George Lowe, who became one of the most iconic voices of the classic Adult Swim programming block by starring in Space Ghost Coast to Coast, died Sunday, March 2 at age 67. A cause of death was described as a “long illness,” and the actor, comedian and visual artist had been inactive on social media for some time. The news of his passing was confirmed by his representative.
Lowe was born on the Gulf Coast of Florida on November 10, 1957, and got his first radio job with a local station at just 15 years old. After graduation high school, he attended the Radio Engineering Institute of Sarasota as well as Pasco-Hernando Community College in his home town. Through the late 1980s and ’90s, Lowe did some voice-over work for TBS, and for sibling network Cartoon Network in the mid-90s.
While Space Ghost is associated with the birth of Adult Swim, his talk show spoof predated the mature audiences programming block by several years. The concept of Space Ghost Coast to Coast was created by Mike Lazzo (Cartoon Network’s first-ever programmer and later VP of Programming for the network) to be TBS’ first adult-targeted toon, and stemmed from brainstorming by Andy Merrill (the voice of Brak) and editor-producer Jay Edwards to come up with a rhyming title for a marathon of 1960s Space Ghost episodes.
While original voice star Gary Owens played the title character in the pilot, Lowe was cast at the new series’ official order, and Space Ghost Coast to Coast as many remember it premiered April 15, 1994. The series features the animated super hero (and his begrudging villain support crew) interviewing real life celebrities, and aired on TBS before the launch of Adult Swim in 2001. Space Ghost Coast to Coast ran for 93 episodes through to 2004, and spawned the Cartoon Planet spinoff as well as a short-form web series on GameTap and a surprise April Fool’s Day marathon with new skits in 2014.
Space Ghost was a fan-favorite character, and Lowe voiced his cameos in multiple Adult Swim series, including Cartoon Planet, Sealab 2021, The Brak Show, Perfect Hair Forever and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Lowe most recently was heard as Space Ghost in a 2024 episode of Cartoon Network/Max series Jellystone!
Lowe also voiced various recurring and one-off characters for The Brak Show, Sealab 2021 and Aqua Teen (including an animated version of himself), as well as Celebrity Deathmatch, Assy McGee, Squidbillies, American Dad!, 12 oz. Mouse and Robot Chicken.
Outside his work as a voice and live actor, Lowe was a passionate collector of modern art, as well as an artist himself. He bough this first Picasso print while at college (choosing to spend the money on this art piece over a car) and amassed a collection of more than 700 pieces by the likes of Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg and Tom Wesselmann. He once met Rev. Howard Finster, and was inspired to seek out and collect other folk artists.
Lowe’s own works as a self-taught artist — detailed, complex abstract landscapes crafted in intricate combinations of media — are housed in the permanent collections of the High Museum of Art (Atlanta), Polk Museum of Art (now the Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art at Florida Southern College), Georgia Museum of Art (Athens), American Visionary Art Museum (Baltimore) and numerous private collections.
Lowe wrote in an artist’s profile for the AVAM: “Perhaps, one youngster staring at something in my collection, or at a work of mine, will be touched like I was staring at that De Heem work as a kid at The Ringling, and they, too, will become inspired to pick up a pencil and discover their own true voice.”
Space Ghost Coast to Coast is available to watch for free on AdultSwim.com, although it is set to become unavailable soon according to JustWatch. Fans can stream nine seasons on Spectrum or access eight on Apple TV. Like many animated classics, the series was purged from Max during the 2023 rebranding.
[Source: Deadline]
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