# Unsung heroes: video game voice actors **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 27, 2004, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsung-heroes-video-game-voice-actors/236824 "2004-03-27T23:29:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tremmie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@Tremmie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tremmie)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsung-heroes-video-game-voice-actors/236824/21 "2004-03-29T03:51:04Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > Best game for voice talent I’ve played has got to be Planescape: Torment. > > Annah - Sheena Easton > Dakkon - Mitch Pileggi > Deionarra, Fall-From-Grace - Jennifer Hale > Ignus - Charlie Adler > Morte Rictusgrin - Rob Paulsen > Nameless One - Micheal T. Weiss > Nordom - Dan Castellaneta > Trias - John De Lancie > Vhailor - Keith David > > Great game, too. Great game, but i think GTA: Vice City has it beat on voice talent: Burt Reynolds Lawrence Taylor Jenna Jameson Fairuza Balk Lee Majors Gary Busey Tom Sizemore And of course starring Ray Liotta as Tommy Vercetti. Those where just the ones i remembered from reading the credits when i finished it. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsung-heroes-video-game-voice-actors/236824/22 "2004-03-29T06:18:08Z")
> [@Tremmie](#): > > Great game, but i think GTA: Vice City has it beat on voice talent: > > Burt Reynolds > Lawrence Taylor > Jenna Jameson > Fairuza Balk > Lee Majors > Gary Busey > Tom Sizemore > And of course starring Ray Liotta as Tommy Vercetti. Those where just the ones i remembered from reading the credits when i finished it. I don’t know why, but for some reason the GTA voiceovers have always left me a bit cold. I don’t know why because they always have good actors, as you’ve pointed out. Maybe it’s the direction, or maybe it’s just that voice acting is different enough from movie acting that it’s possible to be brilliant at one and only so-so as the other. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsung-heroes-video-game-voice-actors/236824/23 "2004-03-29T07:28:45Z")
> [@teemingONE](#): > > I like the voice of Goliath from the show _Gargoyles_. He also nararates a couple shows on different networks. Yet, I don’t know who it is. Any help? [Keith David](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0202966/). 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsung-heroes-video-game-voice-actors/236824/24 "2004-03-29T15:21:56Z")
I’ve always been fond of [Stephen Russell’s](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0751461/) work in Thief or System Shock 2. He hasn’t done much, but it’s pretty good. Besides that, just about any Black Isle game will have kick-ass voice work. Fallout 2, for example, had Michael “Worf” Dorn in it. Diablo 2 surprised me. The imdb entry was a fascinating read. Amazing where some of these people pop up. Other than that, my favorite video game voice work was from Tachyon: the Fringe. Fun game, fairly underrated, and you get to hear Bruce Campbell taunt people. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chastain86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Chastain86](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chastain86)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsung-heroes-video-game-voice-actors/236824/25 "2004-03-29T16:10:15Z")
I am honestly surprised nobody’s mentioned **Fallout** yet. A fantastic series of RPGs that boast some wonderful voice talent: Among them: Charles Adler (did the voices on “Cow and Chicken”) Richard Dean Anderson (TV’s MacGyver) Jeff Bennett Clancy Brown Jim Cummings Keith David Brad Garrett (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) Richard Moll (Bull from “Night Court”) Tony Shalhoub (“Monk”) Frank Welker Tress MacNeille CCH Pounder (Detective Wyms on “The Shield”) Pamela Segall Cree Summer and let’s not forget the Narrator: [Ron Perlman (“Hellboy”)](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000579/) And that’s just in Fallout 1. Fallout 2 featured, among others: Michael Dorn (ST:TNG’s Worf) Jeffrey Jones (Ed Rooney from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”) Dwight Schultz (Howling Mad Murdoch from “The A Team”) Good stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Gumbercules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gumbercules](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gumbercules)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsung-heroes-video-game-voice-actors/236824/26 "2004-03-29T17:58:38Z")
I’m playing Prince of Persia: Sands of Time right now and the voice acting is so good it’s actually kind of distracting. ---
**Author:** ![Avalonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@Avalonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avalonian)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsung-heroes-video-game-voice-actors/236824/27 "2004-03-29T18:47:30Z")
I think that many devotees of the original Homeworld fell a little bit in love with the character of Karan S’jet, mostly because of the perfect voice provided by **Heidi Ernest**. Well, OK, maybe it was just me. **Jennifer Graveness** , in her voice work for the same character in Homeworld 2, did a fine job as well, but didn’t quite catch the character the way that Ernest did in the first one. And while we’re talking about Homeworld, **Campbell Lane** has a wonderful voice all around, and did some awesome work in all of the Homeworld games. I’ve heard his voice recently in a car commercial. And **Mark Oliver** ’s voice for the villain in Homeworld 2 was perfect… it reminded me of Jeremy Irons at his sinister best. ---
**Author:** ![PigArcher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@PigArcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PigArcher)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsung-heroes-video-game-voice-actors/236824/28 "2004-03-29T19:32:05Z")
Bit of a hijack here, but I’ll toss it out there anyways. I worked in “the industry” for a few years in the mid-90s as a writer, designer, and associate producer. One day we were doing a voice recording session with this Marine Corps drill instructor (this company made mostly military sims). The sound director’s assistant showed up late, after we’d started recording. This particular studio had a strange layout - you had to go through the recording booth to get to the control booth. So when this guy arrived, they called from the front, and we had to stop the session to let him come into the control booth. The producer told this DI “we’ve got a late arrival coming through, be sure to give him a hard time.” So when the assistant opened the door, the DI started yelling something like this: > [@](#): > > **GOOD MORNING SUNSHINE!!! DID YOU GET ENOUGH BEAUTY SLEEP??? HUH??? SURE LOOKS LIKE YOU COULD’VE USED SOME MORE!!!** And so on until the assistant made it through to the control booth. To his credit, that guy was never late again. ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsung-heroes-video-game-voice-actors/236824/29 "2004-03-30T01:01:01Z")
I don’t think the voice actors for _The Sims_ games get enough credit. There’s no dialogue, and of course the dialogue is all just gibberish, but there’s some really, really funny stuff going on there. I especially liked the cracking-voice teenager from _Hot Date_, and the sushi chefs from _Superstar_. > [@cactus waltz](#): > > I always loved the voices of the leading characters in Sam & Max hit the road. Gosh, they are _perfect_. Sam was, and Max would’ve been if not for one thing that bugged my anal-retentive self ever since I first played the game. One of the non-sequitur lines had Sam say “I wonder where Bruno & Trixie are,” and then Max would reply, “I don’t even know where _I_ am, Sam!” But the line was read as, “I don’t even know where I _am_, Sam!” Since that exchange could be delivered over and over again, it got pretty annoying. Other than that, though, yeah. > [@DeadlyAccurate](#): > > SolGrundy, do you work for LucasArts? Used to, don’t now. I don’t miss it one bit, and that’s all I’ll say about that. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsung-heroes-video-game-voice-actors/236824/30 "2004-03-30T03:24:17Z")
the people who voiced the units in the game **Sacrifice**. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsung-heroes-video-game-voice-actors/236824/31 "2004-03-30T04:09:02Z")
> [@Skott](#): > > I was surprised to see who some of the voice actors in [Zork Grand Inquisitor](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0132641/) were. I mean, you’ve got Lenny and Squiggy, Earl Boen (who’s been in tons of things but best known as the psychiatrist in the Terminator series), Chick Vennera (who does Pesto’s voice in Animaniacs), and I think the singing of the spells was done by Rockapella, who did the singing for Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? tv series. And that’s just the **voice** cast. > > I was suprised to find out that Madame Sophia Hamilton in Zork Nemesis is also Kate Roberts in Days of our Lives. \ I just finished this game the other day. The voice casting was supremely good and… well I told my husband that I had achieved my ultimate dream. I got to play strip poker (or, more accurately, Strip Grue Fire Water) with Dirk Benedict. That was one of the best games ever, and the cast was brilliant. I came into this thread just to mention it but glad to see I wasn’t the only one impressed 🙂 \ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unsung-heroes-video-game-voice-actors/236824.md?page=1)