The Face Behind the Voice
I've always loved voice acting even before I knew of the term. I've also always been curious about what the people behind the voices of my favorite characters actually look like. We all know the more famous ones like Shaggy, Bugs Bunny, and Bart Simpson, but what about Batman, Yogi Bear, or the Warner Brothers (and their Warner Sister!)? Well, I figured, why not show you?
Kevin Conroy: best known as Batman in numerous DC animated series, not the least of which being Batman: The Animated Series. It should be noted that Conroy has actually portrayed the character more than Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, and Christian Bale combined. He will be voicing the character once again in the upcoming Batman: Gotham Knight animated feature set between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.
Daws Butler: Mel Blanc may have been known as "The Man of a Thousand Voices," but Daws Butler could give him a run for his money. Working for rival animation company Hanna-Barbera, Butler voiced no less than 40 characters, not the least of which are: Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, Peter Potamus, Elroy Jetson, Quick Draw McGraw (as well as his sidekick Baba Looey), and, my favorite, Scooby-doo's half-witted cousin Scooby-dum. Butler died of a heart attack in 1988 at the age of 71.
Jess Harnell, Tress Macneille, and Rob Paulson: While each is a successful VA in their own right, I list them here collectively because of their most famous role(s) - Yakko, Wakko, and Dot.
Jess Harnell has voiced characters for Drawn Together (namely the chauvinistic Captain Hero), the Kingdom Hearts game series (portraying Dr. Finkelstein after the death of William Hickey, who voiced the character in the original movie The Nightmare Before Christmas), The Tick (voice of the Rain Man-esque superhero Sewer Urchin), and Spyro the Dragon in Spyro: A Hero's Tail and Spyro: Shadow Legacy. He is currently set to provide the voice for Uncle Carl in the upcoming animated feature The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, based upon the comic from Rob Zombie.
Tress Macneille has an uncanny ability to portray not only demure characters such as Daisy Duck, Hello Nurse (Animaniacs) and Linda the newsanchor (Futurama), but also frighteningly gruff ones such as Agnes Skinner (The Simpsons), Mom (of Mom's Friendly Robot Factory in Futurama). She has also voiced a Crazy Cat Lady in not only The Simpsons, but Futurama as well. Her first notable role was that of Chip and Gadget in Chip and Dales Rescue Rangers.
Rob Paulson is arguably the most famous of the Warner trio's actors, having been in 292 different productions according to IMDB. He's often "that voice" in a game or cartoon that you recognize but just can't place. One such instance is the video game God of War, in which he portrayed a nameless Greek soldier. Not very prestigious, sure, but the section of the game in which his character is quite notable. Those of you who've played the game may remember a segment in the Pandora Temple where you are forced to dragged a caged soldier to a room in which you must sacrifice him to open a door (as seen here starting at time index 2:45). Paulson portrays this seemingly insignificant character so well that it almost makes you wish you didn't have to kill him. Almost. 
Some of Paulson's more notable roles have been in Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes (as Grey Fox, the Cyber Ninja), GI Joe (as Snow Job), Taz-Mania (as Didgeri Dingo, as well as many other characters), and in Darkwing Duck (as Steelbeak). He is also slated to appear in The Haunted World of El Superbeasto as Hess the Third, in Tinker Bell as Bobble, and in Batman: Gotham Knight voicing three characters, Sal Maroni, Mole Man, and Youth #4.
Stay tuned until after this commercial break for more of The Face Behind the Voice!
PS: If you have any requests, go ahead and PM me with the character name and the show/game in which it appeared.
"I'm absolutely retarded. Not 100% sure why." - atom
"Dhelor + intarwebs = Great ideas." - wordsmythe
"Do I what I do: hate everyone." - Quintin_Stone
Simon Templeman.
Probably best known as Kain from the Legacy of Kain series, and also a billion other roles. He's recently had major roles in Final Fantasy XII, Uncharted and Jade Empire. He's a Bioware staple.
Michael Bell.
Also insanely prolific. Raziel from Soul Reaver/Legacy of Kain, the druid prophet from Warcraft III, The Fear from MGS3, and Marasuma from Ninja Gaiden. Probably the most prolific guy out there.
Merle Dandridge.
Voice actress for Alyx Vance from Half Life. I think that's her only game work.
Here's a cool chart of HL2 actors:
Ellen McLain.
Played Glados in Portal, with the help of a voice modulator, of course.
Sarah Hamilton.
Played April Ryan in The Longest Journey and Dreamfall.
Jennifer Hale.
Actress for Bastilla from KotOR. She also, interestingly, plays Samus in the Metroid Prime series. Though, admittedly, that's not a ton of lines, heh. She also played Alexandra Roivas in Eternal Darkness, and Naomi Hunter and Emma Emmerich in the MGS series.
Our beloved Tony Jay.
Voice of the Elder God in Legacy of Kain, the narrator in World of Warcraft, the Transcendent One in Planescape Torment, and much, much more. One of the most recognizable voice actors ever. RIP.
Steve Downes.
Plays Master Chief in Halo.
Jen Taylor
Plays Cortana in Halo.
David Scully
Halo's Sergent Johnson.
David Warner.
More of a screen actor, but will always hold a place in my heart for his turn as Irenicus in Baldur's Gate 2.
Michael Hollick.
Nico Bellic from GTA4.
"PEACE ON EARTH. GOOD WILL TO MEN. PUBLIC SHELTER. ADMISSION 50¢"
Way to steal my thunder, Morry.
"I'm absolutely retarded. Not 100% sure why." - atom
"Dhelor + intarwebs = Great ideas." - wordsmythe
"Do I what I do: hate everyone." - Quintin_Stone
All those and no Frank Welker?
Shame on you.
XBLive: Thin J
PSN: Thin_J
I don't imagine master craftsmen leaping away from completed projects and shouting "Done, motherf*ckers! - 1Dgaf
Leatherface voiced the Guardian in Ultima 7. No pic needed.
Politely rude. Briskly vague. Firmly uninformative.
David Warner is da man. He also voiced Morpheus in Fallout.
Fedaykin98 wrote:
He is indeed. I'll always remember him best as Evil from Time Bandits. "Forty-three species of parrots. Nipples for men. I'd have started with lasers. Eight o'clock. Day one!"
Got any toast?
I'd like to nominate Merle Dandridge as the hottest "Merle" in history.
"PEACE ON EARTH. GOOD WILL TO MEN. PUBLIC SHELTER. ADMISSION 50¢"
My contribution:
Fred Tatasciore is another usual suspect for video games. Best known for playing Saren in Mass Effect, his voice has appeared in over 130 video games and TV series in the last 6 years.
The mighty Maurice LaMarche, as any fule kno, is the voice of Calculon, Kif, Lrrr, Morbo, Horrible Gelatinous Blob (the last three sounding nothing alike) in my beloved Futurama. You may not know that he is also the voice of Brain in Pinky and the Brain, Alec Baldwin in Team America, and Egon in the old Ghostbusters movie.
Frank Welker is the Man. It would take all day to type in his credits. Whenever you hear an animal sound in a cartoon, TV show or video game, it's probably Welker. He can do a flock of geese in one take. He was Freddy in the original Scooby Doo, the monkey in Aladdin, Megatron in Transformers (the TV series), the gopher in Caddyshack, and Ace the Bathound in Batman Beyond.
It will do good to heart and head
When your soul is in my soul's stead;
And I will friend you, if I may,
In the dark and cloudy day.
- AE Houseman, trailblazing XBL user
XBox Live
Who's the guy who does the american voice for the slacker in Cowboy Bebop? I swear I've heard him in a bunch of other stuff.
Hell yeah, it may very well have been his best role. The guy's amazingly prolific. And turns out he voiced Ra's Al Ghul in a Batman Beyond.
Fedaykin98 wrote:
You know, stick him in the right costume and he could play Batman in real life.
"Men like sex, thus boobies! Oogaba!" - dejanzie
"If ads put your sanity to the test
come on down to Rat Boy's nest!
light up a stogie, and soon you'll see
how rock can be commercial-free!
'I'd hit it!'" - HP Lovesauce
The slacker?
If you mean him, his voice is done by Steve Blum.
WoW Blackhand Alliance
70s: Nukanatrix (M), Braun (P), Boreali (Warrior)
Erissar - 67 Druid
Grumbar - 65 Hunter
Jergen - 65 Paladin
Heckfire - 63 Warlock
Can't believe you haven't included this one after having mentioned Kevin Conroy. You disappoint me.
Mark Hamill
You know him as Luke Skywalker. I know him as the best freaking Joker ever. He has been the voice of the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, The Batman/Superman Movie, Justice League, Superman: The Animated Series, and the film Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, as well as, a couple other villains. Other roles include Chanukah Zombie in Futurama, Hobgoblin in Spider-Man, and Fire Lord Ozain in Avatar: The Last Airbender. I could be here all day listing every character/movie/game/anime he has ever worked in so it's probably better that I just post a link to imdb.
"The pen is mightier than the flaming bag of poop" - Bart Simpson
Xbox Live | Steam | Rockband Profile
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Bailey_(voice_actress)]Laura Bailey[/url]
I don't think I've ever said this sentence before, but man would I love to hump that butterfly.-- KrazyTaco
One phone call and you're melting like butter over my kettle pop. -- Edwin to Mex
2005 GWJFFL2 Champion
Fab idea...I always wondered what the VAs looked like. Shouldn't this be on a Wiki somewhere?
My god, he's smoking hot.
Last.fm
One is enough and it's driving me crazy
Big respect to Tony Jay! He is one of my favourite "bad guys".
After hearing Jennifer Hale in Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect I've become a big fan. I particularly enjoyed her Commander Shepard in Mass Effect.
My contributions:
Keeley Hawes, better known as the voice of Lara Croft in TR: Legend and TR: Anniversary. And she's back for TR: Underworld too!
Barclay... err, I mean Dwight Schultz, another extremely prolific voice actor.
I second that. He's so good that no-one else even needs to try.
Swing harder! Swing harder!
-- Lilarcor, Baldur's Gate 2
I was planning on doing this in installments, and those two (as well as some of the other certain people already posted) would have been in subsequent postings. But since others have decided to continue in my stead, there hardly seems a point to it now.
There are entries for a lot of voice actors on wiki, but most of them lack pictures of the actor themselves.
"I'm absolutely retarded. Not 100% sure why." - atom
"Dhelor + intarwebs = Great ideas." - wordsmythe
"Do I what I do: hate everyone." - Quintin_Stone
I'll chip in with obvious ones.
Sam Fisher. I mean, Michael Ironside. And speaking of gruff voices:
David Hayter.
You can't take the sky from me.
A-f*cking-men. LOVE David Warner. He was in Batman: The Animated Series and Batman Beyond as Ra's Agul, he's had parts in Gargoyles, Freakazoid and dozens of others I can't recall off the top of my head. Kevin Conroy is another all-time favorite. To me, he IS Batman.
Edit: Also, let's not forget Tim Curry, who has a good voice acting record.
I don't feel like adding anything, but this is an awesome thread.
!
Sarah Hamilton's look fits her voice.
What project is she working on now?
"Three blokes go into a pub. One of them is kind of stupid, and the whole scene unfolds with a tedious inevitability." - Bill Bailey
Charles Adler: Known for voicing Buster Bunny and Roderick Rat in Tiny Toons Adventures, Ickis in AAAHH!!! Real Monsters!, and various characters in the Transformers series, including Starscream in the recent Transformers movie (as well as it's upcoming sequel).
Gregg Berger: Known for his gruff, gravelly voice, Berger has portrayed such characters as Jecht in Final Fantasy X, the vampire Turel in Legacy of Kain Defiance (great scene by the way), and The Pain in MGS3.
Richard Horvitz: Have you the brain worms? Do you not know of the great Invader Zim? Richard Horvitz voiced the titular character, as well as characters in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (once again as a titular character, specifically Billy), the Destroy All Humans series (as Orthopox), Psychonauts (portrayed Razputin), and the voice of Alpha 5 in Mighty Morophin Power Rangers: The Movie.
"I'm absolutely retarded. Not 100% sure why." - atom
"Dhelor + intarwebs = Great ideas." - wordsmythe
"Do I what I do: hate everyone." - Quintin_Stone
That's not a recent picture. He's not so...Wayne-ish...anymore.
Unfettered Blather - Daily updated nonsense
X-Box Live Gamertag - CrazedJava
Less chatter more splatter!
I'm a little suprised no one's put up Keith David.
Besides telling us how awesome Navy life is, he's voiced Spawn, Goliath (Gargoyles), and been in Halo 2 & 3 (Arbiter), Mass Effect (Captain David Anderson), Fallout (Decker), Planescape: Torment (Vhailor).
Duoae wrote:
Stengah's Steam ID
ICO: Stengah
WHOA, thanks for the link to the LoK video, dhelor. I missed Defiance and Blood Omen 2. I'm gonna waste some serious time watching those. hehe
"PEACE ON EARTH. GOOD WILL TO MEN. PUBLIC SHELTER. ADMISSION 50¢"
Complete side track, but the Prophet from WC3 was Medivh, the last Guardian of Azeroth.
wordsmythe wrote:
Podunk on Jessica Alba wrote:
He's sooo dreamy. You should also know that he wrote the screenplay for X-Men and X2. I wish they would just cast him to play Snake (if/when they finally decide to make the movie).
[edit]
Holy crap. According to imdb, he's writting the screenplay for Watchmen. I'm suddenly interested in this movie.
"The pen is mightier than the flaming bag of poop" - Bart Simpson
Xbox Live | Steam | Rockband Profile
James Arnold Taylor: Most prominently know for providing the voice of Tidus in Final Fantasy X and the voice of Ratchet in the Ratchet & Clank series (starting with Going Commando - the role was originated by Mikey Kelley). He's also done voices for Drawn Together (Wooldoor Sockbat), A.T.O.M. (Axel Manning/Sebastian Manning/Tillian), and the Star Wars: The Clone Wars tv series (as Obi-Wan Kenobi - it's not known yet if Taylor will reprise this role in the upcoming CG movie).
Kari Wahlgren: OMG HOTNESS. Kari Wahlgren is a very prolific voice actress, primarily for anime and video games. Famous roles including the title characters of Witch Hunter Robin and Jeanne D'Arc, Saya Otonashi/Diva in Blood+, Ashe in Final Fantasy XII, Shelke Rui in Dirge of Cerberus - Final Fantasy VII, and Haruko Haruhara in FLCL. She is also sometimes credited as Kay Jenson, Jennifer Jean, Jean Allen, and Jan Irving. She is currently slated to provide the voices of Aayla Secura, Tuilek Fodder, and Darth Phobas in the upcoming video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
June Foray: If you don't think you've heard June Foray's voice before... well, chances are, you have and you just don't realize it. She's been working for various animation studios since the 1940s, and she's still going strong. Her most famous characters include Witch Hazel and Granny from The Bugs Bunny Show, Rocket J. Squirrel and Natasha Fatale from the Rocky & Bullwinkle Show, Magica de Spell and Ma Beagle from DuckTales, and Grammi Gummi from The Gummi Bears. She continues to work, most recently reprising her role as Granny in the video game Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal.
"I'm absolutely retarded. Not 100% sure why." - atom
"Dhelor + intarwebs = Great ideas." - wordsmythe
"Do I what I do: hate everyone." - Quintin_Stone
Katherine Soucie.
Probably best known as Aerie in BG2, Tavion in Jedi Outcast, and the female voice of the Master from Fallout. Also found in Kingdom Hearts, Tomb Raider, FFX-2, Full Throttle and Gun.
Jim Cummings.
The perrenial voice of Tigger. But, more importantly, he's the voice of MISC, (and Boo!) as well as Lord Firekraag, Gorion, Demogorgon, Abazigal and Saladrex. He also does the male voice of The Master, Set and Gizmo from Fallout. Plus Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog. Add to that a plethora of Disney characters like Ed the Hyena from the Lion King, Razoul from Aladin, and many more.
Cam Clarke.
Another Bioware boy. BG2, Jade Empire and Mass Effect all have a lot of him. He also plays Liquid Snake, and Hercules from God of War 2.
Jeff Bennett
Illidan from World of Warcraft, Kyle Katarn from the Jedi Knight series, and like 99% of the voices in Giants: Citizen Kabuto. Plus, as always, tons more.
"PEACE ON EARTH. GOOD WILL TO MEN. PUBLIC SHELTER. ADMISSION 50¢"