Morbid question but what happens when a voice actor dies? Or are there multiple people that can voice characters?
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Voice actors death?
- Thread starter disney4life2008
- Start date
ShoalFox
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
I would think it all depends on the situation since your question is a bit vague. For example, Chris Farley was supposed to be the original voice of Shrek but died before he completed recording. As a result, Mike Myers was brought in to replace him and all of Farley's lines were thrown out. For recurring characters, the studio would almost certainly be able to find a replacement voice actor. It would probably go by the same principle for when they can't get the same voice actor to do their character again (i.e., Robin Williams refusing to do Genie for Aladdin 2 and for the TV series, so Dan Castellaneta was hired to replace him).
5thGenTexan
Well-Known Member
Just an example from Wikipedia..
Some of Cummings' earliest vocal work was at Disney, where he replaced Hal Smith as the voice of Winnie-the-Pooh in 1988 (Smith had taken over the role from longtime actor Sterling Holloway in 1981). He began voicing Tigger in 1989, taking over for Paul Winchell (though Winchell voiced Tigger four more times, the last time being in February 1999) after Winchell died in 2005.
I'm sure there are people who's life ambition is to do voice work and they practice and get their foot in the door with small unknown characters and then work their way up.
Matthew Lillard on gy:
POP CULTURE ZOO: To start of with, what was the path that lead from you playing gy in the live-action films to now being the official voice in the new animated series?
MATTHEW LILLARD: It was one of those things. I’ve never done a “voice” in my life, I’m not that guy, I don’t have those set of tools. When the audition came up to do the live action version I found myself walking around a park screaming myself horse because gy talks in that part of your voice where, if you have a rough voice [as gy] you sound like gy a little. I flew down and auditioned, I got the part and then I had to figure out how to do it without screwing up my voice by screaming for an hour straight before I worked. I eventually figured out how to do the voice without destroying myself as a human being and since it’s not really a skill that many possess they sought me out to continue to do it. But it was one of those things I put out into the ether. I loved Casey [Kasem], I grew up on the show and I heard they were doing new cartoons and so I put it out there that if they needed a gy I would love to do it. Eventually they came to me with an offer to do one of the DVDs and from there I said to them up front that I would love to be the voice of gy if you’ll have me and if Casey is done doing the voice. I told them I would love to be the guy to do it for a long time. And that’s kind of how I got here.
http://whatjoewrites.com/2010/07/matthew-lillard-talks-gy-rogers-and-scooby-doo/
Some of Cummings' earliest vocal work was at Disney, where he replaced Hal Smith as the voice of Winnie-the-Pooh in 1988 (Smith had taken over the role from longtime actor Sterling Holloway in 1981). He began voicing Tigger in 1989, taking over for Paul Winchell (though Winchell voiced Tigger four more times, the last time being in February 1999) after Winchell died in 2005.
I'm sure there are people who's life ambition is to do voice work and they practice and get their foot in the door with small unknown characters and then work their way up.
Matthew Lillard on gy:
POP CULTURE ZOO: To start of with, what was the path that lead from you playing gy in the live-action films to now being the official voice in the new animated series?
MATTHEW LILLARD: It was one of those things. I’ve never done a “voice” in my life, I’m not that guy, I don’t have those set of tools. When the audition came up to do the live action version I found myself walking around a park screaming myself horse because gy talks in that part of your voice where, if you have a rough voice [as gy] you sound like gy a little. I flew down and auditioned, I got the part and then I had to figure out how to do it without screwing up my voice by screaming for an hour straight before I worked. I eventually figured out how to do the voice without destroying myself as a human being and since it’s not really a skill that many possess they sought me out to continue to do it. But it was one of those things I put out into the ether. I loved Casey [Kasem], I grew up on the show and I heard they were doing new cartoons and so I put it out there that if they needed a gy I would love to do it. Eventually they came to me with an offer to do one of the DVDs and from there I said to them up front that I would love to be the voice of gy if you’ll have me and if Casey is done doing the voice. I told them I would love to be the guy to do it for a long time. And that’s kind of how I got here.
http://whatjoewrites.com/2010/07/matthew-lillard-talks-gy-rogers-and-scooby-doo/
Matt_Black
Well-Known Member
A lot of the long-time voice actors working today are quite skilled at being sound-alikes for other actors who can't or won't reprise their roles. In addition to the aforementioned Jim Cummings, Corey Burton and Jeff Bennett are just two more examples of people who have taken over roles.