And the highest grossing actor is...

[Gob]

Frank Welker!!

The Guardian yesterday reported that Hollywood published its league-table of the top 100 credited actors at the box office since 1980.

So who are they? Well, No.3 is Tom Hanks, whose 44 movies grossed $US4.4 billion ($4.25 billion).

No.2 is Samuel L. Jackson, whose 85 movies earned $5.2 billion.

And No.1 is Frank Welker with more than $6 billion for 95 feature film credits.



Huh? Who?

Welker is a voice artist, perhaps the king of voices. He is the cat Azrael in the new Smurfs adventure and all six penguins in Mr Popper's Penguins, with Jim Carrey. He has been the voices of Soundwave on the Transformers films (and Megatron in the games and TV series). He has been both Fred and Scooby in Scooby-Doo. He has been … just about everyone in everything in his time.

His first film credit was with another King, Elvis Presley, in The Trouble With Girls in 1969 and he's been working like a hound dog ever since. He next voiced the character of Fred in the original Scooby-Doo and he has voiced characters in the series every since, including this year's Scooby Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur in which he voiced Fred, Scooby and assorted "Bikers", that's more than forty years of unmasking villains, voicing the pesky kids that prevented them getting away.

If you've fallen in love with an adorable Disney animal sidekick, there's a good chance you've cherished Welker's work. He can be heard as the voice of Abu in Aladdin, Bullseye in the Toy Story series and Flit in Pocahontas.

Oh and he also voices Santa's Little Helper in The Simpsons, Stripe in Gremlins and half of Inspector Gadget (Brain, Dr Claw and M.A.D. Cat included).

Unlike the pouting divas of the acting world, he does not insist on his own interpretative greatness: he can deliver exactly the effect the director wants in the recording studio - in not too many takes. Such people are highly prized, not just for their gifts in characterisation but also for their ability to overdub a squeaky accent or degraded recording.

In Singin' In The Rain, struggling movie extra Kathy (Debbie Reynolds) has to lend her lovely tones to screechy-voiced star Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), who doesn't measure up vocally. And in real life, Anthony Hopkins dubbed the voice of Laurence Olivier for a scene in Spartacus.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/mov ... z1UgWnfCIa

[Liberty1]

A new Mel Blanc?

[Crackpot]

What does it say about me that I didn't have to be told who he is? (that I actually read credits?)

[Sean]

I knew who he was too. Mainly because I have a son who is obsessed by all things Scooby-Doo...