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Ralph Gunderman, a veteran voice artist and actor who was famously the announcer on NBC's Dateline while contributing to comedy monologues on The Late Show with David Letterman, has died aged 77. Gunderman died on Sunday, March 1, at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York from complications from pneumonia, a family spokesperson announced. The star was born in 1948 in Cleveland as the fourth of seven children. He worked at WRHA, the University of Akron's college radio station, where he developed a love for performing.

While still in school, he landed a gig in summer 1969 as a deejay at WING in Dayton and then back in Akron at WCUE. After graduating in 1970, he moved on to television in Cleveland at WKBF and, as a booth announcer, WEWS. Gunderman then moved to New York in 1981, where he started his voice-over work. Over those four decades, he could be heard on thousands of commercials, promos and narrations.

This is in addition to popular games including Bully, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Grand Theft Auto. Before his 2021 retirement, the actor also contributed to comedy on The Late Show with David Letterman, providing the voice for phoney commercials and announcements during the host's monologues.

In a moving tribute, his family said that Gunderman found great joy singing in cabaret and in retirement as part of a monthly Cover Collective held at An Beal Bocht, an Irish café in the Bronx. He was also quite the cruciverbalist.

"And as a consummate believer in the power of negative thinking, he had hopelessly wished for a Cleveland baseball championship, since their last one had been the year he was born," his family noted, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The late star is survived by his second wife, Pamela, whom he married in 2022, and his son, Benjamin. Alongside siblings, Ann, Ruth, Colette, Clare, and Joseph.

Gunderman served on the national boards of both SAG and AFTRA.

The comedy icon's loved ones announced that a "celebration of his life is set for 2 pm on Saturday at Community Unitarian Universalist Congregation in White Plains, New York, with a second celebration to be held at 2 p.m. on August 1 at Olmsted Community Church in Olmsted Falls, Ohio."

They also requested that donations in his memory be made to WNYC Radio, the National Resources Defence Council, and Feeding Westchester, which provides fresh, healthy food to households facing hunger.