Daphne Blake
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Daphne Blake is a fictional character in the long-running American animated series Scooby-Doo. Daphne, depicted as coming from a wealthy family, is noted for her red hair, her fashion sense, her catch phrase ("jeepers!"), and her tendency to get into danger, hence earning from Fred the nickname "Danger-prone Daphne."
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[edit] Overview
[edit] Actresses portraying Daphne
Daphne was voiced in the first season (1969-70) of Scooby-Doo, Where are You! by Indira Stefanianna Christopherson. When Christopherson married in 1970, Heather North assumed her role. North continued to voice Daphne until 1980, when Daphne was dropped from the series.
Daphne returned to Scooby-Doo with The All-New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show in 1983, and North resumed her role as voice actress until Scooby-Doo was cancelled in 1986. Kellie Martin voiced the junior-high school aged Daphne in the Pup Named Scooby-Doo series from 1988 until 1991. Recent voice actresses have included Mary Kay Bergman (1998 - 1999) and Grey DeLisle (2000 - current). In the two live-action Scooby-Doo films, Daphne is portrayed by Sarah Michelle Gellar.
[edit] Character biography
Together with her other teenage cohorts, Fred "Freddie" Jones, Norville "Shaggy" Rogers, Velma Dinkley, and Shaggy's pet Great Dane Scooby-Doo, Daphne would engage in solving various mysteries the gang would run across. She was often portrayed as the stereotypical "damsel in distress", being the one female in the group who is most likely to get kidnapped, tied up, and left helpless in some hiding-place.
While not as smart as Velma, Daphne would attempt to solve her problems in a fashionable way. The character later became more confident and started playing a more active role as time wore on, as a result of changing attitudes towards women during the 1970s and 1980s. In What's New, Scooby Doo?, Daphne has also been known to open locks or do other tasks with strange items from her purse. It has been theorized by many viewers that Daphne and Fred are attracted to one another, something the later direct-to-video features and the Warner Bros. feature films toyed with while never officially putting them together.
Daphne's character gained more prominence in the early-1980s Scooby-Doo spinoffs, when the focus of the series briefly shifted to her, Scooby-Doo, Scrappy-Doo, and Shaggy. This was particularly noteworthy in the spinoff The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo.
The A Pup Named Scooby-Doo version of a youthful Daphne would commonly call upon her butler, Jenkins, to do various tasks, such as ridding her of people, beating a monster up, etc. This version was also portrayed as much more fashion-sensitive than the mature Daphne.
[edit] Relatives
Relatives of Daphne shown during the series' run include:
- George R. Blake: Daphne's father, the creator of the product "Blake's Bubbles".
- Elizabeth Blake: Daphne's mother.
- Uncle Matt: Daphne's uncle, a cattle rancher.
- John Maxwell: Daphne's uncle, a movie director.
- Olivia Derby: Daphne's aunt.
- Jennifer: Daphne's cousin.
- Dannika: Daphne's cousin, a famous French model.
- Shannon Blake: Daphne's Scottish cousin.
[edit] Trivia
- Daphne's danger-prone-ness is apparently something of a family trait. As her cousin Shannon explained in Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster : "For centuries the Blakes have been falling through trap doors, finding secret passageways, getting kidnapped, and getting caught in traps of our own creation. The Blakes have been famous for being -- how should I put this? -- accident prone."
- Allegedly, Daphne's father helped pay for the van the gang drives around in, the psychedelically painted "Mystery Machine."[citation needed]
- In the Johnny Bravo cartoon "Bravo Dooby-Doo", while Velma liked Johnny, Daphne was a bit harsh towards him. He offered Daphne a huge dinner plate in one scene and she stomped on his foot, hard.
- The second-season episode of The Venture Bros. entitled ¡Viva los Muertos! features the entire Scooby-Doo cast re-imagined as famous serial killers and radicals. Daphne's analgoue, "Patty", is frightened and submissive, somewhat reminiscent of Patty Hearst.
