You can’t imagine Baldur’s Gate without Minsk (and Boo), can you? Then you simply can’t imagine another voice. Once a designer for Mardi Gras floats. former Louisiana riverboat deckhand and door-to-door salesman, Jim Cummings probably created one of the most known videogame character voices.
But not only swords for everyone… Firkraag, Gorion, Tazok, Abazigal, Gromnir Il-Khan and Demogorgon – they all won’t speak a word if it was not Jim Cummings.
At Disney, Cummings not only replaced Hal Smith as the voice of Winnie-the-Pooh in 1988 (Smith had taken over the role from longtime actor Sterling Holloway in 1981), but also began voicing Tigger in 1990, taking over for Paul Winchell (though Winchell voiced Tigger four more times, the last time being in February 1999) after Winchell died in 2005. When actor Jeremy Irons, the voice of Scar in The Lion King, developed vocal problems during recording of the song "Be Prepared", Cummings was chosen to replace him for the rest of the song.
He voiced several lead characters including Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, (taking over the character of Zummi Gummi after Paul Winchell's departure from the role), DuckTales, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck, Goof Troop, Bonkers, Aladdin, Gargoyles, Timon & Pumbaa, The Legend of Tarzan and House of Mouse, and animated films such as Hercules, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Pocahontas. Cummings also voiced the characters "Bering and Chilkoot" in the 2006 film [Brother Bear 2]] and "Razoul" in the 1994 Aladdin sequel The Return of Jafar.
His other works include Arundel, Hrothgar from Icewind Dale, Thadgeir, Olfrid Battle-Born, Vignar Gray-Mane, Logrulf the Willful, Festus Krex, Froki Whetted-Blade, Nurelion from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Edwin - Jim Meskimen
,
And what about Edwin Odesseiron? Who would say his voice is unrecognizable (only simians would dare to think it is not).A professional artist, Jim Meskimen exhibits and sells his realist oil paintings. As a designer/cartoonist, he created dozens of characters, weapons and vehicles for the original "Thundercats" animated series. Jim continues to dazzle audiences with his improvisational skills and appears regularly on L.A. stages.
He is known for his work on the improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? and as the voice of President George W. Bush and other politicians for the internet Jib Jab animated shorts. He voices Thom Cat, Neighbor John, and Stumpy in Random! Cartoons and recently, a variety of different characters in the 2012 video game, Lego The Lord of the Rings. He also voiced Emissary and Kweng from Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness.
But the thing I find the most amazing is that… Khalid also speaks with Jim Meskimen’s voice. Voila!
Xzar – Frank Welker
,
Stop TOUCHING me! Due to the large number of films he is able to work on in a given year, films with Frank Welker had grossed more than those of any other actor in Hollywood from 1980 until 2011, when he was surpassed by Samuel L. Jackson!
During the 1980s and 1990s, Welker became a very busy actor, providing the voice for many popular cartoon characters in multiple shows including the villainous Doctor Claw in Inspector Gadget, Mister Mxyzptlk and both Darkseid and Kalibak in Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, various G.I. Joe heroes and villains, Ray Stantz and Slimer in The Real Ghostbusters, the villainous Dr. Jeremiah Surd in The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, and Hefty Smurf in The Smurfs. He also voices various characters on The Simpsons such as Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II. He also provided the voice of Fall Apart Rabbit in the 1993 Disney series Bonkers and other various voices for the series, as well as the voices of Mr. Plotz, Runt, Ralph the Guard and various other characters in Animaniacs and McWolf the main antagonist to Droopy and his nephew Dripple in Tom and Jerry Kids and Droopy, Master Detective. He also provides the voice (both speaking and non-speaking) of Nibbler in Futurama. He has voiced several characters for Family Guy, including a parody of Fred Jones. He played the voices of multiple characters in TaleSpin.
Welker performed as voice double for Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and provided voices for The Thing in The Golden Child (1986), Sil in Species (1995) and Malebolgia in Spawn (1997). He has also created the vocal effects for different animals in films including the monkey Abu in Aladdin, its two sequels and the television series Aladdin, Arnold the Pig in the television film Return to Green Acres, he was also the voice of Totoro from the English version of the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro, and a variety of animals from Tiny Toon Adventures. YAY!
In 2005, Welker became the new voice of Garfield, succeeding the original actor Lorenzo Music, who died in 2001 (Welker and Music had previously worked together in The Real Ghostbusters and the original Garfield and Friends). Welker voiced Garfield in Garfield Gets Real, Garfield's Fun Fest, Garfield's Pet Force, and also in the new series The Garfield Show, which has been running from 2008 to present.
And you know what? “Ho there, wanderer! Stay thy course a moment and indulge an old man” as well as other phrases by Elminster are voiced by fantastic Frank Welker. (@elminster , did you know your character is able to yell “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds!” ?;)
Shar-Teel - Jennifer Darling
,
These images when put together seem unlike, don’t they? But it is what a great professional can do – an Actor with the capital A.
Jennifer Darling received an Emmy nomination as Best Supporting Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role on Hooperman (1987). Most Darling has been seen in recurring roles on Dharma & Greg (1997) and Mad About You (1992). 2001 found Ms. Darling juggling many acts. Member of an original musical, "You Haven't Changed A Bit, And Other Lies", which did open mid-June for an unlimited run in Los Angeles, she was also awaiting the release of her third independent film, Ronnie (2002).
This, all addition to her being one of the busiest voice-over actresses in Hollywood. Today, she is one of the busiest actresses in the world of animation, lending her voice to characters in more than twenty of the most popular animation series, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987), Tenchi Muyô! (1992) and Astro Boy tetsuwan atomu (2003).
While her body of work as a voiceover artist greatly eclipses that of her on-stage career, she is, perhaps, nevertheless known best to most (those who haven’t played BG, did you know there’re some?) people as Peggy Callahan, the secretary to Oscar Goldman in the television series The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman.
Jeff Bennett , a legend with his “We're all doomed!” phrase, has also been listed among the top names in the voice-over field. Not only Xan, but also Quayle, Saemon Havarian, Cespenar, Gaelan Bayle and Drizzt Do'Urden are voiced by Jeff Bennett! He has done numerous cartoon voices such as Johnny Bravo, Kowalski (from The Penguins of Madagascar) and some Disney characters. He voiced Mr. Smee in the Epic Mickey games. Bennett has also done the voices of the Joker and other characters on Batman: The Brave and the Bold. In 2012, he was awarded the Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting in a Television Production for his role as Kowalski.
@bengoshi, thank you again for all your hard work here. I just read your latest voice actors entry, and it looks like you're spending a lot of time on these cast bios.
As I said before, it's very nice to see all this information put together in one place, and the side by side photos are a very nice touch.
Baldur's Gate is literally the first single-player game I have played through more than once, and intend to do so a few more times. It is the first game that I have played for almost 300 hrs, and still not fully completed, and continue to learn new things all the time!
That is testament to the quality of the writing, gameplay, depth and replayability of the game.
So I remember first encountering baldur's gate when I visited my best friend in elementary school. I think we were in like 5th grade and his dad was a computer programmer and picked it up. He really played a lot of half-life too, but as we were on the character creation screen I immediately fell in love.
By the time I picked up BG2 and ToB (I want to say 2002), I'd already started reading the Drizzt novels, so my first real character was an elven stalker. I think I specialized in longswords and katanas. I remember trying to find all the 2e books at the library so I could learn more about the game and the system.
The entire reason I got into World of Warcraft, was because my parents went to a gamestop in 2005 and told them I was looking for more games like Baldur's Gate to play. WoW might have taken more time from me over the years, but Baldur's Gate still has my heart and soul. Only the Mass Effect franchise has come close to that. They are a very close #1 and #2 on my list, with Icewind Dale and Dragon Age (both series) coming in a very distant 3rd.
Here's to you Baldur's Gate......from the person who would play a Fighter/Paladin/Ranger Multiclass in a PnP game of D&D at this point.
Stop TOUCHING me! Due to the large number of films he is able to work on in a given year, films with Frank Welker had grossed more than those of any other actor in Hollywood from 1980 until 2011, when he was surpassed by Samuel L. Jackson!
During the 1980s and 1990s, Welker became a very busy actor, providing the voice for many popular cartoon characters in multiple shows including the villainous Doctor Claw in Inspector Gadget, Mister Mxyzptlk and both Darkseid and Kalibak in Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, various G.I. Joe heroes and villains, Ray Stantz and Slimer in The Real Ghostbusters, the villainous Dr. Jeremiah Surd in The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, and Hefty Smurf in The Smurfs. He also voices various characters on The Simpsons such as Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II. He also provided the voice of Fall Apart Rabbit in the 1993 Disney series Bonkers and other various voices for the series, as well as the voices of Mr. Plotz, Runt, Ralph the Guard and various other characters in Animaniacs and McWolf the main antagonist to Droopy and his nephew Dripple in Tom and Jerry Kids and Droopy, Master Detective. He also provides the voice (both speaking and non-speaking) of Nibbler in Futurama. He has voiced several characters for Family Guy, including a parody of Fred Jones. He played the voices of multiple characters in TaleSpin.
Welker performed as voice double for Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and provided voices for The Thing in The Golden Child (1986), Sil in Species (1995) and Malebolgia in Spawn (1997). He has also created the vocal effects for different animals in films including the monkey Abu in Aladdin, its two sequels and the television series Aladdin, Arnold the Pig in the television film Return to Green Acres, he was also the voice of Totoro from the English version of the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro, and a variety of animals from Tiny Toon Adventures. YAY!
In 2005, Welker became the new voice of Garfield, succeeding the original actor Lorenzo Music, who died in 2001 (Welker and Music had previously worked together in The Real Ghostbusters and the original Garfield and Friends). Welker voiced Garfield in Garfield Gets Real, Garfield's Fun Fest, Garfield's Pet Force, and also in the new series The Garfield Show, which has been running from 2008 to present.
And you know what? “Ho there, wanderer! Stay thy course a moment and indulge an old man” as well as other phrases by Elminster are voiced by fantastic Frank Welker. (@elminster , did you know your character is able to yell “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds!” ?;)
Conspicuously missing from this list is the fact that Frank Welker was also the voice of Megatron from the Transformers cartoon. He was also considered for the movie. Listing Hefty Smurf but omitting Megatron? I makes no sense, I tell you!
"the sword coast will run red with blood!" might have been my first words
You can't even talk. I was 3 Months old when it came out. @crevsdaak, it's good to know I'm not the only one of us. I literally learned to read on bg, on a computer running windows 98 and the original 3 or 5 or however many disks it took. Eventually, however, the old game faded out of memory, the disks had been scratched so that the flaming fist compound could not be entered. Until, I May of this year, when I looked at the old computer in the basement and said, I wonder if that old game still runs. Much to my dismay, the disks had been thrown out, but for the one that was required to start the game, glorious disk 3, preserved from the element forgotten in the disk drive itself! I played for hours, quitting and avoiding areas that I needed to change disks for. But it could not last. Without the disks it was not feasible, and that evening, in an act of desperation, I checked the App Store, and low and behold! My childhood, for a mere 10 bucks was before me, however dubiously "enhanced". Of course, despite these concerns, it was purchased, and oh was it worth it. How amazing a "kit" was too behold! Sorcerers, monks! Wild mages! So many choices. And where would I be without sorcerers now? A lowly specialist Mage? I think not. I was lucky, to. Just a few weeks after I bought the game, it was taken down during the legal battle. And so I am where I am now, and that was the short version. I didn't even mention the significance of Edwin's portrait.
@meagloth I have to say that I've used Edwin's portrait until I realized it was Edwin's :P I searched for the CDs lots of time, but I couldn't find them, if I find them I will I think I will repair that old iMac by myself, so I can go and exploit all the original BG1 bugs. Then, I know a lot about amazing combos of spells that can surely left experienced players amazed of the script, that was only done to crush them to goo. [spoiler]
IF See(NearestEnemyOf(Myself)) HPGT(Myself,93) See([GOODCUTOFF]) THEN RESPONSE #100 ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) <- ToB fighters can't resist Oblivion too :P ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_POWER_WORD_STUN) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_POWER_WORD_SLEEP) Continue() END
IF See(NearestEnemyOf(Myself)) HPLT(Myself,85) Delay(6) See([GOODCUTOFF]) THEN RESPONSE #100 ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_LOWER_RESISTANCE) ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_LOWER_RESISTANCE) ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_LOWER_RESISTANCE) ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_POWER_WORD_BLIND) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) <- this one is the real killer, and cheesy! ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) ForceSpell(Myself,WIZARD_IMPROVED_MANTLE) ForceSpell(Myself,WIZARD_SPELL_TRAP) Continue() END
IF Allegiance(Myself,ENEMY) See([PC]) HPGT(Myself,65) THEN RESPONSE #100 ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_POWER_WORD_SILENCE) ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_POWER_WORD_STUN) <-here are some mistakes, it was the first I wrote ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_POWER_WORD_KILL) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CHARM_PERSON) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) Wait(1) Continue() END
IF See(NearestEnemyOf(Myself)) HPGT(Myself,45) THEN RESPONSE #100 ForceSpell(NearestEnemyOf(Myself),BEHOLDER_CHARM_PERSON) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_POWER_WORD_KILL) Wait(4) Continue() END
IF Allegiance(Myself,ENEMY) See([PC]) !StateCheck(LastSeenBy(Myself),STATE_HELPLESS) <-that tends to catch the PC, XD and kill him :P HPGT(Myself,35) THEN RESPONSE #100 ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CHARM_PERSON) ForceSpell(NearestEnemyOf(Myself),WIZARD_MAZE) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) Continue() END
IF See(NearestEnemyOf(Myself)) HPGT(Myself,20) THEN RESPONSE #100 ForceSpell(NearestEnemyOf(Myself),WIZARD_DOMINATION) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) <- triggers at 20 HP or less, he's gettin' weak ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_MAGIC_MISSILE) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_MAGIC_MISSILE) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) ForceSpell([PC],WIZARD_MAGIC_MISSILE) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) ForceSpell([PC],BEHOLDER_CAUSE_SERIOUS_WOUNDS) Wait(3) Continue() END</pre> [/spoiler] Then I might me a power gamer as many people know, but I also make a nice background story for my characters, most of the characters that I don't name Crevs Daak and make them M/T tend to have a relationship with him (Sarilien, my female Swashie/Mage who was supposed to be Dualed to Fighter :P is his consort, his child, Derian, a half-elf (he has two versions, a F/C LN version and a Swashbuckler LE version) that is amazed of the legacy of Crevs, searches for it and unexpectedly he finds himself with another PC of mine, what I am actually running, and the first draft of the names tend to have typos too, Sarilien was originally Sarlien). I didn't learned to read with BG because I knew how to read at 7 YO, and having played LOTS of KotOR2 before was the key to be able to read a single word of english, BG taught me a lot too, but not so much, because I knew a lot of english by that time. I like this game a lot, mainly because, really, I don't know, maybe because it has a nice and captivating story, its NPCs are geniously made and everything in the game is nice for me, PS:T is the only game with a better story than BG2:SoA, most of SoA is based in Time Bandits, a nice movie to see, more if you are a Jonaleth "Jon" Irenicus fan like me, he is as badass as Darth Bane, and he surpasses Darth Vader by waaaaaay far, I think the real baddie is Arioch (I am both mental and physically like him, according to the description of the Elric saga), but Stormbringer seems evil too, but this topic is spoiler for those books AAAAAAAAAnd, yeah, I like writing, no matter what, and I am god at it, more if there is something to motivate me >:D
With Baldur's Gate II, I finally got to play with the high level toys that had been out of reach for so long! I've yet to finish BG2, but it's coming!
One of my most remembered lines is from BG1: "I'm sorry that you feel that way, old man." Also, "The Lord of Murder shall perish, and in his wake shall spawn a score of mortal progency... so saith the wise Alondo."
In a fortnight (December, 21, 2014) it will be the 16th anniversary of Baldur’s Gate.
I congratulate all the forumites and all the developers (again, as the year before)!
The year that has passed since the OP here, has brought us the Android version of BGEE, the patch 1.3 for BGEE and IWDEE for all platforms.
We're already looking into the future, with the release of the patch 1.3 for BG2EE almost here and the mysterious Adventure Y lurking not far away. The talk about a further project has already begun (IWD2EE, PSTEE, IWD3, BGNext or something different).
This progress, as well as our not-dying addiction to Baldur's Gate, are good signs. May our love for BG and subsequent development of IE games never stop!
Just found this excellent thread for the first time today. Thank you for this wonderful shot of nostalgia @bengoshi . My mind was instantly filled with memories of seeing large stacks of the BG game boxes in stores everywhere for a very long time. I really miss seeing that.
This line makes me smile.
“will support up to six different players in its Internet-based multi-player mode and also provides for an excellent solo play experience.”
I guess the Internet-based multi-player mode was a bigger selling point then I had realized. It’s a good thing I was introduced to the game by a person rather then reading about it as I wasn’t even on line yet back then. I probably would have read that and thought, oh something for that newfangled Internet thing.
Brave brave Sir Garrick, Sir Garrick led the way. Brave brave Sir Garrick, Sir Garrick ran away. This line, as many others by Garrick, is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.
He provides voices for a number of popular cartoon characters, including Klaus Heissler in American Dad!, Waddles in Gravity Falls and Perry the Platypus in Phineas and Ferb. At the San Diego Comic-Con 2013 panel, Baker mentioned that when he auditioned, he was asked to provide three different creature sounds, regardless of whether it actually sounded like a platypus, of which one was selected as Perry's characteristic sound.
His voicing of council member Tarrlok in Korra garnered a nomination for the Behind the Voice Actors (BTVA) Voice Acting Award in 2012.
Baker was involved in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars film released in 2008 and its television series afterwards which ran for six seasons. He provided the voices for not only the characters Captain Rex and Commander Cody, but also all the supporting Clone Troopers, the last of which he received an Annie Award nomination for Voice Acting in a Television Production in 2012.
In the video game world, Baker reprised his roles in Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon's multitude of show-related game releases. He also voiced Gravemind in Halo 2 and Halo 3, and the title character Joe in the Viewtiful Joe series released from 2003 to 2005.
Caldo, Niklos and Taurgosz are also voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.
Montaron - Earl Boen
Could you imagine that? "Ye goody goodies make me sick!" and "It won't work, Sarah. You're no killer, I don't believe you'd do it" are voiced by the same man!!!
Now I really doubt if Earl Boen is best known as Monty or a criminal psychologist Dr. Peter Silberman in the Terminator series. Boen reprised the role in both Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, He is the only actor to appear in the first three Terminator films as the same character.
Other films in which he appeared include 9 to 5 (1980), Soggy Bottom, U.S.A. (1981), The Man with Two Brains (1983), Alien Nation (1988), Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994), and Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000). Boen commonly plays doctors in movie and television roles. He may also be noted for his role as Jim Petersen, Angela Bower's boss on the show Who's The Boss?. Earl had a recurring role as Dr. Kramer in the 1990s Fox network cult classic comedy TV series Get a Life.
In 1987, came his first voice role as Taurus in the direct to video G.I. Joe: The Movie.
Some of his most well known voice roles have been villainous pirate LeChuck from the Monkey Island series of adventure games. He has also provided the introductions for World of Warcraft and its expansions, voiced Magtheridon in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade and King Terenas Menethil II in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, including the ending cinematic for that expansion.
Ah... second year of university. A laptop that fitted 1.2gb hard drive space and my friend showed it to me. I was soooo charmed i had to get it. I remember installing and removing programs i did not use even though i knew i needed them for university in future. And swapping disks so often staring with anticipation at the loading screens. Awesome!
And restarting so often with a different character. I think i finished the game about 50 times that year.....
I was barely out of've highschool in 1998 when my brother convinced me to get this game. Funny... how he gave up on it and i motivated myself to play this game to the end. It was the best RPG of the time.
Lets us not forget that Frank Welker also voiced Tiamat the multi-headed dragon in the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon. He is a amazing voice actor, i think he's best work was as Xzar. But he always seemed out of place to me, when it came to Megatron.
Stop TOUCHING me! Due to the large number of films he is able to work on in a given year, films with Frank Welker had grossed more than those of any other actor in Hollywood from 1980 until 2011, when he was surpassed by Samuel L. Jackson!
During the 1980s and 1990s, Welker became a very busy actor, providing the voice for many popular cartoon characters in multiple shows including the villainous Doctor Claw in Inspector Gadget, Mister Mxyzptlk and both Darkseid and Kalibak in Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, various G.I. Joe heroes and villains, Ray Stantz and Slimer in The Real Ghostbusters, the villainous Dr. Jeremiah Surd in The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, and Hefty Smurf in The Smurfs. He also voices various characters on The Simpsons such as Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II. He also provided the voice of Fall Apart Rabbit in the 1993 Disney series Bonkers and other various voices for the series, as well as the voices of Mr. Plotz, Runt, Ralph the Guard and various other characters in Animaniacs and McWolf the main antagonist to Droopy and his nephew Dripple in Tom and Jerry Kids and Droopy, Master Detective. He also provides the voice (both speaking and non-speaking) of Nibbler in Futurama. He has voiced several characters for Family Guy, including a parody of Fred Jones. He played the voices of multiple characters in TaleSpin.
Welker performed as voice double for Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and provided voices for The Thing in The Golden Child (1986), Sil in Species (1995) and Malebolgia in Spawn (1997). He has also created the vocal effects for different animals in films including the monkey Abu in Aladdin, its two sequels and the television series Aladdin, Arnold the Pig in the television film Return to Green Acres, he was also the voice of Totoro from the English version of the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro, and a variety of animals from Tiny Toon Adventures. YAY!
In 2005, Welker became the new voice of Garfield, succeeding the original actor Lorenzo Music, who died in 2001 (Welker and Music had previously worked together in The Real Ghostbusters and the original Garfield and Friends). Welker voiced Garfield in Garfield Gets Real, Garfield's Fun Fest, Garfield's Pet Force, and also in the new series The Garfield Show, which has been running from 2008 to present.
And you know what? “Ho there, wanderer! Stay thy course a moment and indulge an old man” as well as other phrases by Elminster are voiced by fantastic Frank Welker. (@elminster , did you know your character is able to yell “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds!” ?;)
Conspicuously missing from this list is the fact that Frank Welker was also the voice of Megatron from the Transformers cartoon. He was also considered for the movie. Listing Hefty Smurf but omitting Megatron? I makes no sense, I tell you!
Besides, the merchant had an honest face. He was very insistent too, waving his pipe as he named the stars that Boo might have seen. There were many more words amidst his "thee"s and "thou"s that I did not even recognize, but everything became clear to me as he spelled it out.
That merchant seems suspiciously like Elminster. The truth revealed!
----
My own experience with Baldur's Gate was one of skepticism at first. My dad and I had played SSI's Gold Box series (along with a variety of other turn based RPGs) and enjoyed them a lot, so we weren't sure what to think of the real time with pause system. As it turned out I came to love it, but my dad never did. He finished BG, but that would be the last of the new era of games he would play. He still prefers the turn based combat, which can be found in a few indie titles.
It was also a strange experience to go from creating an entire party of six to creating only one character. I had a hard time adjusting to that concept, but after I met the characters and laughed at their various action dialogs I never did consider using multiplayer mode to create a party of my own. I came to feel attached to the various NPCs I met along the way.
I think I fell in love with the game somewhere between Xzar's first utterance of "I am become death, destroy of worlds!" (At the time I didn't realize it was taken from an Oppenheimer quote) and the first time I realized leaving from different edges of the map could open up new areas. The world seemed huge, and I spent many happy hours trudging from place to place in an attempt to find everything. Stumbling across a demon child looking for his lost dog, or a crazed warrior woman looking to challenge any male she met was just plain fun.
A few years later BG also marked the first time I ever downloaded something from the internet for a game. The college computer lab frowned on such things, but I managed to get several voice sets and a few portraits.
When a dwarf says he is sick, you know it's serious! Our beloved dwarf is voiced by William "Bill" Farmer who is best known for being the current voice of the Disney characters Goofy, Pluto, and Horace Horsecollar.
Another big role he played was in the movie Space Jam (1996), where he voiced Yosemite Sam, Sylvester, and Foghorn Leghorn. He also has done several minor voices, both on TV (including The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy) and in video games, including the Destroy All Humans! series, Namco's Tales of Symphonia, where he voiced Governor-General Dorr, in Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts series reprising the role of Goofy, Detective Date in the SEGA game Yakuza, and Sam and others in cult classic adventure game Sam & Max Hit the Road. Farmer has also voiced Secret Squirrel in Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, in both the animated series and its spin-off video game. He also voiced Gaston in one part of Beauty and the Beast, when Gaston eats eggs.
His other voice roles include Stinkie in Casper: A Spirited Beginning and Casper Meets Wendy, Willie Bear in Horton Hears a Who!, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck in Robot Chicken, Captain Wedgewood and Frill Lizard in Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, many voices on EverQuest II, Cletus Samson, Floyd Sanders, Jeff Meyers and Ryan LaRosa in the video game Dead Rising.
In September 2009, Farmer was named a Disney Legend. In 2011, the International Family Film Festival awarded Bill Farmer the 'Friz Award' for Animation. Bill Farmer still regularly performs comedy routines at the Laugh Factory.
Brunos and Irlentree both are voiced by Bill Farmer.
Coran - Brian George
Life is adventure or nothing. Who would have guessed that Casanova from BG is voiced by a British-Israeli actor and voice actor for Indian accents. Brian George's most famous roles are Pakistani restaurateur Babu Bhatt on Seinfeld and the New Delhi gynecologist father of Rajesh Koothrappali on The Big Bang Theory.
He has also done voiceover work in animated shows such as Batman: The Animated Series; Handy Manny; Kim Possible playing antagonist Duff Killigan, a Scotsman who uses exploding golf balls when attacking Kim and Ron Stoppable, Kim's sidekick; Avatar: The Last Airbender as Guru Pathik; Batman Beyond; Justice League (voicing Parasite in style similar to the late Brion James, the first voice actor of Parasite; and portraying Morgan Edge and President George W. Bush), M.A.S.K., Invader Zim, and Jedi Master Ki-Adi Mundi in Season 2 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
He has also appeared in other video games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Ultimate Spider-Man, Mass Effect 3, Everquest II and Final Fantasy XIV. Early in his acting career, he was among the cast of 1985's The Care Bears Movie and made guest appearances in the Canadian television series The Edison Twins, The Littlest Hobo, Comedy Factory and King of Kensington.
Belt and Oublek too are voiced by Brian George.
Eldoth - Neil Ross
There is no good or evil. Only the charming and the tedious. These words (that are actually a quote from Oscar Wilde) as well as many other lines by Eldoth are voiced by Neil Ross whose most known works are Voltron, G.I. Joe and Transformers.
Neil Ross has also done voice work in numerous video games, including Mass Effect (Codex Narrator) and Leisure Suit Larry 6 and 7 (Narrator). Ross has also provided voice roles (such as radio announcers) for many movies, including Back to the Future Part II, Babe, Quiz Show, and Being John Malkovich.
Neil Ross was the announcer for the 75th Annual Academy Awards Telecast in 2003, and the Emmy Awards Telecast in 2004. He has also narrated numerous episodes of A&E's Biography, and many editions of NOVA on PBS (including Mars – Dead or Alive, which was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2004).
He should probably be known to the Star Wars games fans:
Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds – Han Solo Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter Star Wars: Rogue Squadron – Narrator, Han Solo, General Rieekan, Moff Kohl Seerdon, narrator Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi – Han Solo, Jodo Kast Star Wars: Rebellion – Han Solo, Stormtrooper, Imperial Command Center Communications Officer Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance – Admiral Nammo, Concourse PA Announcer, Imperial Officer, Rebel Pilot Star Wars: Force Commander – Han Solo, TR-SD Driver, Ruulian Computer Worker Star Wars: Starfighter – Trade Federation Officer, Rescue 3, Wingman Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter – Wingmate 2
You know i still read the bg1 manual every now and then for the lore. It's just satisfying to read of the different factions in the realms and characters in the game.
I'm pretty new to the Baldur's Gate series, compared to most on this forum. Only discovered it in the last year or so. Since then, it's become one of my favorite RPGs. No matter what else I play, or how busy my life gets I always come back to it.
I found it difficult enough to get into, but I'm glad I never gave up on one of the most enjoyable experience in my gaming life.
My friend gave me his BG1 cd's after he couldn't get past the kobolds in the mine. After I showed him that he could hit space bar to pause the game, he was hooked. But I kept the CDs.
We played BG2 together and it was. and still is, one of the best games of all time. I think I've booked well over 1k hours, replayed with every class, and still know maybe 50% of the game mechanics. Later I realized what made the game great wasn't the mechanics, but the story and characters. IWD just never had the same epic feel. NWN-HoU came close.
After all these years, he still calls them Aria and Minxt.
I've just read this thread for the first time and oh my gods and goddeses do I feel OLD! How old was I when my hubby treated me to this wonderful, exciting, all absorbing game. Check your Douglas Adam books to find the answer!
I've been a huge lover of fantasy and sci-fi fiction since I was 5 years old. Yep, I could read then and my glorious mum and dad took us to the library every week and let us pick our own books. I have been known to be so lost in the laternative reality of a great speculative fiction book that family members hd to actually hit me on the head to get my attention. I immediately found I could get just as lost in the world of Baldur's Gate, and I could get just as attached to the characters that inhabit it. I've played it so many times that hubby now knows all the Minsc quotes off by heart, and loves to hear them coming from my machine.
It's so nice to read your reminiscences! I literally feel my own emotions in your warm words.
Part 5.
Alora - Amber Hood
"Happy Happy Joy Joy!" Amber Hood is known for her work on Onimusha 3 (2004), Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots (2007) and Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving (1999). She is not so well-known as other voice over actors of BG but still her voice is so lively that she's an often guest in animation and video games.
Natalie in Ape Escape 3, Paddra Nsu-Yeul in Final Fantasy XIII-2, Pixie in Free Realms, Parin in Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure, Girl in Green Pajamas in The Polar Express.
Amber also voiced Dryad, Nymph and Tenya.
Tiax - John Mariano
"The day comes when Tiax will point and click!" No doubt about it, John Mariano is a veteran character actor and Emmy Award winning Voice Actor.
For the last 25 years, he has been honing his craft in film, television, animation, theater and nightclubs.
John has had the good fortune of developing his skills as an actor, comedian and improviser, working with such Hollywood legends as Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, Clint Eastwood, Blake Edwards and Steven Spielberg to George Clooney, James Gandolfini, Danny Devito, Gary Sinise and Edward Norton.
With a long list of credits, John has appeared on such shows as “CSI: Miami,” ‘’The Sopranos,” “Desperate Housewives,” “The West Wing,” “The Tonight Show,” and recently “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” where his contributions were that of both writer and actor.
When he’s not appearing on television, John can be found in the recording booth voicing many characters for cartoons including “Batman Beyond,” “Extreme Ghostbusters,” “Transformers,” “Hey Arnold,” “MIB,” “TMNT,” or video games such as ‘’Godfather 2,” “World at War,” “Final Fantasy,” “Star Trek,” “World at Warcraft” and many others too numerous to mention. John can be seen performing around town with the acclaimed Improv group, “The Spolin Players”, the last remaining pupils of Viola Spolin, the Mother of Improv. John can be heard with his co-host Josh Robert Thompson on the “Pokin Around Podcast” on iTunes-Snitcher and Sound Cloud.
Kagain is also voiced by John, along with Brage, Slythe and Tuth.
Kivan - Rob Paulsen
"There is a time for talk. This is not such a time." Although Rob Paulsen voice this line, he has been the voice of over 250 different animated characters and performed in over 1000 commercials. He continues to play parts in dozens of cartoons as well as characters in animated feature movies.
Rob Paulsen is best known as the voice behind Raphael from the 1987 cartoon of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Yakko Warner and Dr. Otto Scratchansniff from Animaniacs, and Pinky from Pinky and the Brain and Animaniacs (!!!).
He plays "Morte", a well-known floating, talking skull, in Planescape: Torment. Anomen Delryn is also voiced by Rob Paulsen.
I wonder how many Kivan fangirls will be surprised to find out the voice they love is the same as Anomen's!
He provides the voice for Erik the Swift of the Lost Vikings in its second installment. He portrays "Tobli" and "Lian Ronso" in the English version of Square Enix's Final Fantasy X-2 and has played the lead character in Bubsy. Although an extremely minor role, Paulsen has also done the voice for the Greek soldiers in God of War. He voiced Jaq and the Grand Duke from the Cinderella world in Square Enix's and Disney's Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. In the video game The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge, he does the voice of "Igor". He also reprised his role as "Yakko Warner", "Dr. Scratchansniff", and "Pinky" in Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt. Rob Paulsen voiced the lead character, Lazarus Jones, in the PS2 game Ghosthunter, and played The Duck Avenger in Disney's PK: Out of the Shadows. Rob also voiced Alfredo Fettuccini, Bob the Ghost Pirate, Lookout and Ghost Priest in The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition. He voiced the Fox and the Mouse in the Green Eggs and Ham PC game. He also voiced "Tlaloc" in Tak and the Power of Juju. Most recently he has voiced The Riddler in Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes, a role he reprised in Lego Batman: The Movie - DC Super Heroes Unite. Rob is the voice of talking alien dog Beak-Beak in Armikrog.
I think the number of successfully finished Irenicus Dungeon runs has been quite big recently, thus...
Irenicus - David Warner
"I cannot be caged. I cannot be controlled. Understand this as you die, ever pathetic, ever fools!"
Best Villain ever. Nuff said.
David Warner is an English actor who is known for playing both romantic leads and sinister or villainous characters, across a range of media, including stage, film, animation, television and video games. Over the course of his long career he is most famous for his roles in films such as Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, Cross of Iron, The Omen, Time Bandits, Tron, Star Trek V and VI, The Lost World, Holocaust, Portrait in Evil, Titanic, and Planet of the Apes. In 1981, he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Special for his portrayal of Pomponius Falco in the television miniseries Masada.
No doubt about it, the voice over acting of Irenicus is superb. Maybe because David Warner started his work in the theatre? Warner made his professional stage debut at the Royal Court Theatre in January 1962, playing Snout, a minor role in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Tony Richardson for the English Stage Company. In March 1962 at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, he played Conrad in Much Ado About Nothing, following which in June he appeared as Jim in Afore Night Come at the New Arts Theatre in London.
He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1963 to play Trinculo in The Tempest and Cinna the Poet in Julius Caesar, and in July was cast as Henry VI in the John Barton adaptation of Henry VI, Parts I, II and III, which comprised the first two plays from The Wars of the Roses trilogy. At the Aldwych Theatre, London, in January 1964, he again played Henry VI in the complete The Wars of the Roses history cycle (1964). Returning to Stratford in April, he performed the title role in Richard II, Mouldy in Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry VI. At the Aldwych in October 1964, he was cast as Valentine Brose in the play Eh? by Henry Livings, a role he reprised in the 1968 film adaptation Work Is a Four-Letter Word.
He first played the title role in Hamlet at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 1965. This production was transferred to the Aldwych Theatre in December of that year. In the 1966 Stratford season, his Hamlet was revived and he also played Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night. Finally at the Aldwych in January 1970, he played Julian in Tiny Alice.
Warner's other work for the theatre has included The Great Exhibition at Hampstead Theatre (February 1972); I, Claudius at the Queen's Theatre (July 1972).
In 2001, Warner returned to the stage after a nearly three-decade hiatus to play Andrew Undershaft in a Broadway revival of George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara. In May 2005, at the Chichester Festival Theatre Warner made a return to Shakespeare, playing the title role in Steven Pimlott's production of King Lear. Tim Walker, reviewing the performance in the Sunday Telegraph, wrote: "Warner is physically the least imposing king I have ever seen, but his slight, gaunt body serves also to accentuate the vulnerability the part requires. So, too, does the fact that he is older by decades than most of the other members of the youthful cast."
On 30 October 2005, he appeared on stage at the Old Vic theatre in London in the one-night play Night Sky alongside Christopher Eccleston, Bruno Langley, Navin Chowdhry, Saffron Burrows and David Baddiel. In December 2006, he starred in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather on Sky1 as Lord Downey. And in August 2007, as an RSC Honorary Artist, he returned to Stratford for the first time in over 40 years to play Sir John Falstaff in the Courtyard Theatre revival of Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2 which were part of the RSC Histories Cycle.
In February 2008, Warner was heard as the popular fictional character Hugo Rune in a new 13-part audio adaptation of Robert Rankin's The Brightonomicon released by Hokus Bloke Productions and BBC Audiobooks. He starred alongside some high-profile names including cult science fiction actress and Superman star Sarah Douglas, Rupert Degas, Lord of the Rings actor Andy Serkis, Harry Potter villain Jason Isaacs, Mark Wing-Davey and Martin Jarvis (written by Elliott Stein & Neil Gardner, and produced/directed by Neil Gardner).
In October 2008, Warner played the role of Lord Mountbatten of Burma in the BBC Four television film In Love with Barbara, a biopic about the life of romantic novelist Barbara Cartland.[6] He plays Povel Wallander, the father of Kurt Wallander, in BBC One's Wallander.
While we're talking about villains, we can't forget Sarevok either.
Sarevok - Kevin Michael Richardson
"I will be the last and you will go first". Kevin Michael Richardson is an American actor who provides voices for a number of characters in animation and video games. He is known for his deep voice and has been playing a wide variety of characters since the early 1990s. Among his many voice roles are Chairman Drek in the video game Ratchet & Clank, Tartarus in the video game Halo 2, Robert Hawkins in Static Shock, Kilowog in Green Lantern: The Animated Series, Trigon in "Teen Titans" and "Teen Titans Go!", Captain Gantu in Lilo & Stitch, Bulkhead in Transformers Prime, Antauri in Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, Cleveland Brown, Jr. in The Cleveland Show, Principal Brian Lewis in American Dad!, The Shredder in the 2012 incarnation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dark Laser on The Fairly OddParents, Mr. Gus in Uncle Grandpa and many others.
Kevin Michael Richardson often plays characters based on comedian Bill Cosby, such as on Family Guy ("Brian Does Hollywood"), where Stewie is a contestant on the comedian's Kids Say the Darndest Things; as Cosby himself on The Boondocks and playing the role of Numbuh 5's father Mr. Lincoln, who is also a homage of Cosby. He also voiced Cleveland Brown, Jr. and Lester Krinklesac and numerous others on The Cleveland Show.
Richardson's voice roles include Panthro in the 2011 Thundercats series, Martian Manhunter on Young Justice, and Bulkhead, one of the lead characters on Transformers: Prime.
He played Kilowog in Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, the video game sequel to the live-action film Green Lantern, and later reprised the role in the animated series Green Lantern: The Animated Series.
Richardson was nominated for Voice Actor of the Year by Behind the Voice Actors in 2012 and in 2013.
Did you know that the Narrator in BG is voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson? He also voices Townsfolk and Gorgeig and Cohrvale in BG2.
Oh dear... to think i was allready an adult and had actually moved out of my parents house some three years before it came out. Not to mention I' ve been playing this game for almost 15 years. Never left my HD, in one version or the other, and i kept going back.
THIS, ladies and gents, is a triumph for the original developers.
My opinion, and I seem to be alone in it, is that the "better graphics" of newer games tends to ruin immersion. When they try to imitate real life so precisely, the flaws become more apparent. In baldur's gate your characters look consistent with the world. in games like neverwinter nights or dragon age, your characters look silly and always have these rigid goofy expressions on their faces. Then there are these crazy camera angles that give you no way to appreciate the world your character is living in. The truth is a video game can never look as good as real life, so when they try to it just looks... weird. I much prefer games like Baldur's Gate where your characters look like figures moving along an oil painting than some of these newer games where you look like robots in a constantly spinning world of three dimensional pixels.
Sometimes less is more.
I couldn't have said it better myself (and I know this for a fact, because I've tried numerous times to say it myself, but could never fully put my thoughts into words).
I'll also add that artwork like this,
...conveys a lot more personality and emotion than a 3D model like this:
If I am being completely honest, the Baldur's Gate series is still, to this day, my favourite game ever created. I have played many other games with the latest and greatest graphics, but there is something about the story telling, the lore surrounding Faerûn and to be brutally honest, hands-down, the BEST magic system in any game I have ever experienced. The game is so complex it still inspires awe 15 years later.
I feel the same way.
I only happened upon BG1 because a relative bought it for me as a Christmas present shortly after its initial release, to celebrate the fact that I had recently gotten a new computer. I don't know whether my relative even knew anything about the game (I certainly didn't), but it turned out to be a near-life changing experience for me. I was in love with the game almost from the moment that I first observed its artwork, before I'd even placed a CD into the drive.
I've spent the next 15 years searching for an RPG (or any kind of computer game, for that matter), that can compete with BG1, but I've yet to find one.
Comments
Minsk - Jim Cummings
You can’t imagine Baldur’s Gate without Minsk (and Boo), can you? Then you simply can’t imagine another voice. Once a designer for Mardi Gras floats. former Louisiana riverboat deckhand and door-to-door salesman, Jim Cummings probably created one of the most known videogame character voices.
But not only swords for everyone… Firkraag, Gorion, Tazok, Abazigal, Gromnir Il-Khan and Demogorgon – they all won’t speak a word if it was not Jim Cummings.
At Disney, Cummings not only replaced Hal Smith as the voice of Winnie-the-Pooh in 1988 (Smith had taken over the role from longtime actor Sterling Holloway in 1981), but also began voicing Tigger in 1990, taking over for Paul Winchell (though Winchell voiced Tigger four more times, the last time being in February 1999) after Winchell died in 2005. When actor Jeremy Irons, the voice of Scar in The Lion King, developed vocal problems during recording of the song "Be Prepared", Cummings was chosen to replace him for the rest of the song.
He voiced several lead characters including Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, (taking over the character of Zummi Gummi after Paul Winchell's departure from the role), DuckTales, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck, Goof Troop, Bonkers, Aladdin, Gargoyles, Timon & Pumbaa, The Legend of Tarzan and House of Mouse, and animated films such as Hercules, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Pocahontas. Cummings also voiced the characters "Bering and Chilkoot" in the 2006 film [Brother Bear 2]] and "Razoul" in the 1994 Aladdin sequel The Return of Jafar.
His other works include Arundel, Hrothgar from Icewind Dale, Thadgeir, Olfrid Battle-Born, Vignar Gray-Mane, Logrulf the Willful, Festus Krex, Froki Whetted-Blade, Nurelion from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Edwin - Jim Meskimen
And what about Edwin Odesseiron? Who would say his voice is unrecognizable (only simians would dare to think it is not).A professional artist, Jim Meskimen exhibits and sells his realist oil paintings. As a designer/cartoonist, he created dozens of characters, weapons and vehicles for the original "Thundercats" animated series. Jim continues to dazzle audiences with his improvisational skills and appears regularly on L.A. stages.
He is known for his work on the improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? and as the voice of President George W. Bush and other politicians for the internet Jib Jab animated shorts. He voices Thom Cat, Neighbor John, and Stumpy in Random! Cartoons and recently, a variety of different characters in the 2012 video game, Lego The Lord of the Rings. He also voiced Emissary and Kweng from Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness.
But the thing I find the most amazing is that… Khalid also speaks with Jim Meskimen’s voice. Voila!
Xzar – Frank Welker
Stop TOUCHING me! Due to the large number of films he is able to work on in a given year, films with Frank Welker had grossed more than those of any other actor in Hollywood from 1980 until 2011, when he was surpassed by Samuel L. Jackson!
During the 1980s and 1990s, Welker became a very busy actor, providing the voice for many popular cartoon characters in multiple shows including the villainous Doctor Claw in Inspector Gadget, Mister Mxyzptlk and both Darkseid and Kalibak in Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, various G.I. Joe heroes and villains, Ray Stantz and Slimer in The Real Ghostbusters, the villainous Dr. Jeremiah Surd in The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, and Hefty Smurf in The Smurfs. He also voices various characters on The Simpsons such as Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II. He also provided the voice of Fall Apart Rabbit in the 1993 Disney series Bonkers and other various voices for the series, as well as the voices of Mr. Plotz, Runt, Ralph the Guard and various other characters in Animaniacs and McWolf the main antagonist to Droopy and his nephew Dripple in Tom and Jerry Kids and Droopy, Master Detective. He also provides the voice (both speaking and non-speaking) of Nibbler in Futurama. He has voiced several characters for Family Guy, including a parody of Fred Jones. He played the voices of multiple characters in TaleSpin.
Welker performed as voice double for Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and provided voices for The Thing in The Golden Child (1986), Sil in Species (1995) and Malebolgia in Spawn (1997). He has also created the vocal effects for different animals in films including the monkey Abu in Aladdin, its two sequels and the television series Aladdin, Arnold the Pig in the television film Return to Green Acres, he was also the voice of Totoro from the English version of the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro, and a variety of animals from Tiny Toon Adventures. YAY!
In 2005, Welker became the new voice of Garfield, succeeding the original actor Lorenzo Music, who died in 2001 (Welker and Music had previously worked together in The Real Ghostbusters and the original Garfield and Friends). Welker voiced Garfield in Garfield Gets Real, Garfield's Fun Fest, Garfield's Pet Force, and also in the new series The Garfield Show, which has been running from 2008 to present.
And you know what? “Ho there, wanderer! Stay thy course a moment and indulge an old man” as well as other phrases by Elminster are voiced by fantastic Frank Welker. (@elminster , did you know your character is able to yell “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds!” ?;)
Shar-Teel - Jennifer Darling
These images when put together seem unlike, don’t they? But it is what a great professional can do – an Actor with the capital A.
Jennifer Darling received an Emmy nomination as Best Supporting Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role on Hooperman (1987). Most Darling has been seen in recurring roles on Dharma & Greg (1997) and Mad About You (1992). 2001 found Ms. Darling juggling many acts. Member of an original musical, "You Haven't Changed A Bit, And Other Lies", which did open mid-June for an unlimited run in Los Angeles, she was also awaiting the release of her third independent film, Ronnie (2002).
This, all addition to her being one of the busiest voice-over actresses in Hollywood. Today, she is one of the busiest actresses in the world of animation, lending her voice to characters in more than twenty of the most popular animation series, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987), Tenchi Muyô! (1992) and Astro Boy tetsuwan atomu (2003).
While her body of work as a voiceover artist greatly eclipses that of her on-stage career, she is, perhaps, nevertheless known best to most (those who haven’t played BG, did you know there’re some?) people as Peggy Callahan, the secretary to Oscar Goldman in the television series The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman.
But the most important thing, for me at least, is that the Devs team now won't miss this anniversary. It means the OP has reached its goal;)
I wonder, will there be some kind of the Anniversary Dinner?
As I said before, it's very nice to see all this information put together in one place, and the side by side photos are a very nice touch.
That is testament to the quality of the writing, gameplay, depth and replayability of the game.
By the time I picked up BG2 and ToB (I want to say 2002), I'd already started reading the Drizzt novels, so my first real character was an elven stalker. I think I specialized in longswords and katanas. I remember trying to find all the 2e books at the library so I could learn more about the game and the system.
The entire reason I got into World of Warcraft, was because my parents went to a gamestop in 2005 and told them I was looking for more games like Baldur's Gate to play. WoW might have taken more time from me over the years, but Baldur's Gate still has my heart and soul. Only the Mass Effect franchise has come close to that. They are a very close #1 and #2 on my list, with Icewind Dale and Dragon Age (both series) coming in a very distant 3rd.
Here's to you Baldur's Gate......from the person who would play a Fighter/Paladin/Ranger Multiclass in a PnP game of D&D at this point.
By the way, here's Welker's voice testing for the Megatron in the first Transformers movie.
Eventually, however, the old game faded out of memory, the disks had been scratched so that the flaming fist compound could not be entered. Until, I May of this year, when I looked at the old computer in the basement and said, I wonder if that old game still runs. Much to my dismay, the disks had been thrown out, but for the one that was required to start the game, glorious disk 3, preserved from the element forgotten in the disk drive itself! I played for hours, quitting and avoiding areas that I needed to change disks for.
But it could not last. Without the disks it was not feasible, and that evening, in an act of desperation, I checked the App Store, and low and behold! My childhood, for a mere 10 bucks was before me, however dubiously "enhanced". Of course, despite these concerns, it was purchased, and oh was it worth it. How amazing a "kit" was too behold! Sorcerers, monks! Wild mages! So many choices. And where would I be without sorcerers now? A lowly specialist Mage? I think not. I was lucky, to. Just a few weeks after I bought the game, it was taken down during the legal battle. And so I am where I am now, and that was the short version. I didn't even mention the significance of Edwin's portrait.
Then, I know a lot about amazing combos of spells that can surely left experienced players amazed of the script, that was only done to crush them to goo.
[spoiler]
With Baldur's Gate, I finally got to play D&D!
With Baldur's Gate II, I finally got to play with the high level toys that had been out of reach for so long! I've yet to finish BG2, but it's coming!
One of my most remembered lines is from BG1: "I'm sorry that you feel that way, old man." Also, "The Lord of Murder shall perish, and in his wake shall spawn a score of mortal progency... so saith the wise Alondo."
I congratulate all the forumites and all the developers (again, as the year before)!
The year that has passed since the OP here, has brought us the Android version of BGEE, the patch 1.3 for BGEE and IWDEE for all platforms.
We're already looking into the future, with the release of the patch 1.3 for BG2EE almost here and the mysterious Adventure Y lurking not far away. The talk about a further project has already begun (IWD2EE, PSTEE, IWD3, BGNext or something different).
This progress, as well as our not-dying addiction to Baldur's Gate, are good signs. May our love for BG and subsequent development of IE games never stop!
'Tis true I swear!
This line makes me smile.
“will support up to six different players in its Internet-based multi-player mode and also provides for an excellent solo play experience.”
I guess the Internet-based multi-player mode was a bigger selling point then I had realized. It’s a good thing I was introduced to the game by a person rather then reading about it as I wasn’t even on line yet back then. I probably would have read that and thought, oh something for that newfangled Internet thing.
Garrick - Dee Bradley Baker
Brave brave Sir Garrick, Sir Garrick led the way. Brave brave Sir Garrick, Sir Garrick ran away. This line, as many others by Garrick, is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.
He provides voices for a number of popular cartoon characters, including Klaus Heissler in American Dad!, Waddles in Gravity Falls and Perry the Platypus in Phineas and Ferb. At the San Diego Comic-Con 2013 panel, Baker mentioned that when he auditioned, he was asked to provide three different creature sounds, regardless of whether it actually sounded like a platypus, of which one was selected as Perry's characteristic sound.
His voicing of council member Tarrlok in Korra garnered a nomination for the Behind the Voice Actors (BTVA) Voice Acting Award in 2012.
Baker was involved in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars film released in 2008 and its television series afterwards which ran for six seasons. He provided the voices for not only the characters Captain Rex and Commander Cody, but also all the supporting Clone Troopers, the last of which he received an Annie Award nomination for Voice Acting in a Television Production in 2012.
In the video game world, Baker reprised his roles in Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon's multitude of show-related game releases. He also voiced Gravemind in Halo 2 and Halo 3, and the title character Joe in the Viewtiful Joe series released from 2003 to 2005.
Caldo, Niklos and Taurgosz are also voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.
Montaron - Earl Boen
Could you imagine that? "Ye goody goodies make me sick!" and "It won't work, Sarah. You're no killer, I don't believe you'd do it" are voiced by the same man!!!
Now I really doubt if Earl Boen is best known as Monty or a criminal psychologist Dr. Peter Silberman in the Terminator series. Boen reprised the role in both Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, He is the only actor to appear in the first three Terminator films as the same character.
Other films in which he appeared include 9 to 5 (1980), Soggy Bottom, U.S.A. (1981), The Man with Two Brains (1983), Alien Nation (1988), Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994), and Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000). Boen commonly plays doctors in movie and television roles. He may also be noted for his role as Jim Petersen, Angela Bower's boss on the show Who's The Boss?. Earl had a recurring role as Dr. Kramer in the 1990s Fox network cult classic comedy TV series Get a Life.
In 1987, came his first voice role as Taurus in the direct to video G.I. Joe: The Movie.
Some of his most well known voice roles have been villainous pirate LeChuck from the Monkey Island series of adventure games. He has also provided the introductions for World of Warcraft and its expansions, voiced Magtheridon in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade and King Terenas Menethil II in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, including the ending cinematic for that expansion.
Thalantyr is also voiced by Earl Boen.
Awesome!
And restarting so often with a different character. I think i finished the game about 50 times that year.....
He is a amazing voice actor, i think he's best work was as Xzar. But he always seemed out of place to me, when it came to Megatron.
----
My own experience with Baldur's Gate was one of skepticism at first. My dad and I had played SSI's Gold Box series (along with a variety of other turn based RPGs) and enjoyed them a lot, so we weren't sure what to think of the real time with pause system. As it turned out I came to love it, but my dad never did. He finished BG, but that would be the last of the new era of games he would play. He still prefers the turn based combat, which can be found in a few indie titles.
It was also a strange experience to go from creating an entire party of six to creating only one character. I had a hard time adjusting to that concept, but after I met the characters and laughed at their various action dialogs I never did consider using multiplayer mode to create a party of my own. I came to feel attached to the various NPCs I met along the way.
I think I fell in love with the game somewhere between Xzar's first utterance of "I am become death, destroy of worlds!" (At the time I didn't realize it was taken from an Oppenheimer quote) and the first time I realized leaving from different edges of the map could open up new areas. The world seemed huge, and I spent many happy hours trudging from place to place in an attempt to find everything. Stumbling across a demon child looking for his lost dog, or a crazed warrior woman looking to challenge any male she met was just plain fun.
A few years later BG also marked the first time I ever downloaded something from the internet for a game. The college computer lab frowned on such things, but I managed to get several voice sets and a few portraits.
All hail Baldur's Gate!
Yeslick - Bill Farmer
When a dwarf says he is sick, you know it's serious! Our beloved dwarf is voiced by William "Bill" Farmer who is best known for being the current voice of the Disney characters Goofy, Pluto, and Horace Horsecollar.
Another big role he played was in the movie Space Jam (1996), where he voiced Yosemite Sam, Sylvester, and Foghorn Leghorn. He also has done several minor voices, both on TV (including The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy) and in video games, including the Destroy All Humans! series, Namco's Tales of Symphonia, where he voiced Governor-General Dorr, in Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts series reprising the role of Goofy, Detective Date in the SEGA game Yakuza, and Sam and others in cult classic adventure game Sam & Max Hit the Road. Farmer has also voiced Secret Squirrel in Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, in both the animated series and its spin-off video game. He also voiced Gaston in one part of Beauty and the Beast, when Gaston eats eggs.
His other voice roles include Stinkie in Casper: A Spirited Beginning and Casper Meets Wendy, Willie Bear in Horton Hears a Who!, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck in Robot Chicken, Captain Wedgewood and Frill Lizard in Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, many voices on EverQuest II, Cletus Samson, Floyd Sanders, Jeff Meyers and Ryan LaRosa in the video game Dead Rising.
In September 2009, Farmer was named a Disney Legend. In 2011, the International Family Film Festival awarded Bill Farmer the 'Friz Award' for Animation. Bill Farmer still regularly performs comedy routines at the Laugh Factory.
Brunos and Irlentree both are voiced by Bill Farmer.
Coran - Brian George
Life is adventure or nothing. Who would have guessed that Casanova from BG is voiced by a British-Israeli actor and voice actor for Indian accents. Brian George's most famous roles are Pakistani restaurateur Babu Bhatt on Seinfeld and the New Delhi gynecologist father of Rajesh Koothrappali on The Big Bang Theory.
He has also done voiceover work in animated shows such as Batman: The Animated Series; Handy Manny; Kim Possible playing antagonist Duff Killigan, a Scotsman who uses exploding golf balls when attacking Kim and Ron Stoppable, Kim's sidekick; Avatar: The Last Airbender as Guru Pathik; Batman Beyond; Justice League (voicing Parasite in style similar to the late Brion James, the first voice actor of Parasite; and portraying Morgan Edge and President George W. Bush), M.A.S.K., Invader Zim, and Jedi Master Ki-Adi Mundi in Season 2 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
He has also appeared in other video games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Ultimate Spider-Man, Mass Effect 3, Everquest II and Final Fantasy XIV. Early in his acting career, he was among the cast of 1985's The Care Bears Movie and made guest appearances in the Canadian television series The Edison Twins, The Littlest Hobo, Comedy Factory and King of Kensington.
Belt and Oublek too are voiced by Brian George.
Eldoth - Neil Ross
There is no good or evil. Only the charming and the tedious. These words (that are actually a quote from Oscar Wilde) as well as many other lines by Eldoth are voiced by Neil Ross whose most known works are Voltron, G.I. Joe and Transformers.
Neil Ross has also done voice work in numerous video games, including Mass Effect (Codex Narrator) and Leisure Suit Larry 6 and 7 (Narrator). Ross has also provided voice roles (such as radio announcers) for many movies, including Back to the Future Part II, Babe, Quiz Show, and Being John Malkovich.
Neil Ross was the announcer for the 75th Annual Academy Awards Telecast in 2003, and the Emmy Awards Telecast in 2004. He has also narrated numerous episodes of A&E's Biography, and many editions of NOVA on PBS (including Mars – Dead or Alive, which was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2004).
He should probably be known to the Star Wars games fans:
Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds – Han Solo
Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron – Narrator, Han Solo, General Rieekan, Moff Kohl Seerdon, narrator
Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi – Han Solo, Jodo Kast
Star Wars: Rebellion – Han Solo, Stormtrooper, Imperial Command Center Communications Officer
Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance – Admiral Nammo, Concourse PA Announcer, Imperial Officer, Rebel Pilot
Star Wars: Force Commander – Han Solo, TR-SD Driver, Ruulian Computer Worker
Star Wars: Starfighter – Trade Federation Officer, Rescue 3, Wingman
Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter – Wingmate 2
I found it difficult enough to get into, but I'm glad I never gave up on one of the most enjoyable experience in my gaming life.
We played BG2 together and it was. and still is, one of the best games of all time. I think I've booked well over 1k hours, replayed with every class, and still know maybe 50% of the game mechanics. Later I realized what made the game great wasn't the mechanics, but the story and characters. IWD just never had the same epic feel. NWN-HoU came close.
After all these years, he still calls them Aria and Minxt.
And I'm rerolling a BG1 toon today.
I've been a huge lover of fantasy and sci-fi fiction since I was 5 years old. Yep, I could read then and my glorious mum and dad took us to the library every week and let us pick our own books. I have been known to be so lost in the laternative reality of a great speculative fiction book that family members hd to actually hit me on the head to get my attention. I immediately found I could get just as lost in the world of Baldur's Gate, and I could get just as attached to the characters that inhabit it. I've played it so many times that hubby now knows all the Minsc quotes off by heart, and loves to hear them coming from my machine.
Part 5.
Alora - Amber Hood
"Happy Happy Joy Joy!" Amber Hood is known for her work on Onimusha 3 (2004), Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots (2007) and Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving (1999). She is not so well-known as other voice over actors of BG but still her voice is so lively that she's an often guest in animation and video games.
Natalie in Ape Escape 3, Paddra Nsu-Yeul in Final Fantasy XIII-2, Pixie in Free Realms, Parin in Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure, Girl in Green Pajamas in The Polar Express.
Amber also voiced Dryad, Nymph and Tenya.
Tiax - John Mariano
"The day comes when Tiax will point and click!" No doubt about it, John Mariano is a veteran character actor and Emmy Award winning Voice Actor.
For the last 25 years, he has been honing his craft in film, television, animation, theater and nightclubs.
John has had the good fortune of developing his skills as an actor, comedian and improviser, working with such Hollywood legends as Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, Clint Eastwood, Blake Edwards and Steven Spielberg to George Clooney, James Gandolfini, Danny Devito, Gary Sinise and Edward Norton.
With a long list of credits, John has appeared on such shows as “CSI: Miami,” ‘’The Sopranos,” “Desperate Housewives,” “The West Wing,” “The Tonight Show,” and recently “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” where his contributions were that of both writer and actor.
When he’s not appearing on television, John can be found in the recording booth voicing many characters for cartoons including “Batman Beyond,” “Extreme Ghostbusters,” “Transformers,” “Hey Arnold,” “MIB,” “TMNT,” or video games such as ‘’Godfather 2,” “World at War,” “Final Fantasy,” “Star Trek,” “World at Warcraft” and many others too numerous to mention. John can be seen performing around town with the acclaimed Improv group, “The Spolin Players”, the last remaining pupils of Viola Spolin, the Mother of Improv. John can be heard with his co-host Josh Robert Thompson on the “Pokin Around Podcast” on iTunes-Snitcher and Sound Cloud.
Kagain is also voiced by John, along with Brage, Slythe and Tuth.
Kivan - Rob Paulsen
"There is a time for talk. This is not such a time." Although Rob Paulsen voice this line, he has been the voice of over 250 different animated characters and performed in over 1000 commercials. He continues to play parts in dozens of cartoons as well as characters in animated feature movies.
Rob Paulsen is best known as the voice behind Raphael from the 1987 cartoon of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Yakko Warner and Dr. Otto Scratchansniff from Animaniacs, and Pinky from Pinky and the Brain and Animaniacs (!!!).
He plays "Morte", a well-known floating, talking skull, in Planescape: Torment. Anomen Delryn is also voiced by Rob Paulsen.
I wonder how many Kivan fangirls will be surprised to find out the voice they love is the same as Anomen's!
He provides the voice for Erik the Swift of the Lost Vikings in its second installment. He portrays "Tobli" and "Lian Ronso" in the English version of Square Enix's Final Fantasy X-2 and has played the lead character in Bubsy. Although an extremely minor role, Paulsen has also done the voice for the Greek soldiers in God of War. He voiced Jaq and the Grand Duke from the Cinderella world in Square Enix's and Disney's Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. In the video game The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge, he does the voice of "Igor". He also reprised his role as "Yakko Warner", "Dr. Scratchansniff", and "Pinky" in Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt. Rob Paulsen voiced the lead character, Lazarus Jones, in the PS2 game Ghosthunter, and played The Duck Avenger in Disney's PK: Out of the Shadows. Rob also voiced Alfredo Fettuccini, Bob the Ghost Pirate, Lookout and Ghost Priest in The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition. He voiced the Fox and the Mouse in the Green Eggs and Ham PC game. He also voiced "Tlaloc" in Tak and the Power of Juju. Most recently he has voiced The Riddler in Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes, a role he reprised in Lego Batman: The Movie - DC Super Heroes Unite. Rob is the voice of talking alien dog Beak-Beak in Armikrog.
Rob also voiced Chanters, Prism, Telmen and Volo.
I think the number of successfully finished Irenicus Dungeon runs has been quite big recently, thus...
Irenicus - David Warner
"I cannot be caged. I cannot be controlled. Understand this as you die, ever pathetic, ever fools!"
Best Villain ever. Nuff said.
David Warner is an English actor who is known for playing both romantic leads and sinister or villainous characters, across a range of media, including stage, film, animation, television and video games. Over the course of his long career he is most famous for his roles in films such as Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, Cross of Iron, The Omen, Time Bandits, Tron, Star Trek V and VI, The Lost World, Holocaust, Portrait in Evil, Titanic, and Planet of the Apes. In 1981, he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Special for his portrayal of Pomponius Falco in the television miniseries Masada.
No doubt about it, the voice over acting of Irenicus is superb. Maybe because David Warner started his work in the theatre? Warner made his professional stage debut at the Royal Court Theatre in January 1962, playing Snout, a minor role in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Tony Richardson for the English Stage Company. In March 1962 at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, he played Conrad in Much Ado About Nothing, following which in June he appeared as Jim in Afore Night Come at the New Arts Theatre in London.
He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1963 to play Trinculo in The Tempest and Cinna the Poet in Julius Caesar, and in July was cast as Henry VI in the John Barton adaptation of Henry VI, Parts I, II and III, which comprised the first two plays from The Wars of the Roses trilogy. At the Aldwych Theatre, London, in January 1964, he again played Henry VI in the complete The Wars of the Roses history cycle (1964). Returning to Stratford in April, he performed the title role in Richard II, Mouldy in Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry VI. At the Aldwych in October 1964, he was cast as Valentine Brose in the play Eh? by Henry Livings, a role he reprised in the 1968 film adaptation Work Is a Four-Letter Word.
He first played the title role in Hamlet at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 1965. This production was transferred to the Aldwych Theatre in December of that year. In the 1966 Stratford season, his Hamlet was revived and he also played Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night. Finally at the Aldwych in January 1970, he played Julian in Tiny Alice.
Warner's other work for the theatre has included The Great Exhibition at Hampstead Theatre (February 1972); I, Claudius at the Queen's Theatre (July 1972).
In 2001, Warner returned to the stage after a nearly three-decade hiatus to play Andrew Undershaft in a Broadway revival of George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara. In May 2005, at the Chichester Festival Theatre Warner made a return to Shakespeare, playing the title role in Steven Pimlott's production of King Lear. Tim Walker, reviewing the performance in the Sunday Telegraph, wrote: "Warner is physically the least imposing king I have ever seen, but his slight, gaunt body serves also to accentuate the vulnerability the part requires. So, too, does the fact that he is older by decades than most of the other members of the youthful cast."
On 30 October 2005, he appeared on stage at the Old Vic theatre in London in the one-night play Night Sky alongside Christopher Eccleston, Bruno Langley, Navin Chowdhry, Saffron Burrows and David Baddiel. In December 2006, he starred in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather on Sky1 as Lord Downey. And in August 2007, as an RSC Honorary Artist, he returned to Stratford for the first time in over 40 years to play Sir John Falstaff in the Courtyard Theatre revival of Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2 which were part of the RSC Histories Cycle.
In February 2008, Warner was heard as the popular fictional character Hugo Rune in a new 13-part audio adaptation of Robert Rankin's The Brightonomicon released by Hokus Bloke Productions and BBC Audiobooks. He starred alongside some high-profile names including cult science fiction actress and Superman star Sarah Douglas, Rupert Degas, Lord of the Rings actor Andy Serkis, Harry Potter villain Jason Isaacs, Mark Wing-Davey and Martin Jarvis (written by Elliott Stein & Neil Gardner, and produced/directed by Neil Gardner).
In October 2008, Warner played the role of Lord Mountbatten of Burma in the BBC Four television film In Love with Barbara, a biopic about the life of romantic novelist Barbara Cartland.[6] He plays Povel Wallander, the father of Kurt Wallander, in BBC One's Wallander.
While we're talking about villains, we can't forget Sarevok either.
Sarevok - Kevin Michael Richardson
"I will be the last and you will go first". Kevin Michael Richardson is an American actor who provides voices for a number of characters in animation and video games. He is known for his deep voice and has been playing a wide variety of characters since the early 1990s. Among his many voice roles are Chairman Drek in the video game Ratchet & Clank, Tartarus in the video game Halo 2, Robert Hawkins in Static Shock, Kilowog in Green Lantern: The Animated Series, Trigon in "Teen Titans" and "Teen Titans Go!", Captain Gantu in Lilo & Stitch, Bulkhead in Transformers Prime, Antauri in Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, Cleveland Brown, Jr. in The Cleveland Show, Principal Brian Lewis in American Dad!, The Shredder in the 2012 incarnation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dark Laser on The Fairly OddParents, Mr. Gus in Uncle Grandpa and many others.
Kevin Michael Richardson often plays characters based on comedian Bill Cosby, such as on Family Guy ("Brian Does Hollywood"), where Stewie is a contestant on the comedian's Kids Say the Darndest Things; as Cosby himself on The Boondocks and playing the role of Numbuh 5's father Mr. Lincoln, who is also a homage of Cosby. He also voiced Cleveland Brown, Jr. and Lester Krinklesac and numerous others on The Cleveland Show.
Richardson's voice roles include Panthro in the 2011 Thundercats series, Martian Manhunter on Young Justice, and Bulkhead, one of the lead characters on Transformers: Prime.
He played Kilowog in Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, the video game sequel to the live-action film Green Lantern, and later reprised the role in the animated series Green Lantern: The Animated Series.
Richardson was nominated for Voice Actor of the Year by Behind the Voice Actors in 2012 and in 2013.
Did you know that the Narrator in BG is voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson? He also voices Townsfolk and Gorgeig and Cohrvale in BG2.
THIS, ladies and gents, is a triumph for the original developers.
I'll also add that artwork like this,
...conveys a lot more personality and emotion than a 3D model like this:
I only happened upon BG1 because a relative bought it for me as a Christmas present shortly after its initial release, to celebrate the fact that I had recently gotten a new computer. I don't know whether my relative even knew anything about the game (I certainly didn't), but it turned out to be a near-life changing experience for me. I was in love with the game almost from the moment that I first observed its artwork, before I'd even placed a CD into the drive.
I've spent the next 15 years searching for an RPG (or any kind of computer game, for that matter), that can compete with BG1, but I've yet to find one.