I must say that, after looking at the names mentioned in this thread, I think very few of their voices are as distinctive as, say, Walter Brennan, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, or a host of other stars of the old days. So I agree with the OP that really unique voices seem to be out of style or something.
Don Knotts
Andy Griffith
James Garner
Joan Rivers
Roseanne Barr
Melanie Griffith (dayumn! It’s called a lower register!)
Danny Devito
David McCullough
Christine Schall has got a very distinctive voice and it’s well used in Bob’s Burgers, imo. I did miss that she was on the Simpsons this weekend – I couldn’t figure out who it was until the credits.
I strongly suspect it’s just because you’re more familiar with those stars.
Mike Rowe - mainly because I’ve heard his voice so much on Dirty Jobs, Deadliest Catch, Ford commercials, etc.
Yes, I was kind of thinking that might be the case.
Do any current actors have damaged voices like Andy Devine or Froggy(?) from one of those gang related series?
My problem is that while I may be very good at recognizing voices (and faces too for that matter), I suck at recalling names. So if I’m watching something and recognize the voice, I have to go through this whole seven degrees of separation routine to get to some other name or title that I do remember and then backtrack through IMDB to get to the name I am looking for. It is exasperating sometimes.
I had this same problem with Kevin Spacey in Se7en.
I heard this story regarding Fran Drescher: She used to normally talk in that high-pitched, nasal tone, and when she started getting into acting, they told her to lose the accent. So she went to a dialect coach, and overcame it. Then, as is always the way, every role she read for, they wanted her to use the nasal, high-pitched voice she’d tried so hard to get rid of.
How true that anecdote is, I cannot say.
David Hyde Pierce
Patrick Stewart
Alan Rickman