Your Top Non-Singing English-Speaking Voices from 1930 Onward

[Sid]

Christopher Plummer in his younger days. I've got a recording on Chandos of him doing Walton's Henry V (arr. Palmer) done in about 1990 & he was great. His range was impressive, how he used the voice to play the different characters. Below is the cover of the original cd (which is selling on Amazon for $100!), but I have the reissued one - but they (confusingly) put Olivier on the cover...

[Xenophanes]

Cato, William Marshall is a great choice.

However, I have to nominate a man whom I have just seen live in performance tonight (!!), the man with the "perfect face for radio" and the perfect voice for radio too, and a man who proved tonight that he is (pace Xenophanes) one of the great story-tellers of the world: stopping in my hometown on his "Summer Love" tour was the incredible voice of Garrison Keillor.



Like I said, the perfect face for radio.

Well, for original story telling, Stuart McLean, also on CBC, is hard to beat. Here's one of his stories on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYaktHhV4s8

[karlhenning]

Ed Platt (who had been a singer on stage, actually) as The Chief on Get Smart.

Musically, their voices worked very well together . . . Barbara Feldon's sultry mezzo, Don Adams's clipped tenor, and Ed Platt's mellifluous baritone.

[Cato]

Ed Platt!  Yes, an unusual but excellent choice!

I remember him also from a George Pal movie called Atlantis, the Lost Continent where he played a high priest who, Cassandra-like, foretold the future destruction of Atlantis, but nobody would believe him.

Christopher Plummer in his younger days: also excellent!

[bwv 1080]

http://www.youtube.com/v/sLSveRGmpIE

[Cato]

Ed Platt (who had been a singer on stage, actually) as The Chief on Get Smart.

Musically, their voices worked very well together . . . Barbara Feldon's sultry mezzo, Don Adams's clipped tenor, and Ed Platt's mellifluous baritone.

I just had a memory that Don Adams - when performing as a comedian - never used his real voice.  I remember a comic routine on (I think) Perry Como's old show, where he played a baseball umpire, and used his Maxwell Smart voice.

But I recall an interview with him in the 1970's, and was amazed that he sounded nothing like "Maxwell Smart" at all!

[karlhenning]

I think I have not yet seen The Thin Man, and the word is that Don Adams based that (now iconic) clipped delivery on Wm Powell.

[snyprrr]

KLAUS KINSKI RANTING[/font]

[snyprrr]

...and in this corner...

Paul Lynde
Charles Nelson Reilly

[snyprrr]

DO I NOT HAVE ANYTHING BETTER TO DO??

[karlhenning]

...and in this corner...

Paul Lynde
Charles Nelson Reilly

I remember them as two of the most sonically annoying TV celebrities I ever knew ; )

[Cato]

I think I have not yet seen The Thin Man, and the word is that Don Adams based that (now iconic) clipped delivery on Wm Powell.

Yes!  William Powell made some great movies outside of the Thin Man series.

Also not to be forgotten, and from the same era, one of my favorites ever:

Clifton Webb !

Snyprr: Klaus Kinski ? 

[CD]

David Niven

http://www.youtube.com/v/JSruSe_m8OI

[CD]

That clip always makes me tear up — I'm such a wimp! ;_;

[Antoine Marchand]

Orson Welles:

http://www.youtube.com/v/mI3eBTMXSiU
(here talking about his own voice)

... and "Betty" Bacall:



and Sharon Stone in "Basic Instinct"... 

[Joe Barron]

Kilgore Trout first appeared in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater in 1965, then he shows up in Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions, as well as other books I haven't read.

I think what Gurn means is that Trout is the protagonist in BofC. In all the other books you name, he's a supporting player.

As for cool voices, I nominate Seth MacFarlane, who is funnier than any of the shows he produces.

[Cato]

Orson Welles:

http://www.youtube.com/v/mI3eBTMXSiU
(here talking about his own voice) [/img]


Unfortunately,  Orson Welles deteriorated in many ways as the years went by:  if you do not know about this episode from his dotage (too young actually for that term), then you must hear it to believe it!

http://www.spike.com/video/orson-welles-loses/3108617

[snyprrr]

Snyprr: Klaus Kinski ?

Verschtubenschpelage! Go to YouTube and find his "I am Jesus" rant! Priceless!

[snyprrr]

And let's not forget Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff!