguished member of the Disney Duck family, Della often misses the limelight, thanks to her elder twin and his hijinks. However, she deserves an equal or even better mention, as she lives a life of an amputee. In fact, her character was way ahead of the times, when the creators at Disney made her feature a robot leg. If you think about it, she can be a positive role model for all differently-abled people out there for living her life on her own terms, being a lot less temperamental compared to her brother, not taking anything and anyone for granted and treating everyday as a chance for a new adventure. In fact, she is also way ahead in her style and sports a bomber jacket, aviator hat, brown pants and a light blue hat. How fancy!  

Donald Duck is the only Disney character to be a mascot 
That’s right, this charming yet irascible duck is a lot better than he looks. In fact, he has a significant role, beyond the Disney realm. Guess what it is? He is a sports mascot for a major American university, making him the only Disney and cartoon character to be so. While Donald in his new role wears different colours than usual—green and yellow — his personality remains the same. In fact, he apparently has a specially made licensed agreement with the University of Oregon’s athletic programme that makes Donald the official mascot for the Oregon Ducks, their sports team. In fact, they also use Donald’s image as the Fighting Duck mascot. He is regarded as an honorary alumnus. It’s as if Donald is one multi-talented duck!