Trivia

Mercer's natural voice was relatively high-pitched for a man, and he was able to do some of the female voices as well.

Mercer's first wife Margie Hines provided the voice of Olive Oyl from 1939 to 1944.

Mercer liked to imitate voices, he was so good, he suffered one close call where he mimicked the high-pitched and loud voice of the wife of one of the Fleischers after he mistakenly thought she had left the studio.

Although William Costello originated Popeye's key vocal qualities, he was a singer rather than an actor. Jack Mercer proved to be a superior comedian who brought engaging warmth and humor to the character. Many of Popeye's funniest under-the-breath mutterings - the puns, malapropisms and wisecracks - were freely ad-libbed by Mercer during the recording sessions, seizing on moments when he didn't have to match any onscreen lip movements. He sadly toned down this endearing trait and it faded away in the Famous Studios Popeye cartoons.

Following his death, he was interred at Summerfield Methodist Cemetery in Oxford, Warren County, New Jersey.

Mercer was the son of vaudeville and Broadway performers, and so his background included performing on the vaudeville and theatre.

He has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant": Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936) and Dumbo (1941).

Mercer was the subject of a 1974 episode of television's To Tell the Truth (1969). He fooled three of the game show's four panelists; only Bill Cullen guessed Mercer over his impostors as the man who voiced Popeye.

Jack Mercer passed away on December 4, 1984, 40 days away from what would have been his 75th birthday on January 13, 1985.

Mercer's last regular gig was in Hanna-Barbera's television reboot The All-New Popeye Hour (1978). His participation was curtailed after four episodes when he suffered a heart attack in 1978. Mercer was persuaded to voice the sailor for the animated prologue of the live-action feature Popeye (1980), after which he called it a career.

Until the late 1970s, Mercer never received billing as the voice of Popeye, and his face was unknown to the general public until he appeared in a 1974 episode of television's To Tell the Truth (1969). He did get story credit as co-writer on many Popeye and other Famous Studios cartoons.

In 1960, Mercer released three albums of Popeye singing novelty songs for the RCA and Vocalion labels: "Popeye the Sailorman and His Friends", "Popeye's Favorite Stories" and "Popeye's Zoo". The first two also featured Mae Questel as Olive Oyl.