He kicked ass as "Special Vocal Effects"

August 7, 2011 9:11 PM

The All Time Top 100 Stars Credited Actors at the Box Office at the-numbers.com has an interesting #1: Frank Welker, who did voice work in 95 feature films since 1980 totaling over 6-BILLION-dollars gross in the U.S. and 12-BILLION worldwide. Over a third of these roles were "Special Vocal Effects" or "Additional Voices" or such. But, hey, a hit's a hit and a credit's a credit.

His voice work earned him #2 top grossing actor for the '80s, and #1 for the '90s, but he has dropped off some in the '00s, when #1 was... Stan Lee (for all his cameo appearances in Marvel superhero movies). The '10s are looking better than the '00s already, thanks to roles as Shockwave in the last two Transformers movies and Azrael the cat in the Smurfs movie. He is also #1 for 'most movies grossing over $100,000,000' at 23.

#2 on the all-time list is Samuel L. Jackson with 85 movies grossing $5.2 billion, #3 is Tom Hanks with 44 movies grossing $4.4 billion, and #4 is John "Pixar always has a role for me" Ratzenberger with 32 movies grossing $3.9 billion. Everybody who was in all the Harry Potter movies is in the Top 100, with the highest ranked #7 Warwick Davis (who also has a couple Star Wars credits).

Welker has been doing cartoon voices since 1969, where his first breakout role was Fred in the original Scooby Doo cartoons (which he has done ever since, and for the last decade adding Scooby too!) In the '70s, Frank was the voice of Jabberjaw, Fangface, Dynomutt and the Shmoo for Hanna-Barbera. He voiced Dr. Claw, Brain the dog and M.A.D. Cat on Inspector Gadget, Baby Kermit on Muppet Babies and Slimer on The Real Ghostbusters (available on DVD!). He also did Abu the monkey in Aladdin (and every TV show/video game spin-off) and is Nibbler on Futurama.

His roles for specific characters in feature films include many overdubs, including the Monkey in Raiders of the Lost Ark, 'Spock screaming' in Star Trek III, Stripe in Gremlins, "the Thing" in The Golden Child and multiple Reindeers in The Santa Clause. IMDB lists him as the voice of Totoro in the English-language version of "My Neighbor Totoro", but the-numbers.com ignores that credit.

Other semi-anonymous voice actors on the Top Stars list include #9 Jack Angel, #25 Phil Proctor (yes, from the Firesign Theater!), #32 Jim Cummings (oh, Pooh) and #43 Sherry Lynn. It makes for a fascinating list - for all the wrong reasons. Via blogger and non-voice-guy Mark Evanier.

posted by oneswellfoop (24 comments total)

As I saw all the voice guys I was thinking "someone should tell Evanier" and then I got to the end.
posted by Bonzai at 9:23 PM on August 7, 2011

Couldn't help but note: only 17 (quick count, might've missed some) are women. None of the top 20 are women.

But surpisingly (to me) Emma Watson is higher on the list than Daniel Radcliffe.
posted by shaun uh at 9:24 PM on August 7, 2011

This seems a little useless when someone with a very minor role in a high-grossing movie is given the same amount of credit as the headlining star.

For example: Frank Welker gets $1bil added to his tally for his role of "Additional Vocal Effects" in "Alice in Wonderland."

They shot parts of "My Idiot Brother" on my street -- does that mean my average film box office will be whatever that movie makes?
posted by chasing at 9:25 PM on August 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

Somewhere out there is a list on which I'm #1.

Has anyone found it yet?
posted by Salvor Hardin at 9:27 PM on August 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

(Sorry. "Our Idiot Brother." It was called "My Idiot Brother" when they had the flyers taped all over the place telling people not to park.)
posted by chasing at 9:28 PM on August 7, 2011

shaun uh: #20, Mickie McGowan, is a woman. 1/20 is still somewhat skewed however.
posted by dumbland at 9:32 PM on August 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

Nice. Change it around to highest average, and Geraldine Somerville (Lily Potter, DS Penhaligon) is #1. The ratio looks no better, however.
posted by dumbland at 9:35 PM on August 7, 2011

This seems a little useless when someone with a very minor role in a high-grossing movie is given the same amount of credit as the headlining star.

Agreed. I looked up Mickie McGowan (out of a vague sort of guilt for mis-gendering her, I suppose) and at #20 is someone whose voiceography is made up almost entirely of roles like "vendor" (Aladdin) and "mooing cow" (Who Framed Roger Rabbit). Nearly half the credits are just for "additional voices". The one character I recognize is Ursula from Little Mermaid. (By the way, does anyone know what "voice match" means?)

The list is interesting but provides no real useful information.
posted by shaun uh at 9:54 PM on August 7, 2011

...which is why I tagged it "uselessstatistics"
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:59 PM on August 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

And I'm surprised I missed Mickie McGowan on my list of semi-anonymous voice actors, but I (an animation fanboy) had never heard of her!!!

If anyone cares, I met Jack Angel (#9) over 30 years ago when he had a day job as an "Adult Contemporary" Disc Jockey. He used his Announcer Voice and I had no clue he was vocally versatile, but he had an impressive '70s mustache.
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:05 PM on August 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

I can't help but think the terms "actor/actress" become quite meaningless in regards to animated or heavy CGI movies.
posted by meowzilla at 10:50 PM on August 7, 2011

Well, hang on though, even if he had a lot of small parts, his net worth is still estimated at $95M. Samuel L. Jackson? $150M. That ain't chump change.
posted by spiderskull at 11:10 PM on August 7, 2011

But surpisingly (to me) Emma Watson is higher on the list than Daniel Radcliffe.

He's gone off to do serious theatre, she's done some crowd-pleasers like The Tale of Desperaux. Also, I got the impression the earnings difference for male and female actors isn't so much a child or twenty-something problem, more that by middle age you can still fairly easily score roles as a man, not so much as a woman.
posted by rodgerd at 11:21 PM on August 7, 2011

Don't forget Welker's many animal voices on The Simpsons. Which is probably one reason he also did Nibbler on Futurama.
posted by Philofacts at 12:10 AM on August 8, 2011

By the way, does anyone know what "voice match" means?

I believe it's voice work used to fill-in/augment/change a previously-recorded voice track by another actor. The idea is to make the patch sound as close to the original voice as possible. Like when they patch-in "freakin" for "fuckin" when a movie goes to tv. Someone has to do that voice, and it's not normally going to be the multi-million-dollar actor.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:12 AM on August 8, 2011

It makes me happy that Warwick Davis is higher on that list than Tom Cruise.
posted by Jon_Evil at 6:12 AM on August 8, 2011 [4 favorites]

And that Alan Rickman is number 11.
posted by apartment dweller at 6:14 AM on August 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

This is the kind of junk data you get out of the IMDB. Normally people just throw the results away when they realize the "top grossing actor" is someone you never heard of, so bravo I guess.
posted by smackfu at 6:45 AM on August 8, 2011

As a actual fan of Frank Welker, this thread is a huge drag.
posted by heatvision at 7:27 AM on August 8, 2011 [2 favorites]

Salvor Hardin: "Somewhere out there is a list on which I'm #1.

Has anyone found it yet?"

You should stand proud as the #1 most psychohistorical person on metafilter.
posted by vanar sena at 8:33 AM on August 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

Frank is a bonafide genius. He can do ANY animal sound and make it sound like a cartoon animal, a real animal, an anthropomorphized animal with an attitude, ANYTHING.

This is not just a guy who lucked into a great gig - you have probably heard his work literally thousands of times without even noticing.

If you think ADR is tough with human actors, try it when a duck is on screen. Frank Welker has earned every penny.
posted by Aquaman at 9:06 AM on August 8, 2011

I hope I did not give the impression that I am not a fan of Frank Welker... I am. I love ALL the serious cartoon voice people. In fact, considering the criticisms of casting 'name' live-action actors as the leads in toons rather than experienced voicers, I was rather tickled that a 'voice guy' was #1 on the list. (And with Jack Angel in the top 10, I realize I hung out with the wrong disc jockeys in the 70s.)

I did write about the voices in animated features in 2004 (SELF-LINK WITH OLD PEN NAME)
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:21 AM on August 8, 2011

7 Warwick Davis $3,462,496,393

Yay!

(Also, hey, he's starring in the latest Gervais/Merchant project.)
posted by Sys Rq at 12:58 PM on August 8, 2011

oneswellfoop: "#4 is John "Pixar always has a role for me" Ratzenberger with 32 movies grossing $3.9 billion. Everybody who was in all the Harry Potter movies is in the Top 100, with the highest ranked #7 Warwick Davis (who also has a couple Star Wars credits)."

Of course, Ratzenberger has a Star Wars credit of his own.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:50 AM on August 10, 2011