Some actors are just born to narrate or provide their voices to characters in animation. Just imagine the calming tones of Morgan Freeman or John Hurt narrating your favourite story!

There are so many voice actors I could have placed in this list like Tom Kenny, Steven Blum, Peter Cullen, Frank Welker and Billy West, but I wanted to focus on actors who’s main job is acting on the big screen, but also lend their familiar tones to animation and documentaries.

There’s a few people I wanted to put in this list such as Ving Rhames, Jeremy irons, Vin Diesel and Alan Rickman, but although they all have awesome voices they haven’t done much voice only work.

So, in no particular order…

Alec Baldwin

An American actor, producer, and comedian. As a member of the Baldwin family, he is the oldest of the four Baldwin brothers, all well-known actors. Alec never shy’s away from voice work and has lent his familiar gravelly voice to so many movies and television including kids cartoons and documentaries.

Notable Voice Work

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• Capt. Gray Edwards (Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within)
• Narrator (The Royal Tenenbaums)
• Narrator (Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends) the US version)
• Butch (Cats & Dogs)
• Dennis (Plankton’s hired hit man) (SpongeBob SquarePants Movie)
• Makunga (Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa)
• Nicholas St. North (Santa Clause) (Rise of the Guardians)
• Himself/Dr. Caleb Thorn (The Simpsons)

 

James Woods

An American actor and producer. A well known character actor who often appears in villainous roles, Woods has lent his voice talents to many animated television shows and feature films. He garnered critical praise for his voice work as Hades in the 1997 Disney film Hercules.

Notable Voice Work

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• Hades (Hercules)
• Himself (Family Guy)
• Himself (The Simpsons)
• Phillium Benedict (Recess)
• Mike Toreno (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas)
• General Hein (Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within)
• Reggie Belafonte (Surf’s Up)

 

Tim Curry

An English actor, singer, and composer, known for his work in a diverse range of theatre, film, and television productions, often portraying villainous roles or character parts such as Pennywise in Stephen King’s IT and Darkness in the movie Legend. Curry has voiced a large number of animated television shows, films and video games.

Notable Voice Work

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• Nigel Thornberry (The Wild Thornberrys)
• Dr Anton Sevarius (Gargoyles)
• MAL (Captain Planet and the Planeteers)
• The Cat King (The Cat Returns)
• Professor Finbar Calamitou (The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius)
• Hexxus (Ferngully : The Last Rainforest)

 

Brian Blessed

Brian Blessed has one of the most booming and powerful voices in the world of acting. Although he is not as well-known in Hollywood as he is in his native England he has performed in over 130 roles in his career so far.

Notable Voice Work

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• Boss Nass (Star Wars Episode I: A Phantom Menace)
• Clayton (Tarzan)
• Grampy Rabbit (Peppa Pig)
• Santa Claus (The Amazing World of Gumball)

 

Patrick Warburton

An American actor best known for television work and who’s acting roles often rely on his deep, booming voice and large physique. Warburton has put his voice to use for several animated films and TV programs.

Notable Voice Work

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• Joe Swanson (Family Guy)
• Cronk (The Emperors New Groove & Cronk’s New Groove)
• Ken (Bee Movie)
• Prince Charming (Happily N’ever After)
• Titan (Space Chimps)
• King Agamemnon (Peabody & Sherman)
• Brock (The Venture Bros)
• The list is endless!

 

Liam Neeson

An Irish actor who has played some amazing characters over the last 35 years including Oskar Schindler, Qui-Gon Jinn and Ra’s al Ghul. Although Neeson didn’t come into voice work really until later in his career, he has since lent his voice to many memorable movie, television and video games characters.

Notable Voice Work

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• Aslan (The Chronicles of Narnia movie saga)
• Fujimoto(Ponyo)
• Bad Cop/Good Cop/Pa Cop (The Lego Movie)
• Father Sean (The Simpsons)

 

Hank Azaria

An American actor, comedian and producer. He is noted for being one of the principal voice actors on the animated television sitcom The Simpsons (1989–present), playing Moe Szyslak, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, Carl Carlson and numerous others.

Notable Voice Work

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• Apu Nahasapeemapetilon (The Simpsons)
• Moe Szyslak (The Simpsons)
• Chief Wiggum (The Simpsons)
• Comic Book Guy (The Simpsons)
• Bartok the bat (Anastasia)
• Carlos & Phil (Hop)
• The Mighty Sven (Happy Feet Two)

 

John Hurt

An English actor who has had a career spanning six decades. Recognisable for his distinctive rich voice, he has also enjoyed a successful voice acting career in films such as Watership Down (1978), the animated The Lord of the Rings (1978), and Dogville, as well as the BBC television series Merlin and various video games and adverts.

Notable Voice Work

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• Hazel (Watership Down)
• Aragorn (The Lord of the Rings: Animation)
• Snitter (The Plague Dogs)
• The Horned King (Black Cauldron)
• Narrator (The Tigger Movie)

 

Morgan Freeman

An actor, film director, and narrator. He is known for his distinctively smooth, deep voice and although Freeman’s voice has become world-renowned for narrating thanks to his supporting role and storytelling in Shawshank Redemption, he actually hasn’t done as much voice only work as people think!

Notable Voice Work

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• Narrator (Marching with Penguins)
• Vitruvius (Lego Movie)
• Narrator/Red (Shawshank Redemption)
• Narrator (War of the Worlds)

 

Patrick Stewart

An English film, television, and stage actor, who has had a distinguished career on stage and screen. He is best known for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation series and its successor films, and also as Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men film series of superhero movies (2000–present).

Notable Voice Work

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• Lord Yupa (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind)
• Lloyd Steam (Steamboy)
• Avery Bullock (American Dad)
• Pharoah Seti (The Prince of Egypt)
• No.2 of the Stonecutters (The Simpsons episode “Homer the Great”)

 

James Earl Jones

Wow! The actual voice of Darth Vader. You can’t get any better than that! Although Jones wasn’t even credited for the original releases of Star Wars Episodes IV & V, though he later would be credited for the first film in its 1997 “Special Edition” re-release. As he explained in a 2008 interview:

James says “When Linda Blair did the girl in The Exorcist, they hired Mercedes McCambridge to do the voice of the devil coming out of her. And there was controversy as to whether Mercedes should get credit. I was one who thought no, she was just special effects. So when it came to Darth Vader, I said, no, I’m just special effects. But it became so identified that by the third one, I thought, OK I’ll let them put my name on it”

He’s been acting in films, television and on stage for over 60 years and has become known as “one of America’s most distinguished and versatile” actors and “one of the greatest actors in American history.”

Although un-credited,again Jones’ voice is possibly heard as Vader at the conclusion of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). When specifically asked whether he had supplied the voice, possibly from a previous recording, Jones told Newsday: “You’d have to ask Lucas about that. I don’t know.”

Notable Voice Work

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• Darth Vader (Star Wars Episodes IV- VI)
• Mufasa (The Lion King)
• Ommadon (Flight of Dragons)
• The Raven (The Simpsons ‘Treehouse of Horror’)

 

These people just missed out on the list

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• Alan Rickman
• Kelsey Grammer
• Ian McKellen
• Kathleen Turner
• Keith David
• Ving Rhames
• Mark Hamill
• Ian McShane
• Hugo Weaving
• Samuel L. Jackson
• Christopher Walken