Hey, It's That Voice!

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I'm not an entirely huge purveyor of television any more, but a good segment of the genre to which I once adhered my viewing time was to Saturday morning cartoons, late-nite anime binges, and the daily after-school lineup. Nowadays, with the invention of the internet steaming tight along, I've come to re-discover one of my first loves all over again: the familiar DJ voice, and the imagination story-setting to radio dramas. Suffice to say, I have an enormous amount of respect to that other segment of actors, those that solely act with their voices and guttural nuances, and must make do without using their facial and bodily actions (though if you come to see voice actors in-studio, you'd be surprised to see a fair portion of them acting wholeheartedly, as if they were in front of a filming camera nonetheless). The subset brand of voice acting is much more popular in Japan ('cause of all the regularly-premieres of new anime) and other countries where the voice talent is not used for animation, but for radio teleplays, advertisements, and general broadcast reminders.

What say you? Do you know anything, at all, about the business that you care to share (one in which Mark Hamill, of Luke Skywalker fame, has re-invented himself as the man/cartoon character with a hundred voices)? Please, share your favourite voice actors from any and all decades: the original "man with a thousand voices" - Mel Blanc; radio top-40 DJ and lovable scaredy-cat, Casey Kasem; plus the man who is every other character in Springfield, Dan Castellaneta, and many much more! (such as Billy West, Jess Harnell, Tara Strong, April Winchell, Nancy Cartwright, Dom DeLuise, Joe Alaskey, Jeremy Irons, Christopher Sabat, Eric Stuart & Dan Green!)

I'm merely looking for interest, intimate examples, and a conversational tone to be seeded from this initial idea.
I really love recognising a character's voice in another alternate (animated) universe, as it puts my mind in a racing (but backburner) quest to try to reveal the name and previous portrayals attached.


I have much more to say, but it is not yet fleshed out accordingly, so for the moment, I yield to any willing commentary...
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-- to note: initial idea for topic creation - 20100716 (detailed)

 

not much time right now to do more than just type names but my personal list includes people like Mel Blanc, Harlow Wilcox, Don Wilson, John Dehner, and Bill Conrad.
Going beyond people from the 1930-1960 radio years, I have to think longer for that list.

 

Here's something I found a few months back that a few of you might enjoy.


It's the Star Wars Trilogy like you've never heard it before! Join voice actors
Billy West, Tara Strong, Maurice LaMarche, John DiMaggio, Kevin Conroy,
Jess Harnell and Rob Paulsen as they re-create the magic of the Star Wars films,
albeit in their own special way! You never know what you'll hear when this cast gets together.


-- due courtesy to firefly, who makes it so.

 

Billy West doing Tony Soprano is classic. Tara Strong doing the My little Pony voices in that scene is great, I watch some of those on Netflix with my younger girls.

 

[Artist Feature] Jim Cummings

Born in 1952, Jim grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, and eventually moved to New Orleans.
There he designed Mardi Gras floats, was a singer, door-to-door salesman, and a Louisiana
riverboat deckhand. He later married and moved to Anaheim, California, where he managed
a video store in the early 1980s, before launching his voice-acting career in late 1984; where
he started playing Lionel from the program "Dumbo's Circus" (1985).​

[wiki.]
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[Artist Feature] Billy West

(might actually be a good idea to read the comments, in order to avoid confusion)


[wiki.] + [slashdot.]

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not very informative, but it does show his range of character voices, ones he originated, and ones he took over.

 

Hi, Jetée

Peter Ustinov is one of my favourites. I think it was his ability to sketch a wide variety of characters what was one of the foundations of my own acting and talking-book style.

Here is a video of him. The 'story' in which he does some voice acting starts around 2:20

 

750,000 television spots, 5,000 movie trailers, 1 voice, Don LaFontaine
has the most recognizable voice in the entertainment biz.

Primer (per wiki)

Donald Leroy "Don" LaFontaine (August 26, 1940 – September 1, 2008) was an American voice actor famous for recording more than 5,000 film trailers and hundreds of thousands of television advertisements, network promotions, and video game trailers. His nicknames included "Thunder Throat" and "The Voice of God". He became identified with the phrase "In a world…", which has been used in movie trailers so frequently that it has become a cliché. He parodied his career several times, most recently in commercials for GEICO insurance and the Mega Millions lottery game.

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+ bonus: Hey! It's That Show! (click the link below to listen)

[audible] The '92 Dream Team (audio vault segment; kidding around with memorable vocal performers)

 

That picture is misleading, whoever created it. West did the voice of Zim for one pilot episode of Invader Zim that never aired. They ended up choosing Richard Horvitz to voice Zim.

 

I actually chose to subtly hint at that, as it is a point made quite clear very soon in the comments to which the image is attached (I believe it might be from reddit, those comments)

If I had the time and druthers, I could possible make the image three times more reference-laden, but I already spend around ~12 minutes per TFPost composing, editing and finalizing, so adding in image-chopping and uplaoding and the such and such, it will overload me into despair.


Speaking of which... (don't despair) Catching Up with Voice Actor Billy West - PASTE Interview

READ MORE...

 

It's like you're the Mark Z. Danielewski of TFP.

And by creating or republishing that picture with the image of Zim, you're helping add to the anti-history problem that I'm currently combating with my thesis.

 

Jesus Christ, Poetry... the man is reposting images and linking their sources in the hope of stimulating conversation. Granted, there is very little conversation because most of us are afraid to approach his particular format, but he's hardly shitting on your heart by republishing an 8% incorrect graphic featuring a cartoon character that most of us born in the '80s barely recognize. I'm surprised you're not clobbering him with the Pop Up Video factoid that Mel Blanc did the voice of Bugs Bunny for a gajillion friggin' years and that Billy West hardly deserves credit. Leave Jetee alone!

 

1. I'm lazy about my clobbering.
2. (purposefully left blank)
3. You just like him because he takes as long to craft a post as you do.
4. Chill.

 

Was I dissed here, previously, Poetry / Plan9? (the Danielewski reference must be the source, and consternation, of the debate - zoomed thru my hat)

Clarification: You are correct that Richard Horvitz (additionally known as the recognizable voice of Dag, from Nickelodeon's Angry Beavers cartoon) was the mainstay character portrayal voice for the duration of the short-lived series Invader Zim (cool, unexpected coincidence: not counting the pilot, the series lasted as long as most traditional two-season Japanese animes). It does not discount the fact that Billy West was the "original" voice and choice for the Alien Zim persona, as portrayed in the pilot; yet the creator (Vasquez) and West, through collaboration and long talks, both felt that West's voice was too identifiable with past characters, and it detracted from the show (by way of fanboys like me who try to pinpoint recognizble voice actors' names in new series). This is the point in the porduction run when Horvitz stepped in, to assume the role.

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Moving on (I've been clubbed on before, none moreso by myself, the self-pitying personage)

[Artist Feature] Phil LaMarr

this might be the last voice-actor image-collage that was left in my notes. tidy (perhaps you'll suggest I create my own?)

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to (personal) note:
If it need be explained for the umpteenth time, I take ages to think. I'm empty-headed and without a care most of my sorrowful days.
However, if given an impetus, or a certain reminder, I can jump at the chance to spark up my mind-cogs.
Therefore, the way I try to maintain a healthy level of discourse is to evoke a sense of awe and ponderance through an audience; and if the participants are willing, their subsequent responses and thoughts on the subject will put me in motion to a rolling conversation, so long as they give a voice to the topic, idea, article or recent event I've outlayed in the original publication.
However, seeing as most of my heavier topics of discussion are left amongst the tumbleweeds, I have come to rely on the fallback of visual splendors, as I feel those are the best way to capture a passerby's attention (and most other online news orgs and blogs agree with me in this respect; nary one of the 349 articles I've snipped since Friday had left blank the space below the title article and byline - meaning: each and every net [read of interest] I subscribe to also believe in the power of topic-tures).

So, forgive me for being lazy enough to continue my endeavor to try to pass the unexpected trivialities and mundane moorings I come across daily, without altering or improving upon the original source (though I disagree with this, as I spend an inordinate fixture of time fact-/cross-checking my various sources to produce a pristine portrayal of whatever it is fits inside the segmentation, including the relevant, cutting out the fat, and presenting an appealing orientation).

I do this mostly as a way to save my interests, but if I can share them those that can appreciate my discoveries, then that can only equate to doubly good (I'm no hotshot in math, tho). Any one willing to provide me with a righteous synonym for finally? Whether you nod in agreement and silently back away, or are incensed enough to take the ~25 seconds to reply in vehement contradiction, I appreciate most feedback I receive (as it reaffirms that I am not yet dead.)

 

The Danielewski was an observation, though I could have drawn from other, more accurate, references. He's a nice guy, very smart, very well read.

It sounds like you're taking this from news articles and Wikipedia, which are never as reliable as the sources themselves. Since I'm going to be spending the next several days working directly with a number of the voice actors from IZ as well as the writers and creator, please believe me when I say that there were three pilot episodes, West voicing one, Horvitz voicing another, and another man whose name I cannot remember (but, with a phone call, could be updated), voiced the third. They chose Horvitz out of those three.

This more immediate knowledge is why I am continuing on this discussion. In one of my many occupations, I work with voice actors. I would delve into your other topics, some of which are of interest to me, but I have a very busy, active life and do not have the time to engage in as many discussions as you seem able to juggle.

As for the personal note, among other things, I'm an English grad student. I read enough of this prose to drown a cow.

 

To further clarify:

In response to your queries, Poetry, I am currently tracking the relevant information regarding Billy West's identification as Invader Zim from three separate sources: the DVD commentary from the Invader Zim boxset (in which he does appear, albeit, as some would refer, in a cameo role. Re: I've only seen the two pilot eps. of IZ, but I'll cede to your affirmed knowledge that there was yet one more) ; additionally, I cull superfluous quotes from genre-specific sources (wiki, anime newsnetwork,BCDB, Don Markstein's Toonopedia, etc.) ; and The Magic Behind The Voices Anthology. I identify my posting process in two manners: the "relay" (the post, picture, video, or article) and the "resources" (fact-/cross-checking its validity through numerous channels, to ensure what I identify to the audience is wholly-integral, and correct)

Futhermore, I do not believe we are disagreeing in any manner, other than what you choose to emphasise is tangential (yet wholly more relevant) to what was originally shown. To re-iterate, I do agree with you that the image featuring West's voice characterisation compendium is a tad bit misleading regarding the very issue you chose to identify; but that is why I added the parenthetical caveat that digesting the whole of the information from the source is the best way to go about enjoying/knowing the whole story. Additionally, though it need not be said, I did not create the image. I don't even have the time to get home nightly, so spending the requisite time to improve upon another's ideation is not really what keeps me fueled. Crediting and showcasing the efforts of others fulfills me more intensely, than say, bubble-popping the irrelevant additionals found in the process.

I am not sure why you believe this pertains, but on a daily basis, whensoever I am able, I post in threes.
I am glad (sad?) that you are so full-filled in life.

However, if you are indeed going to be within the same walls as the original co-conspirators of the Invader Zim team, then I say, bully for you. Please extend my regards. (I am horrible at interview-type questions, so I say, in addition, if such is what you will be facilitating, good luck.) Oh. If you already know this, then please to share; but if not, could you find the opportunity to ask if all the penciling, rendering and colouring was done "in-house", meaning that it was not exported to another studio and/or international production company (and also: with-/out aid of computer graphics?)

Which prose?

As I've said elsewhere: Nothing is so obvious that it's obvious. When someone says that something is obvious, it seems almost certain that it is anything but obvious - even to them. The use of the word "obvious" indicates the absence of a logical argument - an attempt to convince the reader by asserting the truth of something by saying it a little louder.

—Errol Morris​