Voice actor
From Wikinfo
A voice actor is a person who provides voices for puppet shows, audio dramas, stop motion, and animation works (including cartoons, animated feature films, animated shorts), and radio and television commercials. The Japanese equivalent of a voice actor is a seiyuu. When singing is called for a role, a second voice actor is sometimes cast as the character's singing voice.
It is not unusual to find amongst the ranks of voice actors people who also act in live-action film or television, or on the stage. For those actors, voice acting has the advantage of offering acting work without having to bother with makeup, costuming, lighting, and so on.
A common practice in animation voice casting not widely known to the general public is to have young boy-character roles read by women. This goes all the way back to Gracie Lantz as Woody Woodpecker, and continues with Elizabeth "E.G." Daily as Tommy Pickles on Rugrats and All Grown Up! today. June Foray, even as a senior citizen, can still faithfully voice Rocket J. Squirrel. This can be especially useful if an ad campaign or a developed series is expected to run for a few years, because the female voice characteristics do not change as drastically through adolescence as do those of the male.
Some notable voice actors
- Charlie Adler (both Cow and Chicken, Red Guy, I R Baboon and others on Cow and Chicken and I M Weasel)
- Joseph Ashton (Jack in the 1997 movie Babes in Toyland; Iggy on Hey Arnold!; Otto on Rocket Power)
- Hank Azaria (Chief Clancy Wiggum, and others on The Simpsons)
- Mel Blanc (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote, Barney Rubble, Tom and Jerry, Woody Woodpecker and others)
- Arthur Q. Bryan (Elmer Fudd)
- Rodger Bumpass (Squidward on SpongeBob SquarePants; Jorgen on The Fairly Oddparents, and others)
- Daws Butler (Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound and others)
- Nancy Cartwright (Bart Simpson and others on The Simpsons; also (since 2002) Chuckie Finster on Rugrats and All Grown Up!)
- Adriana Caselotti (Snow White in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
- Dan Castellaneta (Homer Simpson and others on The Simpsons)
- Pinto Colvig (Goofy)
- Elizabeth "E.G." Daily (Tommy Pickles on Rugrats and All Grown Up!; Rudy Tabootie on ChalkZone; Buttercup on The Powerpuff Girls; and others)
- Walt Disney (Mickey Mouse)
- June Foray (Granny, Jokey Smurf, Natasha Fatale, Rocket J. Squirrel, Witch Hazel, among others)
- Stan Freberg (Chester the Terrier, Hubie, Junior Bear Tosh of the Goofy Gophers, narrator on The Wuzzles)
- Mark Hamill (The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series)
- Ben Hardaway (Woody Woodpecker)
- Phil Hartman (various characters on The Simpsons)
- Jim Henson (Kermit the frog and other characters on The Muppet Show)
- David Jason (title character on Dangermouse)
- Casey Kasem (among others, Shaggy Rogers in the Scooby-Doo franchise; also Robin/Dick Grayson in Batman cartoons up until the mid 1980s)
- John Kassir (The Crypt Keeper on Tales from the Crypt; Raymundo on Rocket Power)
- Julie Kavner (Marge Simpson and others on The Simpsons)
- Maurice LaMarche (Chief Quimby from Inspector Gadget, Egon Spengler from The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters, The Brain from Animaniacs, various characters on Futurama)
- Tress MacNeille (various characters from The Simpsons, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Futurama, anime dubs, etc.)
- Jason Marsden (Tino on The Weekenders, Chester on The Fairly Oddparents, among others)
- Jack Mercer (Popeye, Wimpy, Felix the Cat)
- Don Messick (Scooby Doo, Papa Smurf, Hampton J. Pig, Muttley, Clunk, Zilly)
- Lorenzo Music (Garfield, Peter Venkman on The Real Ghostbusters)
- Clarence Nash (Donald Duck)
- Frank Oz (Yoda from Star Wars and many characters on The Muppet Show)
- Mae Questel (Betty Boop, Olive Oyl, and many others)
- Douglas Rain (HAL 9000 the computer, in 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010: Odyssey Two)
- Thurl Ravenscroft (Tony the Tiger in television commercials for Frosted Flakes cereal; singing voice in many works, including How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and The Jungle Book)
- Terry Scott (Ernest Penfold on Dangermouse)
- Harry Shearer (Charles Montgomery Burns and others on The Simpsons)
- Yeardley Smith (Lisa Simpson and others on The Simpsons)
- Kath Soucie (Phil and Lil from Rugrats, Fifi LaFume from Tiny Toon Adventures, Rodney and Megan Bitterman from Baby Blues, among others)
- Arnold Stang (title character on Top Cat)
- Tara Strong (Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls, Timmy Turner from The Fairly Oddparents, Kylie Griffen from Extreme Ghostbusters, Dil Pickles from Rugrats)
- Frank Welker (Freddy Jones from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You, Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget, Megatron and Soundwave from Transformers, Ray Stantz and Slimer from The Real Ghostbusters, Santa's Little Helper from The Simpsons, and many others; specializes in animal vocalizations)
- Billy West (Ren and Stimpy from The Ren and Stimpy Show, Phillip J. Fry and others from Futurama)
- Paul Winchell (Dick Dastardly and Private Meekly from Wacky Races, Gargamel from The Smurfs, and others)
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Voice_actor" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_actor, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
