Biographie
Bob Dermer was born in 1946 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His mother, who was 46 when he was born, opposed his desire to act. Nevertheless, at eight years old, he was enrolled in theater school, where he studied until the age of thirteen. He enjoyed a happy childhood in a cheerful city, interrupted only occasionally by nuclear alerts. His adolescence was also joyful, and he participated in the school concert every year. In Thirteenth Grade, he auditioned for a television series called 'Milk and Honey' produced by CGOH in Ottawa. Although the role was for an old Russian man and Dermer was just a teenager, he still auditioned. The director told him, "You're not playing the old Russian guy, but we do have a part for a seventeen-year-old kid." Dermer was cast in the series and appeared in two hundred episodes. After graduating, with ten years of acting experience, he took dance classes. Noreen Young discovered Dermer and hired him for the Union meeting, where he began puppeteering. Having never done puppeteering before, within three months he performed a live puppet show on television. From 1967 to 1977, he worked as a puppeteer on the series "Pencil Box." Young later helped Dermer join TV Ontario for an educational children's series, where he met his fiancée, Nina Keogh, a fellow puppeteer. In 1980, he was cast as Ralph Raccoon—an everyman, straight man, and aviation enthusiast—in Kevin Gillis' animated TV special 'The Christmas Raccoons,' and continued to voice Ralph throughout the franchise. In 1985, the year the 'Raccoons' TV series began, Dermer also voiced Grumpy Bear in 'The Care Bears Movie,' a role he reprised in subsequent Care Bears films and series.
