Sylvester J. Pussycat Sr. is a cartoon character, an anthropomorphic cat in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Most of his appearances have him often chasing Tweety, Speedy Gonzales, or Hippety Hopper. He appeared in 103 cartoons in the golden age of American animation, lagging only behind superstars Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, and Daffy Duck. Three of his cartoons won Academy Awards, the most for any starring a Looney Tunes character: they are Tweetie Pie, Speedy Gonzales, and Birds Anonymous.
Animation history Development Before Sylvester's appearance in the cartoons, Mel Blanc voiced a character named Sylvester on The Judy Canova Show using the voice that would eventually become associated with the cat.The Judy Canova Show, September 7, 1943, as rebroadcast on XM Radio's Old Time Radio channel August 13, 2008.
Personality and catchphrases
Like Daffy Duck, Sylvester is known for having a sloppy lisp. To emphasize the lisp, as with Daffy's catchphrase "You're desthpicable", Sylvester's trademark exclamation is "Sufferin' succotash!", which is said to be a minced oath of "Suffering Savior". (Daffy also says "Sufferin' succotash!" on a few occasions.) A common gag used for both Sylvester and Daffy is a tendency to go on a long rant, complaining about a subject and then ending it by saying "Sakes".
Sylvester shows a lot of pride in himself, and never gives up. Despite (or perhaps because of) his pride and persistence, Sylvester is, with rare exceptions, placed squarely on the "loser" side of the Looney Tunes winner/loser hierarchy. He shows a different personality when paired with Porky Pig in explorations of spooky places, in which he does not speak, behaves as a scaredy-cat, and always seems to see the scary things Porky does not see and gets scolded by him for it every time.
For the most part, Sylvester has always played the antagonist role, but he is sometimes featured playing the protagonist in a couple of cartoons while having to deal with the canine duo of Spike and Chester after being chased around. In 1952's Tree for Two (directed by Friz Freleng), Sylvester is cornered in the back alley and this would result in Spike getting mauled by a black panther that had earlier escaped from a zoo without Spike and Chester knowing about it. In the 1954 film Dr. Jerkyl's Hide, Sylvester pummels Spike (here called "Alfie") thanks to a potion that transforms him into a feline monster. Both times after Spike's ordeal, Sylvester would have the courage and confidence to confront Chester, only to be beaten up and tossed away by the little dog.
Perhaps Sylvester's most developed role is in a series of Robert McKimson-directed shorts, in which the character is a hapless mouse-catching instructor to his dubious son, Sylvester Junior, with the "mouse" being a powerful baby kangaroo named Hippety Hopper which he constantly mistakes for a "giant mouse". His alternately confident and bewildered episodes bring his son to shame, while Sylvester himself is reduced to nervous breakdowns.
Sylvester also had atypical roles in a few cartoons:
Kitty Kornered (1946), a Bob Clampett cartoon in which a black-nosed, yellow-eyed Sylvester was teamed with three other cats to oust owner Porky Pig from his house. Doggone Cats (1947), an Arthur Davis cartoon where Sylvester is teamed up with an orange cat (later reused as Sylvester's brother Alan in The Looney Tunes Show) to torment a dog named Wellington the Dog as he delivers a package to Uncle Louie. Catch as Cats Can (1947), another Davis cartoon that portrays Sylvester as a simple-minded cat with a dopey voice. While the cartoon essentially follows a cat-vs-canary plot, it takes a different approach as Sylvester is persuaded to eat the canary (caricatured as Frank Sinatra) by a green parrot (caricatured as Bing Crosby). Back Alley Oproar (1948), a Friz Freleng cartoon (actually a remake of the 1941 short Notes to You) wherein Sylvester pesters the sleep-deprived Elmer Fudd by performing several amazing musical numbers in the alley and even a sweet lullaby ("go to sleep... go to sleep... close your big bloodshot eyes...") to temporarily ease Elmer back to the dream world, though very temporarily. The Scarlet Pumpernickel (1950), a Chuck Jones cartoon in which Sylvester plays the Basil Rathbone-like villain to Daffy Duck's Errol Flynn-esque hero. Canned Feud (1951), another Freleng cartoon in which Sylvester tries to retrieve a can opener from a mouse out of fears he would starve to death. Unlike most cartoons, the mouse is portrayed as an instigator of the conflict or antagonist rather than Sylvester himself. Red Riding Hoodwinked (1955), another Freleng cartoon where Sylvester co-stars with an absent-minded Big Bad Wolf in which each not only tries to get their particular "prey" (Sylvester vs. Tweety and the Wolf vs. Little Red Riding Hood) but they both nearly come to blows with each other playing "Grandma". ("You're musclin' in on my racket!") A Taste of Catnip (1966), a Robert McKimson cartoon that Sylvester cameos in. When Daffy Duck blows up a catnip factory in Mexico, Sylvester and other enraged cats beat up Daffy.
In the television series Tiny Toon Adventures, Sylvester appeared as the mentor of Furrball. He also starred in The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries. In the series, he plays the narrator at the beginning of episodes.
Filmography
The character debuted in Friz Freleng's Life With Feathers (1945). Freleng's 1947 cartoon Tweetie Pie was the first pairing of Tweety Bird with Sylvester, and the Bob Clampett-directed Kitty Kornered (1946) was Sylvester's first pairing with Porky Pig.
He also appears in a handful of cartoons with Elmer Fudd, such as a series of three cartoons underwritten by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation extolling the American economic system.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Sylvester appeared in various Warner Bros. television specials, and in the 1980s, he appeared in the feature-film compilations.
Sylvester has been "killed" more times than any other Warner Bros. cartoon character, having "died" in Peck Up Your Troubles, Back Alley Oproar, I Taw a Putty Tat, Mouse Mazurka, Bad Ol' Putty Tat, Tweety's S.O.S., Tweet Tweet Tweety, Ain't She Tweet, Cats a-Weigh, Satan's Waitin', Muzzle Tough, Sandy Claws, Tweety's Circus, Too Hop To Handle, Tree Cornered Tweety, Tweet and Lovely, Trick or Tweet (along with Sam Cat), The Wild Chase (along with Wile E. Coyote), Museum Scream, and the Looney Tunes Cartoons episodes "Fully Vetted" and "Boo! Appetweet". He was even cast in the role of the Jacob Marley-like ghost called Sylvester the Investor in Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas.
Sylvester serves as the titular character in The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries (1995–2000), under the ownership of Granny and again having desires of eating Tweety and being thwarted by Butch. He helps solves mysteries and defeats the culprits in the end. In the finale of the series, he abandons his desire of eating Tweety following a dream and express his love for the bird.
A baby version of Sylvester is part of the title cast of characters in Baby Looney Tunes, voiced by Terry Klassen.
Sylvester is featured in The Looney Tunes Show (2011–14), voiced by Jeff Bergman. He is shown living with Granny alongside Tweety. In "Point, Laser Point", it is revealed that Sylvester was attracted by a glowing red dot that was on his mother's necklace when he was young as experienced through hypnotic therapy done by Witch Lezah. It was also revealed that his mother (voiced by Estelle Harris) has retired to Florida. When Sylvester visits her, she reveals she's disappointed that Sylvester isn't married, doesn't have kids, never kept wearing his retainer, never remembered where she lives in Florida, and has not caught Tweety yet. This episode also introduced Sylvester's brother Alan (voiced by Jeff Bennett) who became more successful than Sylvester. In "Ridiculous Journey", he and Tweety along with Taz ended up in snowy Alaska and they embark on an adventure to get back home all while a man named Blacque Jacque Shellacque was tracking them down. Turns out, Blacque Jacque Shellacque was Yosemite Sam's cousin and was trying to help them get back home all this time.
Sylvester also makes recurring appearances in both New Looney Tunes (2015–20) and Looney Tunes Cartoons (2020–24). Jeff Bergman reprises his role for both.
Sylvester appeared in King Tweety (2022). He was voiced by Eric Bauza, who also voiced him in Looney Tunes: World of Mayhem.
Sylvester appears in Bugs Bunny Builders (2022–present) as one of the citizens/builders helpings Bugs and friends with building. In this series, he is more of being friends with Tweety and even lives with him.
Cameo appearances In the movie Kitten with a Whip (1964), the Sylvester cartoon Canned Feud is shown playing on a television set that Jody Dvorak watches.
Sylvester (as well as Speedy Gonzales and Porky Pig) appeared in a skit seen at the end of an episode of the game show Press Your Luck. Earlier in the episode, Daffy Duck was incorrectly listed as the correct answer to the question "Which well-known cartoon character is famous for uttering the immortal words 'Sufferin' Succotash!'?" At the end of the episode, Mel Blanc called the show in his Sylvester voice to correct host Peter Tomarken on the gaffe. Tomarken assured "Sylvester" that future Looney Tunes-related questions would be run by Sylvester's office and that the three contestants in the episode would be given a second chance, as any spins that were to be awarded for the correct answer would have affected the course of the episode's gameplay.
Sylvester makes a cameo appearance in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), where he provides the punchline for a double-entendre joke regarding Judge Doom's (Christopher Lloyd) identity. This was Mel Blanc's final time voicing him.
Sylvester appears as part of the Tune Squad team in Space Jam (1996), voiced by Bill Farmer. He bears the number 9 on his jersey where the Tune Squad and Michael Jordan competed against the Monstars.
He also has two cameo appearances in Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), but the second time, "Sylvester" is really Mr. Smith in disguise.
Sylvester appears in the Robot Chicken episode "Werewolf vs. Unicorn", voiced by Patrick Pinney. During Arnold Schwarzenegger's announcement of illegal aliens from Mexico, Sylvester demonstrates a wired fence that will keep the aliens out, only for it to be penetrated by Speedy Gonzales.
Sylvester makes a cameo appearance in the Tom and Jerry Tales episode "Kitty Cat Blues", on a poster in Miss Kitty's room.
Sylvester makes a vocal cameo appearance in the 2020 Animaniacs revival segment "Suffragette City", with Jeff Bergman reprising his role.
Sylvester appears in Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021), voiced again by Jeff Bergman. He plays for the Tune Squad in their match against the Goon Squad. At one point before the second half, Sylvester thought he found Michael Jordan in the audience which he revealed to the Tune Squad only for LeBron James to find that he actually ran into Michael B. Jordan. This caused Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd to reprimand him for not noticing the difference as Sylvester thought he aged well.
Sylvester appears in the Teen Titans Go! episode, "Warner Bros. 100th Anniversary". He is among the Looney Tunes characters guests for the Warner Bros. centennial celebration.
Sylvester appears in Coyote vs. Acme (2026) in a non-speaking cameo. He's seen in Granny's house, sculpting a bust of Tweety after he had been taken by Acme.
Other appearances