Ross Bagdasarian Jr.
Ross Dickran Bagdasarian is an American actor, animator, voice actor, singer, and record producer, known for his work on the Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise.
He is the son of the franchise's creator, Ross Bagdasarian. He is often called Ross Bagdasarian Jr. to distinguish him from his father, but he does not share his father's given name, which was "Rostom".
Early life
Bagdasarian was born in Fresno, California, the son of Armenuhi and Ross Bagdasarian. He is of Armenian descent. As a child, he worked with his father on The Alvin Show by helping edit and coordinate the soundtracks and falsetto voice-overs of The Chipmunks.Career
Bagdasarian graduated from law school. He succeeded his father as president of Bagdasarian Productions in 1972 after the death of the elder Bagdasarian. The company had fallen into obscurity after significant success between 1958 and the late 1960s. His wife Janice Karman, whom he married in 1979, is co-president. Bagdasarian and Karman have two children and live in Montecito, California.Under Bagdasarian's supervision, new Chipmunks records were created shortly after his marriage to Karman, including Chipmunk Punk. In 1981, the Chipmunks returned to television in the cartoon special A Chipmunk Christmas. Two years later, Ruby-Spears Productions' Alvin and the Chipmunks Saturday morning cartoon series debuted on NBC. Based on that series, a feature film, The Chipmunk Adventure was released in 1987. Bagdasarian voices Alvin, Simon, and Dave Seville, and Karman voices Theodore and The Chipettes.
Bagdasarian and Karman hold tight creative and financial control over the Chipmunk franchise, reviewing each and every business contract in great detail. In the mid-90s, Bagdasarian bought out his brother's and sister's portions of the Chipmunk rights, to take complete control of the franchise.
Universal Pictures lawsuit
Bagdasarian licensed the rights to the Chipmunk characters to Universal Pictures in 1996, resulting in a string of Universal-produced direct-to-video films. Four years later, he and Karman sued them for breach of contract, claiming that Universal failed to properly utilize, market, and merchandise the characters and hence resulting in a loss of royalties to Bagdasarian. The case was decided in Bagdasarian's favor. "For us, it was a custody battle", Karman said. "They finally realized 'OK, these two are really fighting for their kids'."Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Producer | Writer | Actor | Role | Notes |
| 1987 | The Chipmunk Adventure | Alvin Seville Simon Seville David Seville | ||||
| 1999 | Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein | Alvin Seville Simon Seville David Seville | Direct-to-video | |||
| 2000 | Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman | Alvin Seville Simon Seville David Seville | Direct-to-video | |||
| 2005 | Little Alvin and the Mini-Munks | Alvin Seville Simon Seville David Seville | Direct-to-video | |||
| 2007 | Alvin and the Chipmunks | Alvin Seville | Songwriter | |||
| 2009 | ' | Alvin Seville | Singing Voice | |||
| 2011 | ' | Alvin Seville | Singing Voice | |||
| 2015 | Alvin Seville | Singing Voice | ||||
| - | - | - | - | - | Alvin Seville | Singing Voice |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | Singing Voice |