Edward Herrman (RIP)
C’mon, people: Christopher Walken!
The distintive voice in that movie for me was Michael Wincott. He’s also in The Crow, Strange Days, and Alien: Resurrection.
If you’ve heard them enough times in enough things, and you know it’s them, you can’t not hear them in other things.
I heard Norah Jones on A Prairie Home Companion, and was just astonished at what a lovely speaking voice she has.
The first thought I had when I read the thread title was James Gammon who had two great lines in two different movies that were personal favorites.
In Major League he was a tire salesman being offered the job of managing in the big leagues for the Cleveland Indians and says: “You’ll have to call back, I got a guy on hold who wants to buy a new set of whitewalls.” And in Silverado he has this great line: “I think there are just a couple a guys up there and this asshole (points thumb at Scott Glenn) is one of ‘em.”
Then I recently caught the last half hour of The Lady Eve on TV and heard Eugene Pallette’s voice. He was not on screen, but I instantly knew it was him, the clergyman who also happened to be a fencing master from both The Adventures of Robin Hood and The Mark of Zorro (which are practically the same movie with only the male and female lead actors being changed). I would guess he has the most distinctive voice I have ever heard and would further guess that anyone who is familiar with his work would agree it is unique.
As an afterthought, Basil Rathbone was in both movies also and his voice was quite distinctive also. It seems someone else mentioned this upthread but I can say for sure.
Well no one mentioned Basil Rathbone in this thread, but RealityChuck beat me to the punch with Eugene Pallette by five days. Well done sir.
Alec Guinness had a distinctive voice, even though he had remarkable range as an actor.
It is interesting to see that both Ewan McGregor and Gary Oldman used voices resembling Sir Alec’s when they played roles which he had made famous, as Obi Wan Kenobi and George Smiley respectively.
There was never any mistaking Garrison Keillor’s voice either.
Jack Nicholson
Paul Lynde
Jack Benny
Mick Jagger
Louis Armstrong
Bob Dylan
Adam West
James Shatner
John O’Hurley, better known in our house as, "That Dog Show Guy."
Could we get any entries in a thread about Actors/performers with non-distinctive voices?
Harpo Marx was mentioned earlier, but strictly speaking about ‘voice’ alone then all the silent performers have the same non-distinctive voice. Even Ben Stein who developed the world’s dullest voice, “Bueller…Bueller…”, has a distinctive voice because it is so dull.
Sam Worthington. He’s got to be the least distinctive A-lister ever.
Ok, I don’t know if he was ever really considered an A-lister, but he was the lead in a number of high-profile blockbusters, and just…nothing about him seemed distinctive. Voice, appearance, mannerisms, acting skill…he wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t really good, he was just…there.
David Attenborough is an interesting case. I don’t think there is anything particularly distinctive about his voice. It’s a pleasant older English gentleman’s voice. But because I’ve heard it so many times on documentaries I will always be able to pick it out.
Let us not forget he also played Nash Bridges’ dad on Nash Bridges.
what he has…is a very specific…modulation, of tone…and pace.
I think some of the actors upthread qualify. I mean, any voice can be distinctive if you’ve listened to them long enough, but Aaron Paul (Jesse from Breaking Bad) was mentioned earlier as having a distinctive voice… I just don’t see it.
Similarly Mila Kunis (also mentioned earlier as having a ‘distinctive’ voice). I’m sure if you played a 5 second clip of her, Spencer Grammer (Summer from Rick and Morty), Kristen Bell, and Anna Kendrick, I could probably sort them all out, especially if I could hear it a few times, but I’m not confident.
I didn’t see Walter Brennan.
“R”, as in “Robert Loggia”.
