Lists you can make:
10 Best Male Speaking Voices
10 Best Female Speaking Voices
10 Best Speaking Voices Period
10 Worst Male Speaking Voices
10 Worst Female Speaking Voices
10 Worst Speaking Voices Period
Feel free to make other lists of your choice, such as Best/Worst Voices Living Today, etc.
You don’t have to include ten people in any of your lists. If it’s all you can do, include more or less.
You don’t have to include them in any order.
I’ll start.
Best Male Speaking Voices from Youngest to Oldest:
Matthew MacFadyen
Will Arnett
Kelsey Grammer
Geoffrey Rush
Ron Perlman
Jeremy Irons
Kevin Kline
Tom Netherton (no one’s ever heard of him)
Willard White (an operatic bass)
Sam Elliott (the southern accent and mumbling sometimes bothers me, though)
Harrison Ford
Michael Gambon
Tom Brokaw
Peter Jennings
Dustin Hoffman
Ned Beatty
Morgan Freeman
George Takei
David Hartman
Tom Baker
Ted Cassidy
Ron Gans
Robert MacNeil
James Earl Jones
Geoffrey Holder
Fred Gwynne
Leslie Nielsen
Fritz Weaver
George Kennedy
William Marshall (the actor who played Blacula)
Cliff Robertson
Ricardo Montalban
Orson Welles
Lorne Greene
Thurl Ravenscroft
Don Ameche
George Sanders
Paul Robeson
Morris Robinson (an operatic age; I don’t know his age, so I placed him last)
Best Female Voices from Youngest to Oldest (unfortunately, female voices don’t affect me the same way male voices do, so I could think of very few):
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Jodie Foster
Kathleen Turner when she was younger
Sigourney Weaver
Anne Bancroft
10 Worst Male Voices:
David Archuleta
Josh Peck
Jesse Eisenberg
Michael Pitt when he was younger and horribly squeaky; his voice is much deeper now, but the mumbling still gets on my nerves
Jaleel White
Casey Affleck
Tobey Maguire
Ben Affleck
Jay-Z
Cuba Gooding, Jr.
David Schwimmer
Moses Kinikini - a contestant on The Biggest Loser
John Pinette
Charlie Kaufman
Ethan Coen
John Turturro
Wayne Knight
Bobby Slayton - the worst voice in history
John Travolta
Steven Tyler
Bill Clinton
Henry Paulson
Rod Stewart
George Lucas
Joe Pesci
Barney Frank
Dick Vitale
Reynolds Price (whose voice I used to like, but near his death it became unbearably gravelly)
Myron Cope
Mel Brooks
Eli Wallach
Brett Hoebel (a trainer on The Biggest Loser)
Worst Female Voices from Youngest to Oldest:
Rachael Ray
Sarah Palin
Rosie O’Donnell
Fran Drescher
Roseanne Barr
Joan Rivers
Came in to say Diane Rehm. Though I like her show. And sympathize with her problem.
Dr. Jan Garavaglia. She has a show on Discovery Health, called “Dr. G, Medical Examiner.” I constantly wonder how they picked her to star in this kind of show. She has a nasal whine that is quite grating. I have trouble believing she is the most telegenic medical examiner out there.
Back way back, there was a thread on these boards in which people posted clips of their voices. Some female Doper has the most glorious speaking voice, but I can’t remember precisely who it was. Possibly jsgoddess? ISTR she was from the eastern kinda southern part of the U.S. Whoever it was, I was instantly and insanely envious.
Don’t really have a list, but I like Richard and David Attenborough, Carl Sagan, and Paul Winfield (I think that’s his name–he narrates City Confidential on A&E).
My goodness! I will offer a flattered but provisional thanks since I’m not sure I’m the one you were talking about. I have definitely taken part in threads where we posted clips and I am from Appalachian Ohio, so I might fit the bill. So thanks! Maybe!
