# Most distinctive voice in movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 2, 2010, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-distinctive-voice-in-movies/541617 "2010-06-02T09:25:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-distinctive-voice-in-movies/541617/41 "2010-06-02T15:20:46Z")
Is there a Brit alive who couldn’t instantly recognise BRIAN BLESSED’s voice? ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-distinctive-voice-in-movies/541617/42 "2010-06-02T15:22:49Z")
Not the _most_ distinctive, but David Duchovny’s voice is easily recognizable. He’s done a lot of dog food commercials and other dog/pet-related ads. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-distinctive-voice-in-movies/541617/43 "2010-06-02T15:25:58Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > And the voiceover folks on commercials? It’s fun to identify people on commercials by just their voices. Lately “Dexter” ([Michael C. Hall](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0355910/)) is the voice in at least one [car commercial.](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0355910/otherworks) > > Liev Schreiber > James Garner > Dennis Hopper Jeff Bridges has done a bunch of car commercial voiceovers lately. I think they’re for Kia. [Nope, Hyundai.] I know Will Arnett from Arrested Development also did at least one car ad. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-distinctive-voice-in-movies/541617/44 "2010-06-02T15:39:46Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > An extremely distinctive voice for those of my generation, although I’ll bet most people couldn’t name it, or put a face to it, would be **Paul Frees**. He narrated lots of Disney work and was active in cartoons (where he was the voice of Ludwig von Drake and Boris Badenov, among others). He’s in mainstream films, too, and it’s his voice that asks which one of the defeated gladiators is Spartacus. He also provided vouices in science fiction films in the 1950s (including the alien voice in **Earth vs. the Flying Saucers** , in which he had an extremely rare on-screen performance). He also did dubbing in cheapie foreign films, so if you’ve seen **The Sword and the Dragon** , **Godzilla** , or **Rodan** , you’ve heard his work. He was also the English voice of one of the Japanese in _Tora! Tora! Tora!_ and often dubbed Toshiro Mifune’s lines, and was Dr. Voorhees in _The Thing From Another World_. He also voiced several animated commercial characters. To me, his is ‘the most distinctive voice’ in movies. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-distinctive-voice-in-movies/541617/45 "2010-06-02T15:42:58Z")
And, he narrated **Hardware Wars** : [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/I7p96aiE32k/hqdefault.jpg "Hardware Wars 1 of 2") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7p96aiE32k) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-distinctive-voice-in-movies/541617/46 "2010-06-02T16:15:27Z")
If I had to narrow it down to one male and one female: Harvey Fierstein and Ethel Merman. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-distinctive-voice-in-movies/541617/47 "2010-06-02T16:25:07Z")
For some reason, there seem to be fewer women with truly distinctive voices, but I think **Jane Fonda** qualifies. As a matter of fact, today I had the very experience described in the OP. Heard her voice on television, and knew before looking up who I was going to see. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-distinctive-voice-in-movies/541617/48 "2010-06-02T16:28:50Z")
> [@Musky\_Moon](#): > > I’m going to go with Ted Levine. You can’t misidentify that voice.) Yeah, he used to come into the petshop where I worked. Dressed you know in denim jacket, normal guy, with a kid. He’d ask about this fish or that plant, and my brain would be transported to the bottom of a well underneath a suburban house, where I was being ordered to put the lotion on my skin. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-distinctive-voice-in-movies/541617/49 "2010-06-02T16:37:46Z")
Currently, Andre 3000 is pretty impossible to miss. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-distinctive-voice-in-movies/541617/50 "2010-06-02T16:57:44Z")
Regis Philbin. Does he ever blow his nose? ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-distinctive-voice-in-movies/541617/51 "2010-06-02T16:58:40Z")
Humphrey Bogart ---
**Author:** ![newcomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e5b9ba/32.png) [@newcomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcomer)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-distinctive-voice-in-movies/541617/52 "2010-06-02T17:21:29Z")
John Malkovich and Nicolas Cage Funny thing, on the female side it’s Nicole Kidman ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-distinctive-voice-in-movies/541617/53 "2010-06-02T18:20:06Z")
I’ve always liked Philip Baker Hall’s voice. Here are 2 [different](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF2gZu3ygEQ) [examples](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgEApN9ap0A). ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-distinctive-voice-in-movies/541617/54 "2010-06-02T18:28:01Z")
Oooh! Carol Channing! ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-distinctive-voice-in-movies/541617/55 "2010-06-02T20:18:02Z")
Perhaps not the most generically distinctive, but certainly the most haughtily distinctive: _Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride_—Bette Davis ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-distinctive-voice-in-movies/541617/56 "2010-06-03T03:26:55Z")
I think for the purposes of the OP, _nobody_ can beat [Jack Mercer](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0580271/) . . . as Popeye. ---
**Author:** ![Rachael\_Rage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Rachael\_Rage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachael_Rage)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-distinctive-voice-in-movies/541617/57 "2010-06-03T04:48:22Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > This may be a little odd, but the first one that came to my mind is **Wallace Shawn**. Maybe it’s because he has so many great lines in _The Princess Bride_. When he did the voice of Bertram on _Family Guy_ it was instantly recognizable. > > I wonder if that’s his natural speaking voice, of if he exagerates the shrillness a bit when he’s acting. Well, it’s been several years, but I worked in an Off-Broadway theater box office where he was doing a show, and I heard him buying tickets from a colleague one day. I didn’t have to look up to know who it was. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-distinctive-voice-in-movies/541617/58 "2010-06-03T08:27:58Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > I think for the purposes of the OP, _nobody_ can beat [Jack Mercer](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0580271/) . . . as Popeye. I dunno. A lot of people can do that voice. You might be looking up and see a different voice actor. Heck, even Dave Coulier’s impression from _Full House_ has fooled me once. ---
**Author:** ![MsChilePepper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MsChilePepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsChilePepper)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-distinctive-voice-in-movies/541617/59 "2010-06-03T09:29:45Z")
Sam Elliott – Beef! It’s what’s for dinner! ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-distinctive-voice-in-movies/541617/60 "2010-06-03T22:26:09Z")
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