TOS Voice-Over Actor?

[GSchnitzer]

HarryM wrote:

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One that I've always wondered about is the voice of the Tantalus colony control, I think it was Elizabeth Rogers ("Lt Palmer") but never was able to find out for sure. She also did the voice of the Companion.

I think the female communications voice from the Tantalus Colony was simply Lethe--played by Susanne Wasson.

[Captain Robert April]

That would make sense. She did have a similar voice.

[A.V.I.A.F.]

Captain Robert April wrote:

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That would make sense. She did have a similar voice.

And, she loved her work.

[Captain Robert April]

Christopher wrote:

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Doohan did Sargon's voice in "Return to Tomorrow," the M5 in "The Ultimate Computer," the Melkotian buoy in "Spectre of the Gun," and the Oracle in "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky and My, This Is an Awfully Long Title, Isn't It?"

He also did the base commander in "The Ultimate Computer", one of the Mission Control voices in "Assignment: Earth", and probably a few others that I'm not recalling at the moment.

Sir Rhosis wrote:

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Although I had heard that for years, most sources (Memory Alpha, Wikipedia) now agree that it was Edmiston, not Perrin who dubbed the "real" Balok. Before his death Edmiston asserted same.

Sir Rhosis

cblmc1296 wrote:

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Just went back and listened to the V-O for Clint Howard's Balok and I am convinced. The characteristics of that voice are much more like the Amok Time & Tase of Armageddon voice-overs. I guess it is Edmiston.

Y'see, this is one of the reasons we're doing a new Concordance, to clear up these things.

[scotpens]

The ubiquitous Bartell LaRue did numerous offscreen Trek voices, including the Guardian of Forever in "City on the Edge of Forever," one of the Providers in "Gamesters of Triskelion," the TV announcer in "Bread and Circuses," and some of the mission control voices in "Assignment: Earth." In the original pilot, "The Cage," when the transporter tech says "Yes, sir. There's a canyon to the left. We can set you there completely unobserved," it's LaRue's voice dubbed in.

[Esteban]

^^^
Nice catch, but isn't that transporter chief's voice the guy who did the Mission:Impossible tape voice?

[scotpens]

^^ For years, I thought Bartell LaRue did the voice on the Mission: Impossible tapes, but it turns out it was a voice actor named Robert Johnson. He was frequently heard as the voice of a creature or alien on the original Outer Limits series.

[Gary7]

Nice catch on that, Scotpens. Yeah, playing the voice of the Guardian of Forever in my head followed by the announcer in "Bread and Circuses" comes to a complete match for Bartell LaRue. Also, as the lead Provider in "Gamesters of Triskelion." Heh, I feel kind of silly that I never made the connection.

Here's what Memory Alpha shows:

• "The Squire of Gothos" as Trelane's father (voice). This role had been credited for decades to James Doohan, but it is actually LaRue's voice, as confirmed by Doohan in Starlog Magazine in 1988
• "The City on the Edge of Forever" as the Guardian of Forever (voice)
• "Bread and Circuses" as an announcer (voice and on-screen)
• "The Gamesters of Triskelion" as Provider 1 (voice, uncredited)
• "Patterns of Force" as an Ekosian newscaster (voice and on-screen)
• "The Savage Curtain" as Yarnek

About Doohan being mistakened for Trelane's father, I can understand it... but what I'd originally thought to be Bartell LaRue was James Doohan as the announcer at Mission Control in "Assignment: Earth".


I really like how James Doohan did so many voices for TOS. His Scottish accent for Scotty was so realistic, it's easy to believe that this was his true accent and that he didn't have any others. There's something about his voice articulation as M5 that hints it was Doohan, but I'd never have guessed it for the others.

Funny thing about Vic Perrin... he was the Control Voice in "The Outer Limits". He speaks a bit faster than he did on Star Trek, but you can hear the timber of his voice. He was also the voice for Nomad. Again, it sounds like he changed his vocalizations just a little from what he did as Tharn, more sterile and thus robotic in quality. He definitely did not do Balok, though.

[ToddPence]

I've read that Walker Edmiston overdubbed some of actor Harry Townes' lines in "The Return of the Archons." This might have been due to Townes' pronounced southern drawl. Perhaps the producers felt that an inhabitant of Landru's planet shouldn't sound like a good ole' boy. I don't believe Edmiston was ever credited on-screen for his work on TOS.

[scotpens]

Gary7 wrote:

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I really like how James Doohan did so many voices for TOS. His Scottish accent for Scotty was so realistic, it's easy to believe that this was his true accent and that he didn't have any others.

Listen to Billy Connolly or Craig Ferguson if you want to know what a real Scottish accent sounds like. Whatever accent Jimmy Doohan was doing, it sure as hell wasn't Scottish.

But then, I've never heard a Russian speak English the way Walter Koenig did when he played Chekov. "Keptin, the alien wessel just wanished!" WTF?

[Silvercrest]

DeepSpaceWine wrote:

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Edmiston was also the voice of Inferno in Transformers (the 80s cartoon).

And he was Enik in the original Land of the Lost. Although I don't know if he was voiced over, or if that was actually him in the suit.

[Christopher]

Bob Johnson (the M:I tape voice) did sound a lot like Bart LaRue, and several TOS voices traditionally credited to LaRue were actually Johnson, according to Memory Alpha. It credits him with the following:

"The Cage" as Voice of 1st Talosian, and Voice of Transporter Technician Pitcairn.
...
"The Gamesters of Triskelion" as Voice of Provider 3
"The Immunity Syndrome" as Starfleet voice

ToddPence wrote:

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I've read that Walker Edmiston overdubbed some of actor Harry Townes' lines in "The Return of the Archons." This might have been due to Townes' pronounced southern drawl. Perhaps the producers felt that an inhabitant of Landru's planet shouldn't sound like a good ole' boy. I don't believe Edmiston was ever credited on-screen for his work on TOS.

That wouldn't have been Harry Townes (Reger), but Lev Mailer aka Ralph Maurer (Bilar), the bowler-hatted fellow who first greeted the landing party on their arrival. Bilar's voice was a nasal tenor like Edmiston's, totally unlike Townes/Reger's fuller baritone. Also, his voice was rather blatantly dubbed, as were all the voices in the scenes shot outside on the backlot -- a standard practice in Hollywood since outdoor conditions, wind, aircraft noise, etc. can make it difficult to get a clean voice track. Probably they used Edmiston for the looping session because Bilar had no indoor scenes. Since every one of his lines had to be dubbed over anyway, there was no need to use the actor's real voice, and it was probably more convenient just to give those lines to Edmiston (perhaps in the same recording session as his lines in another episode) rather than hire Mailer to come in and do it.

[Noname Given]

KirkPicard wrote:

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Walker Edmiston was the talent and also provided his voice in "The Corbomite Maneuver" as the voice of Balok...

Are you sure? I could have sworn the voice of "Balok" was done by Ted Cassidy (who also played the andriod "Rok" in What Are Little Girks Made Of and of course is famous for playing the butler "Lurch" in The Addams Family TV series.)

[Gary7]

scotpens wrote:

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Listen to Billy Connolly or Craig Ferguson if you want to know what a real Scottish accent sounds like. Whatever accent Jimmy Doohan was doing, it sure as hell wasn't Scottish.

I did learn later that it isn't very accurate... but it sounds very natural and effortless, like it's his own accent. That's the impression he made on me, anyway.

[Christopher]

Noname Given wrote:

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Are you sure? I could have sworn the voice of "Balok" was done by Ted Cassidy (who also played the andriod "Rok" in What Are Little Girks Made Of and of course is famous for playing the butler "Lurch" in The Addams Family TV series.)

The voice of the fake, scary Balok featured in most of the episode was Ted Cassidy, yes, unmistakably. But the voice of the real childlike Balok seen at the end of the episode was Edmiston (dubbing over Clint Howard).