Voice Actors....

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The unsung heroes of many an animated movie/TV show or video game. I'm going to list (in a later post) my favourite voice actors, as well as what roles I remember them best.

By "voice actor" I mean an actor who has had more well-known roles in animation and video games than say, actual live appearances. I'll leave it up to the actual posters to make judgement, but it doesn't mean a voice actor should be excluded because he/she have actually made live TV appearances.

Basically, by my definition, voice actors can be from radio series, animated series/movies (rotoscoped movies like A Scanner Darkly and motion-captured characters on an otherwise live-action movie (like Gollum (Andy Serkis) from Lord of the Rings or Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) from Pirates of the Caribbean) don't count at all) or video games. Motion capture in a fully-CG film, tv series or video game is acceptable.

Narrations over live-action movies/tv series may count if you wish, providing said narrator does not exactly make an on-screen appearance more than a brief cameo. I will leave it up to your judgement whether to allow voice actors from dubbed live-action movies/tv series (like Monkey).

Frank Welker has done more voices than anybody I think.

I liked whoever did Lewa's voice in the first Bionicle movie; he had an accent.

Tony Jay was the best.

And he will be sorely missed. BTW, nice new Kefka avatar.

Hokay.....

(Deep breath, and in no particular order....)

Michael Bell. Most notable role for me: He plays the role of Raziel from the Legacy of Kain games with such dignity and clarity that I thought he was much younger. He is also good as The Pain from "Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater", and Medivh in "Warcraft III".

Simon Templeman. Kain from the Legacy of Kain games, he gives malicious and Machiavellian life to what, in the first few LOK games, could've been a one-dimensional character.

Tony Jay. The Elder God, Zephon and (in the first game) Mortanius from the Legacy of Kain games, Megabyte from ReBoot, Dr Lipshitz from Rugrats, Judge Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Shere Kahn from recent productions relating to Disney's version of The Jungle Book, and all around deep, dark and often sinister voice. He died last year, and he will be sorely missed.

Richard Doyle is a wonderful actor who played not only the sinister and manipulative Moebius from Legacy of Kain, but also the wonderfully villainous Pious Augustus from Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem and the pyromaniacal cosmonaut from hell, The Fury from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

David Hayter, who is known to one and all as Solid Snake (as well as Naked Snake) from the Metal Gear Solid games. He also has apparently beaten every Metal Gear game he's voiced, and wrote the screenplays for the first two X-Men films.

Paul Eiding, who while capturing the very essence of Colonel Campbell in the Metal Gear Solid games, and doing a good job as Cedric from Dark Chronicle (Dark Cloud 2 for Yanks), he captured very well the OTT villainy needed for Porfessor Hojo for Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus.

Roy Skelton, Peter Hawkins, Peter Halliday, Michael Wisher, David Graham and Nicholas Briggs are to be commended amongst bringing various monsters of Doctor Who to life with wonderful voice acting, including the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Silurians, and many others.

Other voice actors in Doctor Who that deserve a mention include John Leeson, the voice of K-9, as well as various incidental voices in the show, and Gabriel Woolf, who played the wonderfully villainous Sutekh in Pyramids of Mars, and the voice of The Beast in The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit.

Quinton Flynn, for bringing Raiden (Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty), Reno (Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children), Isaaru (Final Fantasy X and X-2) and Axel (Kingdom Hearts II), with the right amount of attitude for each. (Axel's best moment is when, in response to Roxas' assertion that he's remembered his friendship, Axel, in a partly-angry, partly-resigned, and minorly sarcastic tone, snarls "I'm so FLATTERED!")

James Arnold Taylor, not just for doing a damn good job of playing Tidus and Shuyin (Final Fantasy X and X-2), but doing a very good impression (very hard to tell the difference) of Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow in Kingdom Hearts II.

Jennifer Hale, for her various roles in the Metal Gear Solid series (Naomi Hunter and Rose), but as the main characters of Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (Alexandra Roivas) and Metroid Prime (Yes, she plays the grunts and screams of Samus Aran!)

Kim Mai Guest, as Mei Ling in Metal Gear Solid and as Shalua Rui in Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus

John diMaggio, as the wonderful Bender in Futurama, Wakka and Kimahri in Final Fantasy X and X-2, and (thanks to my watching YouTube) as a wonderfully comedic Gilgamesh in Final Fantasy XII.

Billy West, wonderful as many roles in Futurama, including Fry, the Professor, and Dr Zoidberg.

Cam Clarke, playing Liquid Snake in the Metal Gear Solid games.

George Newbern, first doing a good job as Mevyn Nooj in Final Fantasy X-2, but showing his true potential in his appearances as Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and Kingdom Hearts II.

Hedy Burress, adds a lot to Yuna from Final Fantasy X and X-2, but improves especially in X-2. Also plays Seymour's mother (hmm, something Freudian in the casting, I suspect)

Matt McKenzie is enigmatic as Auron from Final Fantasy X.

Gregg Berger, wonderful as the obnoxious, but ultimately good Jecht from Final Fantasy X, and wonderfully malevolent Turel from Legacy of Kain: Defiance (I saw a making of video showing Berger acting out Turel's lines. Scary)

Corey Burton, not only for his roles in Final Fantasy X and X-2, but his very David Warner sound-a-like roles in Kingdom Hearts II as Sark and the MCP.

Much of the cast of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, including Steve Burton, Mena Suvari, Steve Blum and Rachel Leigh Cook.

......and that's about as much as I can muster.....

Steven Jay Blum does a HUGE amount of voice acting for anime.

Ah, I forgot Crispin Freeman (Togusa from Ghost in the Shell SAC and substituting for Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow and Kingdom Hearts II),

Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (as Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell SAC and Rosso from Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus),

Heather Morris (Heather from Silent Hill 3 and Eileen from Silent Hill 4),

Michael Gough (Who I am annoyed that I confuse with the guy who played Alfred from the first four modern Batman films, and the Toymaker from Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker) (But I enjoy THIS Michael G's work as Harry Mason from Silent Hill and Lord Saddler from Resident Evil 4),

and Kari Wahlgren, Shelke from Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus, and hopefully will be wonderful as Ashe from Final Fantasy XII.

Oh and Spike Spencer, Amanda Winn Lee and Tiffany Grant, who play Shinji, Rei and Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion.

The man who did Sparx's voice in The Legend of Spyro: A New Beggining was weird.

The guy who did the Voice of Peter Parker/Spiderman (Christopher Daniel Barnes) is Greg Brady in the Brady Bunch movie, this really freaked me out.

Didn't Jennifer Hale also do the voice for Cortana from Halo?

I never did like the hairdo that she got in the second one...

Tony Jay's dead?

Died late last year.

mel blanc's my favorite voice actor.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000305/

Thank you, tinky, for being the first to reference the king of voice actors. Mel Blanc was the principal (in most cases, the only) voice of hundreds of cartoons, especially Warner Bros.' Looney Toons, and was one of my earliest idols. Second on my list would be another classic, Daws Butler, who was Hanna-Barbera's version of Mel Blanc. Butler was the main voice of HB's short cartoons, including Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound and Quick Draw McGraw. He also was part of the cast of the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons, and performed in commercials, as well (he was the original voice of Cap'n Crunch).

Billy West was on the local radio station's morning show when I was a kid, way back before he hit the big time as a voice actor. He was so good, even then. Tremendously funny and quick witted as well.

His big break of course, was Stimpy.

Heard of Mel Blanc. But never heard of Daws Butler (pity).