50 Fun Facts About Voice Actors

Walt Disney himself was the original voice of which cartoon star, a role he kept into the 1940s?

Mickey Mouse was voiced by Walt Disney himself through 1946, when studio veteran Jimmy MacDonald took over. Walt also supplied Minnie's voice in the early cartoons.

Which actress went to audition for Lisa Simpson but asked to read for her brother Bart instead?

Nancy Cartwright found Bart the more interesting part when she arrived, and creator Matt Groening gave her the role on the spot. She went on to voice the ten-year-old boy for decades.

Which voice actor behind Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck was nicknamed the Man of a Thousand Voices?

Mel Blanc lay in a coma after a 1961 car crash until a neurologist addressed him as Bugs Bunny, and he answered in the rabbit's voice.

Which actor dubbed Darth Vader's lines yet asked to go uncredited on the first two Star Wars films?

James Earl Jones recorded the dialogue in post-production because David Prowse, who wore the suit on set, had a broad West Country accent. Jones finally took a screen credit on the third film.

Which Saturday Night Live star had recorded most of Shrek's dialogue when he died in 1997?

Chris Farley had recorded nearly all of the ogre's lines before his death. Mike Myers then took the part and insisted on a complete script rewrite, so none of the first version was used.

Susan Bennett's 2005 recordings became the first American voice of which virtual assistant?

Siri arrived on the iPhone 4S in 2011, built from phrases Bennett had read for a speech-software company years earlier. Apple has never confirmed whose voice it used.

Which comedian won a special Golden Globe for voicing the Genie in Disney's Aladdin?

Robin Williams improvised so freely that his animator chose which impressions made the film. A row over Disney's advertising then kept him out of the first sequel.

Which Star Wars actor became the voice of the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series?

Mark Hamill went on to play the Joker across cartoons, films and video games, and the role won him a BAFTA Game Award.

Which film star and real-life racing driver voiced Doc Hudson in Pixar's Cars?

Paul Newman made the retired race car his last major film role and his only animated one. Archive recordings brought the character back in Cars 3, almost nine years after his death.

Which radio host of American Top 40 was also the original voice of Shaggy in Scooby-Doo?

Casey Kasem began voicing Shaggy in 1969, a year before his countdown show started, and also played the Boy Wonder in Super Friends.

Mike Myers re-recorded all of his Shrek dialogue to give the ogre which accent?

Scottish speech reminded Myers of the voice his mother used when she told him bedtime stories, and he had already used the accent in earlier comedies.

Which comedian turned down Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story, then voiced Mike Wazowski in Monsters, Inc.?

Billy Crystal came to regret passing on the space ranger once the series took off. Pixar later cast him as the one-eyed green monster instead.

Jim Hanks often fills in for his famous brother Tom as the voice of which Toy Story character?

Woody is voiced by Jim Hanks in most Toy Story video games, spin-offs and talking toys. The resemblance runs deep: Jim also served as his brother's body double in Forrest Gump.

John Ratzenberger, the voice of Hamm in Toy Story, first found fame as Cliff Clavin on which sitcom?

Cheers had no Cliff Clavin until Ratzenberger created the character at his audition. After the sitcom ended he voiced a part in film after film for Pixar, from a yeti to a truck.

Which comedian voiced both Mushu the dragon in Mulan and Donkey in Shrek?

Eddie Murphy won an Annie Award for the talkative donkey, and the part also brought him a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Which Ghostbusters star voiced Garfield, the lasagna-loving cat, on the big screen in 2004?

Bill Murray's casting completed a swap: Lorenzo Music, the cat's long-time cartoon voice, had played Murray's character Peter Venkman in The Real Ghostbusters.

Which Broadway star of Rent and Wicked provides the voice of Elsa in Disney's Frozen?

Idina Menzel won a Tony as Wicked's Elphaba a decade before Frozen, and her recording of Let It Go reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100.

Which talk-show host voiced Dory, the forgetful blue fish of Pixar's Finding Nemo?

Ellen DeGeneres won an Annie Award for the part and came back 13 years later to lead the sequel, Finding Dory.

Which Oscar-winning British actor voiced the scheming lion Scar in Disney's The Lion King in 1994?

Jeremy Irons had won Best Actor for Reversal of Fortune only a few years earlier, yet the villainous lion became one of his best-known roles.

Which action star voiced the title robot in The Iron Giant years before playing Groot?

Vin Diesel voiced the metal giant in 1999, two years before The Fast and the Furious made him an action hero.

Which voice actor plays SpongeBob SquarePants and also appears on screen as Patchy the Pirate?

Tom Kenny pitched the sponge's voice somewhere between a child and an adult. His other roles include the Ice King in Adventure Time and the Mayor in The Powerpuff Girls.

Which Family Guy cast member voices Peter, Stewie and Brian Griffin as well as Glenn Quagmire?

Seth MacFarlane also created the series, and he adds newsreader Tom Tucker and Tucker's son Jake to his list of voices.

Which animator voices both leads of Beavis and Butt-Head and Hank Hill in King of the Hill?

Mike Judge grew the MTV series out of his own short film Frog Baseball, and on King of the Hill he also voices Hank's neighbour Boomhauer.

Which actor voices both spy Sterling Archer in Archer and burger chef Bob Belcher in Bob's Burgers?

H. Jon Benjamin led both series in the same years, and Vulture named him 2014's male comedy performer of the year for the pair.

Which voice actor plays Fry, Professor Farnsworth and Doctor Zoidberg on Futurama?

Billy West voices so many Futurama characters that whole conversations are him talking to himself. Earlier he played both title roles in The Ren & Stimpy Show.

Which actress voices Timmy Turner in The Fairly OddParents and Bubbles in The Powerpuff Girls?

Tara Strong, born in Toronto, is also Raven in Teen Titans, Batgirl in The New Batman Adventures and baby Dil Pickles in Rugrats.

Which actor voices Moe the bartender, Chief Wiggum and Comic Book Guy on The Simpsons?

Hank Azaria began with Moe, re-recording a voice another actor had already taped, and built up a whole roster of Springfield residents from there.

Which voice actor has played Fred since Scooby-Doo began in 1969 and later voiced Scooby too?

Frank Welker first auditioned to play the dog but was cast as Fred instead. He finally took over as the Great Dane in 2002, and he also voices Megatron in Transformers.

Which voice actor based Optimus Prime on his older brother, a Marine who served in Vietnam?

Peter Cullen's brother told him before the audition that real heroes are tough enough to be gentle, and that advice became the Autobot leader's voice.

Which Juilliard-trained actor voiced the hero of Batman: The Animated Series and the Arkham games?

Kevin Conroy gave Batman and Bruce Wayne two different voices, an idea he took from Leslie Howard's double life in the 1934 film The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Which voice actor has been both Winnie the Pooh and Tigger for Disney since the late 1980s?

Jim Cummings took over as the bear for the 1988 series The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, then alternated with Paul Winchell as Tigger before replacing him fully.

Who was the voice of Nintendo's Mario from 1991 until stepping down in 2023?

Charles Martinet turned up to the audition at the last minute, as the casting team was packing away its equipment. He went on to voice Luigi, Wario and Waluigi too.

Which voice actor plays Nathan Drake in Uncharted and Desmond Miles in Assassin's Creed?

Nolan North was a soap actor on Port Charles until the show ended in 2003, then moved into games, where he also voices Deadpool.

Which actress won two BAFTA Games Awards for playing Ellie in The Last of Us video games?

Ashley Johnson gave Ellie both her voice and her movements through motion capture. In the live-action TV adaptation she switched roles to play Ellie's mother, Anna.

Which actress voices the female Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect video game series?

Jennifer Hale was recognised by Guinness World Records in 2013 as the most prolific female video game voice actor.

Rock radio disc jockey Steve Downes is best known as the voice of which armoured video game hero?

Master Chief became Downes's role when Martin O'Donnell, at work on Halo: Combat Evolved for Bungie, invited him to voice the game's hero. He kept his radio shows going alongside it.

Which voice of Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid also wrote the first X-Men film?

David Hayter won a Saturn Award for the X-Men script and later co-wrote X2 and Watchmen, all while voicing the gravelly stealth hero.

Which Goodfellas star voiced gangster Tommy Vercetti in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City?

Ray Liotta described building a brand-new character by voice alone as challenging, and reviewers singled out his charismatic performance.

Which film star plays rock star Johnny Silverhand in the video game Cyberpunk 2077?

Keanu Reeves was new to video games when the studio approached him in 2018, yet Silverhand ended up with more dialogue than any character but the player's own.

Actress Masako Nozawa has been the Japanese voice of which spiky-haired anime hero since 1986?

Goku has been Nozawa's role since Dragon Ball was first animated, and she also voices his sons Gohan and Goten. Her work on the games has earned her two Guinness World Records.

Scarlett Johansson is never seen in which 2013 film, voicing an operating system named Samantha?

Her was first shot with Samantha Morton performing the role on set from a soundproof booth. Johansson replaced her in post-production and re-recorded the part.

Canadian stage actor Douglas Rain supplied the calm voice of which film computer in 1968?

HAL 9000 got Rain's voice after Stanley Kubrick heard him narrate a short documentary called Universe. Rain taped every line in post-production, in ten hours over two days.

Oscar winner Mercedes McCambridge dubbed the voice of the demon in which 1973 horror film?

The Exorcist's director had McCambridge bound to a chair during recording, so the demon would sound as if it were struggling against restraints.

Which ghost singer dubbed Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady and Natalie Wood in West Side Story?

Marni Nixon's singing was concealed from audiences, and on West Side Story the studio even kept it secret from Natalie Wood herself.

Which actor narrates the English-language release of the documentary March of the Penguins?

Morgan Freeman's single third-person narration replaced the French original's approach, in which actors spoke as the penguins themselves.

Which British actor won two Grammys narrating the US audiobooks of all seven Harry Potter novels?

Jim Dale read the American editions, while Stephen Fry recorded the same seven books for British listeners.

Which actor was the unseen narrator, the older Ted Mosby, on How I Met Your Mother?

Bob Saget voiced the future Ted without a screen credit, telling the story to his children from the year 2030 while Josh Radnor played the younger Ted on screen.

Which voice-over artist nicknamed Thunder Throat recorded more than 5,000 film trailers?

Don LaFontaine was also known as The Voice of God and The King of Movie Trailers, and he reached a wider public late in life through GEICO insurance commercials.

What do sound editors call a crowd's background murmur, recorded by a group of actors?

Walla is said to date from early radio, when a few people repeating that one sound passed for a chattering crowd. Modern groups improvise real conversations instead.

Which three-letter abbreviation means re-recording an actor's lines in a sound booth after filming?

ADR stands for automated dialogue replacement, once known as looping. It rescues takes spoiled on set by noise such as wind or passing traffic.