Frank Welker (born March 12, 1946) (age 66) is a veteran American voice actor. He is responsible for a broad spectrum of character voices, and other vocal effects that have appeared over the last 40 years in American television and motion pictures.
Welker is listed as the number one "All Time Top 100 Stars at the Box Office," not as a box office draw, but in terms of the total revenue generated by the films he has participated in.
Biography
Early Life
Welker was born in Denver, Colorado. He attended college in California, where he later began his 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-Margret and Neil Sedaka.
Voice acting career
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, and CarnEvil. Frank's ability goes beyond creating human voices and is often cast as animals and used for animal vocals, for example the animal-spirit Totoro and Catbus in the Disney 2005 re-dub of My Neighbor Totoro.
Welker starred in more live action movies during the 1990's. His work includes vocal effects for the character of Sil in Species, Goro in 1995's Mortal Kombat, the Devil in 1986'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.
As of 2002, Welker is the voice of both Fred Jones and Scooby-Doo. This includes the most recent iteration: Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated. Also, Welker starred in most of the 2000's Scooby-Doo projects as Fred Jones and Scooby-Doo. He also was Sasquatch in The Legend of Sasquatch. Welker's talent was also recognized in the Lilo and Stitch television franchise (movie and animated series) and PSP game Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, voicing the electric-manipulating Experiment 221, as well as Disney's Stitch: Experiment 626, voicing the jealous and maniacal Experiment 621.
Roles
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