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Frank Welker

Wikisimpsons - The Simpsons Wiki
Revision as of 14:54, October 29, 2007 by 71.183.238.151 (talk)

Franklin W. Welker (born March 12, 1946) is an American voice actor. He is responsible for a broad spectrum of character voices, noises, and other vocal effects that have appeared over the last 40 years in American television and motion pictures. He is listed as the number one "All Time Top 100 Stars at the Box office" in terms of the total revenue the films he has participated in have generated. His work in over 90 films has put him ahead of Eddie Murphy, Harrison Ford, Tom Hanks and Samuel L. Jackson. [1]

Early life

Welker was born in Denver, Colorado. He attended college in California, where he later began his professional career appearing in commercials. While in college he appeared in numerous plays, and developed a stand-up comedy act which got him started on the concert circuit touring with The Righteous Brothers and Sergio Mendes. He continued with stand up, appearing in places including Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe as the opening act for headliners like Sonny and Cher, Diana Ross, Loretta Lynn, Ann Margaret and Neil Sedaka.

Acting career

Welker's first film role was as a bar fight participant in Stan Dragoti’s Dirty Little Billy. He played a college kid from Rutgers University in the Elvis Presley picture The Trouble with Girls. He later co-starred with Don Knotts in Universal’s How to Frame a Figg. Welker also participated in two Disney films, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes and Now You See Him, Now You Don't.

His on camera television appearances included Love American Style, The Partridge Family and The Don Knotts Show. He played a prosecutor in highly acclaimed ABC special The Trial of General Yamashita and as Captain Pace beside Richard Dreyfuss' Yossarian in Paramount television’s pilot, Catch-22. He appeared on Laugh In, The Dean Martin Roast, The Mike Douglas Show, The Tonight Show, Merv Griffin, The Smothers Brothers Show, The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour and Laugh Trax. In the latter show, he was a cast member along side Jim Staahl and Howie Mandel.

Voice actor

Welker has been referred to as a "voice acting god" (by John DiMaggio and Billy West in the DVD commentary for Futurama) in Hollywood for the sheer number of voices he has done — over 1,200 — ranging from his work on Scooby-Doo to the present day. His voice acting credits include television shows and films such as Curious George, Aladdin, Pocahontas and computer games such as the Baldur's Gate series, New Super Mario Bros and CarnEvil.

In the Transformers television series, he voiced eight of the original 14 Decepticons as well as the Autobots Mirage and Trailbreaker. With the release of the animated film in 1986, he took on the role of the Autobot Wheelie and afterwards, took over the role of Galvatron, (which Welker had originated) from Leonard Nimoy. Having already provided the screams for Nimoy's character Mr. Spock in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, this marked the second time he had inherited a role from Nimoy.

Welker did more live action movies during the 1990s. Among his work includes vocal effects for the character of Sil in Species, Goro in 1995's Mortal Kombat, the Devil in 1985's The Golden Child, and Malebolgia in 1997's Spawn. Welker also provided the voice (both speaking and non-speaking) of Nibbler in the cartoon TV series Futurama and was also the voice of Snot Tiger in the 2006 Walt Disney animated film The Fox and the Hound 2.

As of 2002, Welker is the voice of both Fred Jones and Scooby Doo. This includes the most recent What's New, Scooby-Doo?, and the series-based spinoff, Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!.

His most recent character is Garfield in Garfield Gets Real, the first in a series of new Garfield DVDs.

Transformers

In the 1980s, Welker voiced many recurring characters in the Transformers animated series, most famously Decepticon leader Megatron and the echoing, monotone Soundwave. Welker was asked to audition to reprise his original role of Megatron in the live action Transformers movie. Apparently due to conflict in schedules, Welker never met with the producers or director Michael Bay. Bay, however, had Welker send him a couple of recorded lines and concluded Welker's Megatron did not fit his new interpretation of the character. Eventually, the role was voiced by Hugo Weaving. Although this did not occur in the film itself, Welker reunited with Transformers costar Peter Cullen in Transformers: The Game, with both returning to voice their signature roles. His voice can also be heard in the Wal-Mart edition of the Transformers DVD on the Transformers Beginnings disc.

Welker also returned to two of his most famous Transformers roles when he portrayed Megatron and Soundwave as part of a spoof in the third season episode of Robot Chicken, aired shortly after the release of the live action film.

Partial filmography


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