Greatest actor providing voices for animated films/TV shows

[The Burgomaster]

I think that the all-time greatest cartoon voice had to be Mel Blanc.  He provided some of the best voices for Warner Brothers, as well as the voice of Barney Rubble and numerous others.

Also in the cartoon voice "Hall of Fame" are Casey Kasem (whose voice was used on countless Saturday morning cartoons), and Ted Knight who provided the majestic narration for The Super Friends ("Meanwhile, back at the Hall of Justice, Batman streaks into action, unaware that the Legion of Doom . . . ")

Who are some of your favorite cartoon voices?

[Ash]

Wasn't Alan Oppenheimer responsible for some great ones as well?

I remember that he did the voice of Skeletor in the old He-Man cartoons but I also remember him doing several others as well.

[Flangepart]

And Daws Butler.
Huckelberry Hound, Pixey and Dixie, worked with Stan Freburg....still have a tape of his interview with Dr. Demento. What a class act.

[Vermin Boy]

June Foray, definitely; she did all the female voices on Looney Tunes and Rocky & Bulwinkle (as well as Rocky himself), and she's still going strong.

As for modern equivalents, I'd pick Rob Paulsen (Pinky, Yakko), Billy West (Stimpy, Fry from Futurama), and the central cast of the Simpsons (was I the only one who found the section of Inside the Actor's Studio where they answered questions in character to be somewhat disturbing?).

[FearlessFreep]

I the only one who found the section of Inside the Actor's Studio where they answered questions in character to be somewhat disturbing?

No, it was awfully funny, but weird.

That was the first time I knew that the voice of Smithers was also the voice of Burns, which *really* puts a weird twist on the relationship

[Cullen]

No discusion of great voice actors can be complete without mentioning Frank Welker.  The guy has been in over three hundred movies, cartoons shows and video games.  He is the voice of Scooby Doo's Freddy Jones.  When Spock screams in Search for Spock, it's his voice.

The man's great.  He really is.

[Evil Matt]

I'd throw in Harry Shearer's name strictly for the body of work he does on "The Simpsons", and because I'd vote for anyone that was in Spinal Tap,

Also, Chris Latta, the guy who did the voice of Starscream on the Transformers and Cobra Commander on GI Joe.  If there was any justice in the world, they'd hire him to do the dubbed translation in his Cobra Commander voice whenever a new tape of Bin Laden or Hussein surfaces on CNN.

[BoyScoutKevin]

The late Paul Frees. Though, seldom seen on screen, one of his few screen appearances is as one of the assassins in "Suddenly," for over 40 years, if Hollywood needed a voice over or a narrator, they often turned to Paul Frees. Some of the cartoon characters he voiced in his long and distinguished career are Boris Badenov, Captain Peachfuzz, and Cloyd on "Bullwinkle;" Ludwig Von Drake on "Disneyland;" Fezziwig on "Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol;" both John and George on "The Beatles;" Fillmore the Bear on "Uncle Waldo's Cartoon Show;" an Ape Named Ape on "George of the Jungle;" and Inspector Fenwick on "The Dudley Do-Rioht Show," etc.

[Vermin Boy]

Speaking of Spinal Tap, Christopher Guest deserves a nod. While I don't know if he ever did any cartoon voices, the man's a vocal genius. Check out some of his old National Lampoon Radio Hour stuff; his range of voices (as well as fully-fleshed, totally improvised characterizations) is amazing.

[onionhead]

Ah yes, Paul Frees is one of my favorite voices.  Number One, however, is Thurl Ravenscroft, voice of Tony the Tiger, Kirby the vacuum cleaner, and He Who Sang  "You're a Mean One, Mister Grinch."  Gads what pipes!

[ad]

I think Tim Curry and David Warner are two excellent actors who are often cast as bad guys in animated films/tv shows.

[AndyC]

Frank Welker has been one of my favourites ever since I saw Transformers: The Movie, back in the 80s, and saw a whole list of characters (including Megatron) next to his name. Once I learned to recognize his voice, it was possible to pick him out of cartoons from the 60s right through to the 90s. It wasn't until the IMDB came along that I found out he's done animal noises for a lot of movies.

Also in Transformers was another great voice - Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime). Not nearly as versatile as Welker, but a hell of a commanding voice, and great for narrating movie trailers. Wonder what ever happened to him.

Someone else mentioned Chris Latta. Besides Starscream, Cobra Commander and a whole bunch of other characters of the mid 80s, he was also the leader of the space marines on Star Blazers, the original voice of Moe the bartender, and played the Pakled captain on Next Generation. "We look for things to make us go." Sadly, he's no longer with us.

[FearlessFreep]

On a related note, anyone every notive how many of the voices from "Gargoyles" were from "Star Trek: TNG"? Marian Sirtis, Micheal Dorn and some others I think

[Flangepart]

Oh yeah, Mike Dorn!
Man, i envy his pipes! Done some good work on Cartoon Network and Nick.
Eric Estrada on Sealad 2021....he is funny! Love the "Ponce" gags they work in there. "Oh yeah? Come and get some vitamin M!"

[Ash]

You mentioned that Chris Latta played the Pakled Captain on Star Trek TNG.  That was the one where they kidnapped Geordi wasn't it?