You may not recognize his given name, and you may not know his most famous stage name, but you'll be hard-pressed to find someone who isn't familiar with his animated name.
Although it may come as a surprise to learn that Baby Herman is a New York sports fan.
Brooklyn-born and raised Lou Hirsch, who voiced the cartoon toddler on "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" currently co-stars on a British comedy, making him an American living the life abroad. This is opposed, of course, to an American living the life of a broad, which would not be decent material for this family-friendly story and would cause readers to blush.
"Being an American working in London has had its advantages," Hirsch wrote on his official Web site, www.louhirsch.com, while presumably day-dreaming about crumpets and scones. "I am, at present, a regular character in a BBC1 sitcom called "My Hero". It stars Ardal O'Hanlon and Emily Joyce. I play Ardal's cousin, Arnie (Kowalski)."
But besides Hirsch's accent, the peculiarity which stands out on the program (more than Barney the Dinosaur would at a funeral) is his character's choice of clothing.
Arnie wears more New York sports teams apparel than East Coast gang members, making his attire very crunk . . . yo . . . as well as extremely out of this world on a British sitcom.
And that's another item that makes Arnie different. He is out of this
world. He's Ultronian, to be specific, a space alien/former superhero whose powers were removed after charging rescue fees for needy citizens.
Like every movie, television program, or comic book that includes a
superhero/alien, Arnie and his cousin, main character Thermoman played by O'Hanlon (secret identity George Sunday), prefer to remain anonymous. Therefore, instead of doing their shopping from the official Ultron athletic collection catalog or buying "Everything's Bigger On Ultron" shirts to wear while on Earth, the characters are forced to dress as normal earthlings.
Only Arnie dresses like a normal New Yorker with season tickets to Yankee games. Instead of rockin' Man U gear, knowwhatI'msayin', Hirsch's character be dressin' like P. Diddy. Actually, to correct my grammar, Hirsch's character be dressin' like Diddy. The "P" is silent this week.
The only further oddity is why Arnie doesn't sport any gear from his alma matter, The University of Miami, or "The U," as Michael Irvin would shout, before blinding everyone in sight with his bling-bling.
My first glimpse of "My Hero" was three years ago on PBS, in which Hirsch, in order to preserve his identity, worked at a diner in New York. Some weird person might say the show was presented to me as hilarious, but nevertheless, after watching a couple of episodes, I was hooked.
Arnie subsequently moved on to run a casino in Las Vegas before moving to Northolt, England, to live closer to his cousin George. But Hirsch is proud of his roots, making sure his character supports the Yanks, Mets and Giants with tight (literally) '80s T-shirts and button-up, satin jackets.
"Doing the voice work for Baby Herman was a long time ago now," Hirsch said. "Thankfully my career hasn't been limited to just that."
So if you stay up late on Sunday nights and can tolerate an accent which isn't easy to understand (or even a British accent if you're educated enough to speak New Yorker), then you may come across England's and Ultron's most loyal American sports fan.
Just don't ask Hirsch how the Yankees are doing this season. He knows they stink worse than yesterday's diapers.
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