Narrators and Voice-over Specialists of note

[Zeldar]

The voice of F. Murray Abraham narrating an eposode of Nature is wafting in from the other room and it makes me curious how many well-established voices keep coming up in such settings and in commercials and PSAs.

Help me name some of the more recognizable ones working today.

Peter Coyote
Alec Baldwin
David McCullough
Michael C. Hall

[Zeldar]

Other names to add appear on this list at Nature > Season 28 and there are several woman whose names I wasn't able to pull out of thin air.

[pseudotriton ruber ruber]

The ubiquitous Dunald Sutherland.

[Fear Itself]

Patrick Stewart

[Zeldar]

Morgan Freeman
Robert Redford

[cochrane]

Does Mike Rowe count? Even without his Ford commercials and "Dirty Jobs," he has been a familiar narrator of programs, most notably "Deadliest Catch." His voice has been familiar to me for years.

William Shatner narrates many science specials, as do Avery Brooks and Michael Dorn. Their voices are instantly recognizable. I have also heard Harry Shearer narrate a few programs.

Sigourney Weaver has also narrated quite a few nature shows.

[Zeldar]

Originally Posted by cochrane

Does Mike Rowe count? Even without his Ford commercials and "Dirty Jobs," he has been a familiar narrator of programs, most notably "Deadliest Catch." His voice has been familiar to me for years.

Yes, indeed! In fact, I'm hoping by way of this thread to put names with some of those voices that keep coming up in so many places. I've done some preliminary poking around at Wikipedia with no great luck for lists of well-known voices.

Nova and other PBS shows have some I would love to be able to associate a name with.

[etv78]

Tom Selleck

[Feyrat]

Jim Dale!!

[blondebear]

The late great George Page.

Werner Herzog -- he sort of deserves his own category.

[etv78]

Sam Waterston on PBS.

[Little Nemo]

The Voice: James Earl Jones

[Little Nemo]

Gene Hackman does a lot of voice work for commercials. He's voiced ads for CNN, GTE, Lowes, Oppenheimer Funds, and United Airlines.

[postcards]

Brooks Moore. (How It's Made).

[Flyer]

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Don LaFontaine yet. He truly deserves his own category.

[Fear Itself]

Originally Posted by Flyer

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Don LaFontaine yet. He truly deserves his own category.

That would be the "Posthumous" category.

[Slithy Tove]

Opening up the posthumous category full throttle:

Rod Serling (Jacques Cousteau)
Richard Basehart
Olivier (The World at War)

Alexander Scorby (classy voice-overs in the 1960's)

Another ubiquitous classy voice-over from then; I can't remember his name, but he played Woody Allen's lawyer in "The Front" (not Stephen Boyd, but his voice was similar).

[fiddlesticks]

Liev Schreiber has an extensive record of doing PBS voiceover work, Nova and Nature in particular. He's also the go-to guy for HBO sports documentaries too.

[Unauthorized Cinnamon]

Last week my daughter was watching a NatGeo nature special, and the narrator sounded so familiar, I had to go and look it up. Turns out it was Richard Kiley, and I recognized him from Jurassic Park. I had to chuckle as I thought that the nature special had spared no expense!

[Kozmik]

Originally Posted by Slithy Tove

Opening up the posthumous category full throttle:

Rod Serling (Jacques Cousteau)
Richard Basehart
Olivier (The World at War)

Alexander Scorby (classy voice-overs in the 1960's)

Another ubiquitous classy voice-over from then; I can't remember his name, but he played Woody Allen's lawyer in "The Front" (not Stephen Boyd, but his voice was similar).

How could you forget Richard Kiley?

[Zeldar]

Originally Posted by Slithy Tove

Opening up the posthumous category full throttle:

<< snip >>

Another ubiquitous classy voice-over from then; I can't remember his name, but he played Woody Allen's lawyer in "The Front" (not Stephen Boyd, but his voice was similar).

Would the cast list at The Front (1976) help with the name? I'd lean toward Herschel Bernardi since I think I remember his voice-over work a little.

Some great ones have been mentioned, y'all! Thanks for the help.

[johnpost]

Don Pardo started doing voice over in radio.

Wiliam Conrad did much voice over and acting starting in radio.

[Slithy Tove]

It wasn't Herschel Bernardi, whom I remember from his sitcom "Barney."

Another one was Joe Sirolla, who voiced-over all over the place back then. He can be heard in the old Wendy's spots.

Speaking of Barneys, Hal Linden did a lot of voice work. As a TV addict but ignorant of Broadway, when he first appeared as Barney Miller, my reaction was "so that's what he looks like."

And of course, there was Orson Welles.

[Fear Itself]

Originally Posted by Slithy Tove

And of course, there was Orson Welles.

Commercials for green peas haven't been the same without him.

[Nava]

Probably the most famous voiceover artist (as well as radio and TV host) in Spain is Constantino Romero. His natural speaking voice is so deep that for most of his work he pitches it higher. Some of his dubbees include Arnold Schwarzenegger, Clint Eastwood, Anthony Hopkins, James Earl Jones and Roger Moore.

There was a PhD thesis years ago which showed that, for actors which have been dubbed by him and by someone else, movies where they got dubbed by him did much better. What's not clear is whether this is only because of his voice, or because anybody who can't be bothered pay for him will also be scrounging in other production items.

[JoelUpchurch]

Here is a useful list.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_voice_actors

Personally my favorite voice over was Barbara Feldon.