Frank Welker

Infobox actor
name = Frank Welker


birthname = Franklin W. Welker
birthdate = birth date and age|1946|03|12
location = Denver, Colorado
spouse =
occupation = Voice actor
website = http://mkbmemorial.com/FWHp/

Franklin W. Welker (born March 12, 1946) is an 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. [http://www.the-numbers.com/people/records/]

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 Margaret and Neil Sedaka.

Acting career

Welker's first on camera 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 appeared 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 alongside Jim Staahl and Howie Mandel. Frank also played an on camera role of a voice actor on an episode of "Simon and Simon".

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, 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 in the Disney 2005 re-dub of My Neighbour Totoro. He was described as "unbelievable" at imitating animal sounds by Maurice LaMarche in a Futurama DVD commentary. 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 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 "What's New, Scooby-Doo?", and the series-based spinoff, "Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!" Also, Welker starred in most of the 2000s 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 "", voicing the jealous and maniacal Experiment 6-2-1.

"Transformers"

In the 1980s, Welker voiced many recurring characters in the "Transformers" animated series. He voiced eight of the original 14 Decepticons: Megatron/Galvatron, Soundwave, Skywarp, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Rumble, Frenzy, Ravage, and Ratbat. He also did voicework 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 from Leonard Nimoy. Having already provided the screams for Nimoy's character Mr. Spock in ', this marked the second time he had inherited a role from Nimoy. Welker was asked to audition to reprise his original role of Megatron in the 2007 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. Although this did not occur in the film itself, Welker reunited with "Transformers" co-star Peter Cullen in the 2007 ', with both returning to voice their signature roles. He also reprised his role in the , a bonus premium of the DVD package.

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

* "101 Dalmatians" - Various animal vocal effects including Pongo, Perdita, and the puppies
* "" - Thunderbolt, Steven, Scorch, Cynde
* "ABC Weekend Special" - O. G. Readmore
* "" - Goddard, others
* "Aladdin", "The Return of Jafar" and "Aladdin and the King of Thieves" - Abu
* "Aladdin" (TV series) - Abu, Rajah, Xerxes, additional voices
* "Aladdin in Nasira's Revenge" - Abu
* "Alvin and the Chipmunks" - Additional voices
* "Anaconda" -vocal effects for the anaconda as well as other animals
* "Animaniacs" - Runt, Flavio Hippo, Buttons, Ralph the Guard, Thaddeus Plotz, and Chicken Boo, occasional segment narration
* "A Bug's Life" - The Bird
* "Bonkers" - Fall-Apart Rabbit, Toots, Roderick the Toon Radio, Toon Handbag, Cadet Quark, Elmo, additional voices
* "The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour" - Regular Cast Member
* "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command" - Grubs, Wirewolf vocal effects
* "Caddyshack 2" - Vocal effects for the gopher
* "" - Game Boy (Seasons 2 & 3)
* "Capitol Critters" - Presidential Cats
* "Cats Don't Dance" - Farley Wink
* "Cat's Eye" - Vocal effects for General the cat and the troll
* "Challenge of the Gobots" - Scooter, Zeemon, Blaster, Rest-Q
* "Challenge of the Superfriends"- The Toyman
* "Clay Fighter 63 1/3" - Blob, Ickybod Clay, Lockjaw Pooch and the Zappa Yow Yow Boyz
* "" - Professor XXXL, Mr. Uno
* "Cro" - Gogg, Bobb, Earle, Big Red
* "Curious George" - voice of George
* "Dexter's Laboratory" - Monkey, Quackor, The Infraggible Krunk and Mr. Luzinsky
* "Dink, the Little Dinosaur - Scat and Crusty
* "Dollman vs. Demonic Toys"- Voices of Baby Oopsy Daisy, Jack Attack, and Zombietoid
* "The Don Knotts Show" - regular cast member
* "Dragonball Z" - Great Ape
* "DuckTales" - Bigtime and Baggy Beagle, Bubba, Tootsie and Poe De Spell
* "Dungeons & Dragons" - Uni and Tiamat
* "Dynomutt, Dog Wonder" - Dynomutt, the dog wonder
* "Eight Legged Freaks" - Various giant spider vocal effects
* "Evil Con Carne - Boskov the Bear
* "The Fairly Oddparents" - Doidle, Dinkledog, The Sewer Gator
* "" - Master Cylinder
* "Fangface" - Fangs/Fangface
* "Fangface and Fangpuss" - Fangs/Fangface, Baby Fangs/Fangpuss
* "Family Guy" - Freddy Jones, Kermit the frog
* "Futurama" - Nibbler (both talking and non-talking versions), Seymour, and numerous other animal and humanoid voices
* "G.I. Joe" - Copperhead, Flash, Freedom, Junkyard, Polly, Short-Fuse, Timber, Torch, and Wild Bill
* "Garfield and Friends" - Booker, Sheldon, Bo, Mort, Fred Duck, Dr. Garbanzo Bean
* "Garfield Gets Real" - Garfield, Hardy, Keith, Prop Boy, Two-Headed Guy, Goth Kid.
* "Gargoyles" - Bronx and Baby Alex
* " George of the Jungle" - Little Monkey, Shep, Tooki Tooki Bird, and gorilla sound effects
* "Godzilla" Vocal effects for Godzilla and the Godzilla Jrs.
* "Goof Troop" - Waffles and Chainsaw
* "The Golden Child"- Vocal effects for Charles Dance's Demon form
* "Gremlins" - Stripe and other Mogwai and Gremlins
* "" - Mohawk, Daffy, Lenny, George, and other Gremlins.
* "" - Pegasus, Abu ("Hercules and the Arabian Night"), additional voices
* "" - Special Vocal Effects
* "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" - Max
* "Independence Day (film)" - Alien vocal effects
* "Inspector Gadget" - Brain, Doctor Claw, and Mad Cat
* " The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996 film)" - Various hybrid creature vocal effects
* "Jabberjaw" - Jabberjaw
* "The Jetsons" - Orbity (Seasons 2 & 3, 1984-1987)
* "Jim Henson's Muppet Babies" - Kermit, Beaker, and Skeeter (1985-1990)
* "The Land Before Time"
** "" - Tyrannosaurus (uncredited)
** "" - Velociraptors
** "" - Tickles
** "" - Giganotosaurus (uncredited)
** "" - Albertosaurus (uncredited)
** "" - Velociraptors (uncredited)
** "" - Spinosaurus (uncredited)
* "The Lion King" - Animal vocal effects
* "The Little Mermaid" - Max the Sheepdog, shark, other animal vocal effects
** "" - Max the Sheepdog
* "Man's Best Friend: Vocal Effects for Max the expiramental dog and Boo the cat.
* "Mars Attacks!" -Martians
* "Mighty Max" - Warmonger
* "My Neighbor Totoro" - Totoro / Catbus (Disney English version)
* "Monkey Shines" - Vocal Effects for Ella the monkey
* "Mortal Kombat" - Voice of Shao Kahn (provided vocal effects for Goro)
* "Mulan" - Khan, Cri-Kee
* "Munchies"- Arnold and other munchies voices
* "Oliver & Company" - Louie the Hot Dog Man, Additional voices
* "The Pagemaster" - Voice of Horror, Dragon, Parrot
* "The Pirates of Dark Water" - Niddler, Dark Dweller, Morpho, Lugg Brother #2
* "Pocahontas" - Flit
* "Prehysteria" - Vocal effects for Elvis, Paula, Jagger, Hammer, and Madonna
* " Raiders of the Lost Ark" - Seig Heil the monkey, snakes, scorpions, demons
* "" - Mad Dog
* "The Real Ghostbusters" - Ray Stantz, Samhaine, The Bogeyman and Slimer
* "The Robonic Stooges" - Curly
* "The Road to Eldorado" - Altivo
* "Roger Rabbit"
** "Roller Coaster Rabbit" - Bull
** "Trail Mix-Up" - Beaver / Bear
* "SeaQuest DSV" - voice of Darwin the Dolphin
* "Scooby-Doo" - Freddy Jones (1969-present) and Scooby-Doo (succeeding Scott Innes in 2002)
* "Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics"- Tinker, Yakky Doodle, Magic Rabbit, Sooey Pig, Dynomutt
* "Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!"- Scooby-Doo
** occasionally provides the voice of Fred if the character appears in this incarnation
* "The Simpsons" - Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II, among others
* "The Smurfs" - Clockwork Smurf, Hefty Smurf, Peewit, Poet Smurf, Puppy
* "The Snorks" - Occy, Tooter
* "Spawn" - Malebolgia
* "Species" - Alien Sil's vocal effects
* "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends" - Bobby Drake/Iceman, Flash Thompson, Ms. Lion (Firestar's pet Dog)
* "SpongeBob Squarepants" - Giant clams, misc. voices.
* "Stargate" - mastadge pack animal
* "Superfriends"- Marvin
* "" - Darkseid, Kalibak, Mr Mxyzptlk, Dollmaker
* "Super Mario Bros." - Vocal effects for Yoshi, Goombas, and other creatures.
* "" - Darkseid, Kalibak, Mr. Mxyzptlk, Joker (comics), Toyman
* "" - Dr. Viper
* "" - Tokka and Rahzar
* "The Little Engine That Could" - Perky the Elephant/Eagle/Farnsworth/Jebediah/Rollo
* "Time Squad" - French Captains, Horses, James Sherman/Zombie
* "Tiny Toon Adventures" - Gogo Dodo, Little Beeper, Calamity Coyote, Furrball, Byron Basset, and Barky Marky
* "This Is America, Charlie Brown" - Various characters.
* "The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show" - Spike, Droopy, Slick Wolf, Barney Bear
* "" - Jerry
* "Transformers" - Megatron, Galvatron, Soundwave, Trailbreaker, Mirage, Teletraan II, Ravage, Rumble, Frenzy, Laserbeak, Skywarp, and many others
*"Troll" voice of Torok the troll and various other creatures
* "What's New, Mister Magoo" - McBarker
* "What's New, Scooby-Doo?" - Freddy Jones, Scooby-Doo
* "Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch" - Wheelie and Chopper
* "Yogi's Great Escape" - Bopper, Yapper, the Real Ghost

Video game roles

* "" - Experiment 621
* "Jumpstart Spelling" - Perry
* "Spore" - Creature vocal effects

References

External links

* [http://www.the-numbers.com/people/records/ Frank Welker @ The Numbers]
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