# Voice Actors who have more than one role in an animated show
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 27, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883 "2005-08-27T18:41:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@BluePitbull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BluePitbull)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883/1 "2005-08-27T18:41:19Z")
I was suprised that Seth Macfarlane does the voice for Stewie, Peter, Quagmire and Brian on Family Guy
> **[Family Guy (TV Series 1999– ) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0182576/)**
>
> Family Guy: Created by Seth MacFarlane, David Zuckerman. With Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Seth Green, Mila Kunis. In a wacky Rhode Island town, a dysfunctional family strive to cope with everyday life as they are thrown from one crazy scenario to...
I wonder what his real voice sounds like 😕
Any other examples?
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### Author:  [@Ludy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludy)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2005, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883/2 "2005-08-27T19:02:10Z")
Billy West did the voices of Ren and Stimpy from seasons 3-5
He was Stimpy for all five season but Ren as well for only seasons 3-5
[http://victorian.fortunecity.com/russell/105/rsorigin.htm](http://victorian.fortunecity.com/russell/105/rsorigin.htm)
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### Author:  [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2005, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883/3 "2005-08-27T19:03:58Z")
Don’t have a cite but I believe James Doohan voiced more than one role in the animated **Star Trek**.
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### Author:  [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2005, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883/4 "2005-08-27T19:12:15Z")
I saw Seth McFarlane on David Letterman and his voice is most similar to Brian’s. It took me a second to place the voice because I didn’t recognize his name. But it’s definitely closest to Brian’s.
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### Author:  [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2005, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883/5 "2005-08-27T19:17:24Z")
> [@Hung Mung](#):
>
> I saw Seth McFarlane on David Letterman and his voice is most similar to Brian’s. It took me a second to place the voice because I didn’t recognize his name. But it’s definitely closest to Brian’s.
Yep – closer to Brian. And also to Tom Tucker, the announcer.
Of course, “The Simpsons” is a classic example. Dan Castellaneta, Nancy Cartwright, Hank Azaria, and Harry Shearer all do a plethora of voices, and others do multiple characters too. I think those 4 do the most.
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### Author:  [@BluePitbull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BluePitbull)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2005, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883/6 "2005-08-27T19:24:20Z")
> [@Monstre](#):
>
> Yep – closer to Brian. And also to Tom Tucker, the announcer.
>
> Of course, “The Simpsons” is a classic example. Dan Castellaneta, Nancy Cartwright, Hank Azaria, and Harry Shearer all do a plethora of voices, and others do multiple characters too. I think those 4 do the most.
Is it true that the Yeardley Smith is using her natural voice when acting Lisa’s role?
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### Author:  [@carterba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carterba)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2005, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883/7 "2005-08-27T19:28:25Z")
> [@Ludy](#):
>
> Billy West did the voices of Ren and Stimpy from seasons 3-5
>
> He was Stimpy for all five season but Ren as well for only seasons 3-5
>
> [http://victorian.fortunecity.com/russell/105/rsorigin.htm](http://victorian.fortunecity.com/russell/105/rsorigin.htm)
And on Futurama, Billy West did Fry, the Professor, Zoidberg, Zapp Brannigan, the human cop, and a variety of minor characters. His real voice sounds most like Fry.
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### Author:  [@Julius\_Henry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Julius_Henry)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2005, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883/8 "2005-08-27T19:40:23Z")
That used to be quite common. In the sixties, there was a wretched animated series about the Beatles with only two actors, Paul Frees and Lance Percival, provided the four fab voices. (Mr. Percival would later provide a voice in _Yellow Submarine_.) Jean Vander Pyl gave voice to both Wilma Flintstone and Pebbles, and a small list of frequent guest stars (John Stephenson, Daws Butler, Howard Morris, et al) would frequently speak for multiple characters in the same episode. Mel Blanc, of course, could frequently be found in Warner Brothers sound stages talking to himself in multiple voices (Bugs and Daffy, Bugs and Yosemite Sam — but not Elmer Fudd) as well as the occassional sound effect like Dino the Dinosaur and Jack Benny’s car.
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### Author:  [@Amaranta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amaranta)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2005, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883/9 "2005-08-27T19:46:45Z")
> [@BluePitbull](#):
>
> Is it true that the Yeardley Smith is using her natural voice when acting Lisa’s role?
I think she might play it a bit higher to sound younger, but it’s very, very close to her natural voice.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2005, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883/10 "2005-08-27T19:50:40Z")
Yeardley Smith played Greg’s secretary on “Dharma & Greg.” She kind of sounded like Lisa.
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### Author:  [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2005, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883/11 "2005-08-27T20:05:51Z")
Trey Parker and Matt Stone do almost every male voice in South Park and the movie Team America: World Police.
On Transformers, Peter Cullen did the voices of Optimus Prime, Ironhide, and a few others.
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### Author:  [@soulmurk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soulmurk)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2005, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883/12 "2005-08-27T20:07:22Z")
Any good voice actor can do multiple voices. The career voice actors are capable of many, and that is preferable to producers as it is cheaper to pay one person to do multiple jobs than several people to do the same. Consider [Mel Blanc](http://imdb.com/name/nm0000305/).
I do recall reading somewhere though that the cutoff nowadays is five voices per person, because after five, the way the union wages work out, it is actually cheaper to bring in another person.
The exception to the multiple voices = good rule seems to be those that have a unique voice that becomes their trademark and is pretty much the same for several characters in several shows, like [Cree Summer](http://imdb.com/name/nm0838588/), who did the voice of Suzy Carmichael on _Rugrats_ and Numbah 5 in _Codename: Kids Next Door_, among many, many others.
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### Author:  [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2005, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883/13 "2005-08-27T20:45:47Z")
[Daws Butler](http://www.dawsbutler.com/cartoons-daws.htm) did many voices for Hanna-Barbera. In the 3 cartoons in the half-hour “Huckleberry Hound” show, for example, he would do 5 or 6 voices, including most of the main characters…
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883/14 "2005-08-27T21:11:12Z")
> [@soulmurk](#):
>
> The exception to the multiple voices = good rule seems to be those that have a unique voice that becomes their trademark and is pretty much the same for several characters in several shows, like [Cree Summer](http://imdb.com/name/nm0838588/), who did the voice of Suzy Carmichael on _Rugrats_ and Numbah 5 in _Codename: Kids Next Door_, among many, many others.
I thought the name sounded familiar…she was Freddie on the Cosby spinoff “A Different World”. Looking at her IMDB page, she was also Elmyra on “Tiny Toon Adventures”, which I would NEVER have picked up on.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2005, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883/15 "2005-08-27T21:20:54Z")
> [@Monstre](#):
>
> Of course, “The Simpsons” is a classic example. Dan Castellaneta, Nancy Cartwright, Hank Azaria, and Harry Shearer all do a plethora of voices, and others do multiple characters too. I think those 4 do the most.
I saw an interview about Dan Castellaneta (possibly on a Simpsons DVD) where someone said watching Dan perform was nothing short of miraculous. There would be scenes in which he would be doing several voices and could switch between them without missing a beat.
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### Author:  [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2005, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883/16 "2005-08-27T21:40:49Z")
> [@jayjay](#):
>
> I thought the name sounded familiar…she was Freddie on the Cosby spinoff “A Different World”. Looking at her IMDB page, she was also Elmyra on “Tiny Toon Adventures”, which I would NEVER have picked up on.
At the very bottom of her IMDB list it says she did Penny on Inspector Gadget! :eek:
I never would have guessed she was the same as Elmyra or Susie Carmichael. My jaw dropped a little when I saw she did Penny…wowsers.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2005, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883/17 "2005-08-27T21:44:18Z")
Hal Smith, who was most famous as Otis the Drunk on The Andy Griffith Show, was also most of the voices on Davey and Goliath.
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### Author:  [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2005, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883/18 "2005-08-28T01:00:06Z")
> [@soulmurk](#):
>
> The exception to the multiple voices = good rule seems to be those that have a unique voice that becomes their trademark and is pretty much the same for several characters in several shows, like [Cree Summer](http://imdb.com/name/nm0838588/), who did the voice of Suzy Carmichael on _Rugrats_ and Numbah 5 in _Codename: Kids Next Door_, among many, many others.
Even Cree doubles up occasionally. For example, she plays Numbah 5’s older sister as well as Numbah 5 herself.
I also believe that five is currently the maximum number of roles that you can have one actor play without paying extra. We just came out of doing the second round of voice recording for the game I’m working on and my producer made sure that we spread the bit parts around so that nobody read more than four.
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### Author:  [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2005, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883/19 "2005-08-28T01:03:30Z")
I can’t believe nobody has mentioned [Frank Welker](http://www.awn.com/mag/issue5.01/5.01pages/millerwelker.php3) already. The guy’s done so many voices, it’s easier to list which movies and shows he _hasn’t_ worked on.
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### Author:  [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2005, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-actors-who-have-more-than-one-role-in-an-animated-show/318883/20 "2005-08-28T01:09:22Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#):
>
> I saw an interview about Dan Castellaneta (possibly on a Simpsons DVD) where someone said watching Dan perform was nothing short of miraculous. There would be scenes in which he would be doing several voices and could switch between them without missing a beat.
Yes, it’s really amazing to work with professional voice actors. They have such an incredible amount of vocal control. During a typical session the actors would do three initial reads of each line. The real professionals would give you a slightly different delivery for each read that could be used as a basis for directing the performance:
“Okay, give us three more like the second reading. But add a little more worry and try to put the emphasis on ‘my’ rather than ‘father’.”
And they’d nail it. While holding their voice in character. It was like setting the dials on a synthesizer.
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