Michael Bell
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- This article is about the voice actor. For the Irish politician, see Michael Bell. For others with similar names, see Mike Bell.
Michael Patrick Bell (born July 30, 1938 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American actor and voice actor. He is most commonly credited in video games, animated movies, and television series.
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[edit] Career
The following is meant only to provide some examples of Bell's extensive body of work; he has provided voices for many other characters.
[edit] 1970s and 1980s voice work
Bell is a mainstay of 1970s and 1980s animation. In the '70s he voiced the title character of The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show as well as Ernie Devlin of Devlin and Super Friend's Zan the Wonder Twin. In the '80s he voiced Duke on G.I. Joe, Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk, and several characters in The Transformers such as Swoop, Scrapper, and First Aid. For The Smurfs he provided the voices of Lazy, Grouchy, and Handy Smurf along with the human Johan. Bell also voiced Lance and Sven on Voltron and returned to voice Lance in Voltron: The Third Dimension.
Outside of animation, Bell played the voice of the Young Man in A&M Records' Story of Halloween Horror album in 1977 and provided '70s commercial voiceovers for Parkay Margarine and Mug Root Beer. Bell also provided the overdubbing of Peter Criss’ dialogue in the band KISS’ TV movie KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park.
[edit] 1990s and 2000s voice work
Bell's animation work continues to this day. He voiced Quackerjack from Disney's Darkwing Duck in the 1990s as well as Ezekiel Rage in The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest. In the Rugrats and All Grown Up! series of the '90s and 2000s he voiced the parents Drew Pickles, Chaz Finster, and Boris Kerpackter. Also in the 2000s, he provided voices for Drake, Althor, Crimson and Mama in W.I.T.C.H.. He is currently voicing Phil on the series Frisky Dingo, but as the series is a non-union operation, he is credited as "Mike Bell."
[edit] Video game voice work
Bell is also a prolific voice in video games. He voiced the butler Lawrence in Ratchet and Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal and Gleeman Vox in the sequel game, Ratchet: Deadlocked. In Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos he voiced the the Druid of the Talon and Necromancer units and the character Medivh, along with the Druid class and Nihlathak in the game Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. He has also voiced The Fear in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Guts in Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage, WWI journalist Peter Jacob in Eternal Darkness, Deikbeck in Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits, Enorym Tenspur in Advent Rising, the tiefling bard Haer'Dalis in Baldur's Gate II, and John Black in Age of Empires III. He provided the voice of Raziel in three of the Legacy of Kain series games, along with Melchiah and a number of antagonists of the series. He was the voice of Cassus Vicus in Clive Barker's Jericho. Most recently he voiced the character Sed in Lost Odyssey.
[edit] Live-action roles
In addition to his voice work, Bell has performed as a guest actor in the Star Trek series. He appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation pilot episode "Encounter at Farpoint" as Bandi administrator Groppler Zorn and in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes “The Homecoming” (as a Bajoran) and “The Maquis.” Bell also appeared in several episodes of Dallas as Les Crowley during the 1980-81 season and in the M*A*S*H episode "Souvenirs" as Willie Stratton.
[edit] Personal
Bell is married to actress Victoria Carroll.[citation needed] He is an avid animal rights activist. Bell currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Screen Actors Guild, Hollywood Division.[1]
[edit] External links
- Michael Bell at the Internet Movie Database
- Michael Bell article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
- Michael Bell at Teletraan-1, the Transformers Wiki
- Michael Bell at http://www.voicechasers.com
