Thank you!
I don’t think that’s it, even if you restrict voices to performers. Julie Kavner, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Joan Rivers, and Fran Drescher, for example, all have pretty distinctive and memorable voices, but I don’t see them widely imitated for character roles. In fact, I’m hard-pressed to come up with any examples at all other than The Simpsons’s McBain, who is just an obvious caricature of Schwarzenegger anyway.
One factor may be that developing a distinctive vocal persona was more important in the Days of Radio.
Edward G. Robinson may be the winner by virtue of becoming the de facto gangster voice for community theater productions. “We’re gonna go over there, see? and rough 'em up, see?” face it, you read that in EGR’s voice.
Likewise, R Lee Ermey has firmly set the standard for drill instructors. EVERYBODY does him when they want to imitate a DI.
I think that is big factor, starting in the 20th century because before that not many people ever heard the voices of well known people. We imagine that we know what Abraham Lincoln sounded like delivering the Gettysburg address, but even after a political career built on his skill as an orator a limited number of people ever heard his voice. Phonographs and radio made this possible and without images a distinctive voice certainly paid off. The number of people seen in movies was far more limited, if your job was a radio personality then a recognizable voice was your most important asset.
Most impressions of people are based on both voice, phraseology, and physical mannerisms. Johnny Carson has been impersonated many times, but he is noted for his midwest distinctive Nebraska speech which is supposed to represent the standard for American speakers. He does have a few vocal idiosyncracies, and those will be exaggerated in impressions, but it is mostly his physical shtick combined with phrasing that made him recognizable.
Just another note on Cary Grant, there are stories about people saying to him “You don’t sound like Cary Grant”, and also later in life “You don’t look like Cary Grant”, and he would respond in that well known affect that made him instantly recognizable, “Nobody does”.
In animation Chief Wiggum on the Simpsons and the villain from Courageous Cat as a couple of examples. It would be hard to track down how many times that voice has been used, it’s one of those voices almost anyone can impersonate.
I’ve wondered why some celebrities sue their imitators and others don’t. I imagine some of it is the degree of fame of the celebrity. Cary Grant would probably have lost stature if he’d even admitted he knew about cartoon characters based on his voice (although he had no problem suing Chevy Chase over a gay slur). I read that Jackie Gleason decided not to sue The Flintstones producers because he didn’t want to be known as the guy who took the popular kids’ cartoon off the air.
Here’s what the Wikipedia page has about such vocal impersonations:
They’re not used in nearly as often as others mentioned here the Three Stooges, especially Larry Fine, have been used as a the basis for a few voice actors roles. Billy West has used Larry’s voice a few times.
Several characters have at least occasionally done Curly-isms, and at least one cartoon character is based on Curly:
Speaking of Stooges, onetime stooge Joe Besser was well known for his mannerisms and catchphrases (“Not so ha-a-a-rd!” “I’ll harm you” “you sillies”), and he was imitated by several cartoons and actors (The 1946 Warner Brothers cartoon Book Revue is one of many to use his “you sillies”. MST3K’s Frank “TV’s Frank” Conniff frequently channeled Besser, especially as Stinky from the Abbott and Costello Show .)
One voice that got used a lot over the years, to the point of obliterating memory of the source, was Lon Chaney Jr.'s Lenny from Of Mice and Men. “OK, George,” was used as the default “dumb guy” voice for decades. Mel Blanc made a huge part of his career off this one voice.
I’m aware of Mel Blanc’s many characterizations of the Lenny voice, but don’t recall hearing it anywhere else. Can you name a few examples?
Although I can’t think of anywhere else I’ve heard it, the Simpsons use the ‘Charles Bronson’ accent, for a lot of minor tough guy/blue-collar characters.
Don’t they have a muscular character with some familiar German sounding accent that sounds like some former governor?
Minor character Arnold the Pit Bull in “Tiny Toon Adventures” is Schwarzenegger as a dog.
Humphrey Bogart impersonations showed up a lot in Warner Brothers’ cartoons also. As I remember it, they kind of rotated between Edward G. Robinson, Bogart, and James Cagney whenever they wanted a gangster-type.
They–along with George Raft–did kind of corner the market on gangsters during the 30s and 40s. I can’t think of any other actor from that era who would’ve been immediately recognizable to most people as a gangster or tough guy.