Impersonating voice overs

[jackdavinci]

The voice of the robot on Craig Ferg's talk show also does a pretty kick ass Morgan Freeman.

Which got me to thinking:

1) I guess there might be protection against a use of impersonation falsely claiming to be the actual person. But is there any protection against merely imitating a strongly recognizable voice?

2) Is there any value in hiring impersonators for voice over work rather than the actual actor? IOW, does Morgan get hired because people will think "hey, that's Morgan Freeman!" or just because he has a soothing voice? And does that translate into a large or small pay difference?

3) Do many impersonators get hired for real jobs unrelated to comedy? I imagine there might be a niche for video game adaptions but I'm thinking more in terms of non-identified voice overs.

[drastic_quench]

Joe Estevez, Martin Sheen's brother, does a lot of commercial voice over work because he sounds just like his bro.

[Gyrate]

UK insurance company More Than, which uses a voiceover actor who does the Morgan Freeman thing, lampshades this well. The gag is that at the end of the ad the camera pans over to the actor who is standing in some improbable location (e.g. on top of a doghouse holding a tuba) and you see it's a white guy in a bad suit who ends the monologue with "I'm More-Than Freeman."

[gaffa]

The voice of the robot on Craig Ferg's talk show also does a pretty kick ass Morgan Freeman.
I think the same guy did Freeman's voice on several episodes of Robot Chicken. Their Shawshank parody is a classic (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=138x9MCUjE0), and I don't think I've ever heard a more accurate vocal impression.

"I remember thinking 'That is the WHITEST son of a bitch I have ever seen'."

2) Is there any value in hiring impersonators for voice over work rather than the actual actor? IOW, does Morgan get hired because people will think "hey, that's Morgan Freeman!" or just because he has a soothing voice? And does that translate into a large or small pay difference?
Parody is protected. But I'm sure that Josh Robert Thompson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Robert_Thompson) would never accept a job that would deprive the real Morgan Freeman of work. Also, as Miller Beer found out, hire an Eric Clapton sound-alike, and you're going to wind up paying money to the real Eric Clapton. (What gets me is why they didn't just hire one of the old, broke-ass black bluesmen that Clapton spent his entire career imitating instead.)

3) Do many impersonators get hired for real jobs unrelated to comedy? I imagine there might be a niche for video game adaptions but I'm thinking more in terms of non-identified voice overs.
Thompson is a voice-over professional who also has a smaller career as an impersonator.

[Gyrate]

UK insurance company More Than, which uses a voiceover actor who does the Morgan Freeman thing, lampshades this well. The gag is that at the end of the ad the camera pans over to the actor who is standing in some improbable location (e.g. on top of a doghouse holding a tuba) and you see it's a white guy in a bad suit who ends the monologue with "I'm More-Than Freeman."It occurred to me after the fact that of course the damn things will be on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajsr4F-Hogk) (WARNING: contains basset hound).

[GuanoLad]

It occurred to me after the fact that of course the damn things will be on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajsr4F-Hogk) (WARNING: contains basset hound).Well there you go, that's Josh Robert Thompson, aka the voice of Geoff Peterson, the guy most of the posts so far have been talking about.

He once did his impression in front of Morgan Freeman himself on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and I think he was somewhat intimidated.

[Mr Shine]

UK insurance company More Than, which uses a voiceover actor who does the Morgan Freeman thing, lampshades this well. The gag is that at the end of the ad the camera pans over to the actor who is standing in some improbable location (e.g. on top of a doghouse holding a tuba) and you see it's a white guy in a bad suit who ends the monologue with "I'm More-Than Freeman."

I'd always assumed that was Morgan Freeman, overdubbing that guy. (To be fair though I'd heard the MoreThan ads on the radio hundreds of times and have only seen it on the TV a couple of times and the radio had convinced me it was indeed Mr. Freeman)

[Koxinga]

It occurred to me after the fact that of course the damn things will be on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajsr4F-Hogk) (WARNING: contains basset hound).

That sounds to me like a guy trying to sound like Morgan Freeman.

[C. Montgomery Burns]

I think that dubbed over profanity in TV cuts of movies sometimes use impersonators. Particularly if the real actor has died.

[TV time]

I wonder if they use an impersonator to do President Nixon's head on Futurma?

[CalMeacham]

Nicholas Meyer made the claim, in his TV movie The Night that Panicked America, that Orson Welles wanted to have an announcement by President Roosevelt during the infamous "War of the Worlds" broadcast, but that CBS wouldn't let him do it. So they said the announcement was from the Secretary of the Interior -- who sounded exactly like Roosevelt.

Although I'd heard the broadcast before, I'd never picked up on the resemblance, which was clearly intentional ("We'll say it's the Secretary, but everyone will know it's really FDR"), but the General Public , who heard hi all the time, would have picked up on it instantly.

[Koxinga]

I think that dubbed over profanity in TV cuts of movies sometimes use impersonators. Particularly if the real actor has died.

What a bunch of farging iceholes.

[C. Montgomery Burns]

Nicholas Meyer made the claim, in his TV movie The Night that Panicked America, that Orson Welles wanted to have an announcement by President Roosevelt during the infamous "War of the Worlds" broadcast, but that CBS wouldn't let him do it. So they said the announcement was from the Secretary of the Interior -- who sounded exactly like Roosevelt.

Although I'd heard the broadcast before, I'd never picked up on the resemblance, which was clearly intentional ("We'll say it's the Secretary, but everyone will know it's really FDR"), but the General Public , who heard hi all the time, would have picked up on it instantly.

Fans of old time radio will recognize the actor doing the FDR voice as Kenny Delmar, the voice of Senator Claghorn and an announcer on Fred Allen's show.

[Shoeless]

1) I guess there might be protection against a use of impersonation falsely claiming to be the actual person. But is there any protection against merely imitating a strongly recognizable voice?

Tom Waits (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Waits#Lawsuits), for one, has successfully sued companies who tried to use a Tom Waits sound-alike in their advertising.

[It's Not Rocket Surgery!]

This is related to the discussion:

Voiceover master Don LaFontaine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_LaFontaine) died in 2008. But I still hear movie trailers that sound like him. Since some of the trailers/ads have lines specific to the plot, someone must be impersonating Don. But who? As far as I know, it's not Pablo Francisco (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Francisco), who is known for his LaFontaine impression.

[Mahaloth]

This is related to the discussion:

Voiceover master Don LaFontaine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_LaFontaine) died in 2008. But I still hear movie trailers that sound like him. Since some of the trailers/ads have lines specific to the plot, someone must be impersonating Don. But who? As far as I know, it's not Pablo Francisco (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Francisco), who is known for his LaFontaine impression.

Can you show us a trailer that sounds like him?

[Kolak of Twilo]

That sounds to me like a guy trying to sound like Morgan Freeman.

Yeah, I have to agree. It doesn't quite work for me either.

[Marley23]

I think that's just an example of how much LaFontaine's style came to dominate movie voice overs. Some people sound a lot like him, but I don't think they're imitating him specifically.

[Koxinga]

I think that's just an example of how much LaFontaine's style came to dominate movie voice overs.

"In a world ... where one man's voice ... lives on, beyond the grave ..."

[RealityChuck]

That sounds to me like a guy trying to sound like Morgan Freeman.And not doing a very good job of it. Were people actually fooled by it for more than 20 seconds?

[Kamino Neko]

I wonder if they use an impersonator to do President Nixon's head on Futurma?

Nixon's Head, FTR, is played by Billy West. (Fry, Zapp Brannigan, Professor Farnsworth, Zoidberg, and a bunch of secondary characters - including several other Presidential Heads...his Clinton is way better than his Nixon.)

Voice actors who can mimic get a lot of call to use that talent. Celebrity parodies, filling in for other actors who've had to take time off/quit/have been fired/passed on, sequels and spin-offs where the original actor decided not to sign on... I can't say for sure, but I rather doubt that there are a significant number who make a career just out of mimicry, though.

[Koxinga]

One thing that annoyed me about Madagascar was that the penguin leader was clearly supposed to sound like Phil Hartman, but the producers didn't want to seem to acknowledge it.

[The Hamster King]

Do many impersonators get hired for real jobs unrelated to comedy? I imagine there might be a niche for video game adaptions but I'm thinking more in terms of non-identified voice overs.I once wrote some dialog for a minor character in a videogame with Patrick Warburton in mind, but when it came time for casting, we couldn't justify his rates. So we found an actor who would work for scale who could do a passable Warburton knock-off.

I think this happens fairly often. A role is created with a well-known voice as the model and then the casting director is told "Find us someone cheap who sounds kind of like X!"

[Marley23]

I think this happens fairly often. A role is created with a well-known voice as the model and then the casting director is told "Find us someone cheap who sounds kind of like X!"
It probably does. Types save a lot of time and effort.

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

his Clinton is way better than his Nixon.

Aroooo!

[Acsenray]

Tom Waits (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Waits#Lawsuits), for one, has successfully sued companies who tried to use a Tom Waits sound-alike in their advertising.

This is what I was going to mention. There's a pretty fine line here, but if you're doing it in such a way as to make people think the speaker is Mr. Famous So-and-So, then you're over the line.

[Randy Seltzer]

It's an interesting and somewhat unsettled question. We briefly studied the case of the Bette Midler Ford commercial (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCcQFjAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww2.bc.edu%2F~yen%2FTorts%2FMidler.pdf&ei=67nGTs2aMYLE2wXg7MHqDw&usg=AFQjCNEcbPN8_rZhV3TZ7PoULKAYG6tojQ&sig2=kIjhowgRCNBOi--AvPc0Dg[/url) back in law school (warning: PDF). In a nutshell, Ford wanted to use Midler's version of the song "Do You Wanna Dance?" in one of its commercials. Midler refused, saying that she didn't do commercials. So Ford hired one of Midler's backup singers, instructing her to do her best Bette Midler impression.

The case bounced around the courts for a while, but eventually a Federal appeals court found that Midler had what amounted to a property interest in her voice. However, the decision was highly fact-specific, which effectively means that it's unclear how much the idea applies to other situations.

[hogarth]

This is what I was going to mention. There's a pretty fine line here, but if you're doing it in such a way as to make people think the speaker is Mr. Famous So-and-So, then you're over the line.
My first thought was of Bette Midler vs. the Ford Motor Company (http://www.futureofthemusicbusiness.biz/2010/12/sound-alikes.html), another sound-alike lawsuit.

EDIT: ninja'ed!

[The Evil Prince Zorte]

A friend of mine has a brother who is a voice actor. He gets a lot of work because he can do a passable Don LaFountaine and others, without the premium rate. Which of course means he is wealthy rather than extremely wealthy. He also does a lot of cartoon and video game work as well. Being able to do impressions isn't as valuable on its own, but the kind of person who can do them would typically be capable of voicing a wide range of characters often within the same show.

As for using impressions of celebrities in commercials, I once saw one with a Don Knotts impression, with "celebrity voice implied" at the bottom of the screen the entire time. I don't know if that is enough to prevent legal action.

[gaffa]

Please check out the Robot Chicken clip. It's not clear if it's Josh Robert Thompson or Tom Kane, but it really is an amazing likeness. Here's another one (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXToalcqgvc&feature=sh_e_se&list=SL). I couldn't find a decent link to their March of the Penguins spoof.