The Voice of Harry Potter

July 22, 2007 10:27 AM

British actor Jim Dale is greeted as a "star" by children and adults when he appears in public and at readings. He has narrated the U.S. audiobooks for the "Harry Potter" series. For the series he worked six-and-a-half-hour days, recording about 18 to 20 pages. Over eight years he has crafted over 200 distinctive voices for the books' characters. He takes into account the aging of the main characters, who started out as 10 and 11 in “Sorcerer’s Stone” and are now 17 and 18 in “Deathly Hallows.” Like the books, the tapes and CDs have been a publishing phenomenon selling more than 5.7 million copies. For his work on the “Harry Potter” series, Mr. Dale has won a Grammy Award, a record 9 Audie Awards (the Oscars for audiobooks) and holds the record for creating the most voices in an audiobook in the Guinness Book of World Records. Audio clips and video interview.
posted by ericb (39 comments total)

I wasn't aware of this. Jim Dale is an absolute riot as the villain in Disney's "Pete's Dragon."
posted by evilcolonel at 10:31 AM on July 22, 2007

Dale was profiled this morning on CBS Sunday Morning in a segment on the growing market for audiobooks: Audiobooks Give New Life To Literature -- "Readers Are Tuning In To Recorded Books, And The Publishing Industry Is Listening." [also linked to in the FPP|third link].

In the next day or so, the video of the segment will likely be posted as a companion to the transcript.
posted by ericb at 10:31 AM on July 22, 2007

I didn't know that. Great he's getting the payday late in his career. For my sins I know him best for his Carry On escapades.
posted by Abiezer at 10:37 AM on July 22, 2007

Great he's getting the payday late in his career.

One would hope he has a sharp agent and better contract than most:

"For all the hours spent in the booth, even a star rarely makes more than $10,000 for an audiobook narration — hardly Hollywood money."^*

posted by ericb at 10:40 AM on July 22, 2007

He did a great live performance of selections of the previous books at the Barnes & Noble event in NYC on Friday night. (Go to about 4:45 on that link to skip all the intro stuff). [Disclaimer: colleagues of mine worked on this].
posted by BT at 10:44 AM on July 22, 2007

In Britain the audiobooks are produced by Bloomsbury and Stephen Fry narrates them.
posted by ericb at 10:44 AM on July 22, 2007

He did a great live performance of selections of the previous books at the Barnes & Noble event in NYC on Friday night.

That's also covered in the CBS Sunday morning segment.
posted by ericb at 10:45 AM on July 22, 2007

I prefer his reading of Harry Potter to the movies and even reading them myself...
posted by Shanachie at 10:46 AM on July 22, 2007

I watched one of the Harry Potter movies, and I thought it sucked. It dosn't make any sense to cram these 1,800 or whatever page books into a 2 hour movie. (I haven't read the books)
posted by delmoi at 10:49 AM on July 22, 2007

I fancied the young Jim Dale. Oh yes I did. I wasn't the only one. I think Kenneth Williams had a bit of a crush on him too.
posted by Summer at 11:09 AM on July 22, 2007

When I was at the movies a couple weeks ago, there was a "trailer" for a new Fall TV show in the US (don't remember which network) called "Pushing Daisies", and I could swear the voice over was by Jim Dale. Anyone else see that and can confirm?

I'm not even a Harry Potter reader, and Mr. Dale is the voice of it for me. My son, daughter, and wife all caught the bug long ago and my wife consequently has purchased just about every audio book media variety available. And that has been my principal Harry Potter experience. Most recently we listened to the entire "Goblet of Fire" on a road trip East for my Grandmother's funeral. I know J.K. Rowling writes the words, but for me Jim Dale really brings them to life.
posted by hwestiii at 11:19 AM on July 22, 2007

OK, I'll snark: Audiobooks are for lazy, lazy people.
posted by papakwanz at 11:26 AM on July 22, 2007

Anyone else see that and can confirm?

"Dale is set to narrate the upcoming ABC drama, Pushing Daisies, adding the 'fairy tale' part of this 'forensics fairy tale'."^*#
posted by ericb at 11:42 AM on July 22, 2007

Finally: another thread about Harry Potter! I just got my copy of the new one after waiting thirty eight hours in line to buy it and now that I've read it twice and cross referenced with all of the other books and listened to all of the DVD commentaries and read every bit of the saturated news coverage of this global historic event I was stuck here in my Harry Potter t-shirt and my homemade wizard hat browsing Metafilter looking for links tangentially associated with the franchise. Thanks ericb!
posted by inoculatedcities at 11:44 AM on July 22, 2007

If you are not intending to read about Harry Potter, now would be a good time to disembark. Exits are to your right and left.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 11:48 AM on July 22, 2007

After reading more about Dale and watching the introduction made by Stephen Riggio on the Barnes & Noble video (to which BT linked above), Dale is one talented fellow: actor, songwriter, Tony Award winning Broadway 'song-and-dance man,' voice-over star, etc.
posted by ericb at 11:53 AM on July 22, 2007

OK, I'll snark: Audiobooks are for lazy, lazy people.

In the CBS Sunday Morning segment they profiled people who prefer listening to a book over music when exercising, driving, doing household chores, etc. They also pointed out that publishers find that audiobooks have a positive impact on the later purchase of the printed book.
posted by ericb at 12:01 PM on July 22, 2007

stephen fry ftw

have to admit being impressed by dale's method, tho
posted by dorian at 12:10 PM on July 22, 2007

delmoi writes "I watched one of the Harry Potter movies, and I thought it sucked."

Which one? The first two are godawful. Not a fan of the books here, but the third movie was genuinely cool.
posted by brundlefly at 12:39 PM on July 22, 2007

I wonder how his readings compare to Brad Neely's?
posted by jtron at 12:48 PM on July 22, 2007

For the series he worked six-and-a-half-hour days

Oh, the humanity.
posted by Item at 1:06 PM on July 22, 2007

These are great. I was driving my wife crazy the other night just saying "Har-Ree!" over and over in Jim Dale's version of Hermione's voice.
posted by stinkycheese at 1:09 PM on July 22, 2007

Heh, after watching the trailer for Pushing Daisies, I'm not at all surprised it involves the same guy who created Dead Like Me (a series I adore).

I'm always in awe of voice actors. I can't seem to manage to change my voice an iota.
posted by flibbertigibbet at 1:28 PM on July 22, 2007

For the series he worked six-and-a-half-hour days

Oh, the humanity.

Ha ha. I think that means six and a half hours of solid reading rather than the eight hours of intermitten work puntuated by web surfing that the rest of us do.
posted by Summer at 2:31 PM on July 22, 2007

who started out as 10 and 11 in “Sorcerer’s Stone” Philosopher's Stone, not Sorcerer's Stone. Don't foist your Americanisms on everyone.
posted by metaxa at 2:32 PM on July 22, 2007

He was better in Carry on (insert word)
posted by A189Nut at 3:05 PM on July 22, 2007

Without the Americanisms there's no post, Metaxa. The Americans are happy to get a washed-up Carry On actor reading the Harry Potter books and think he's a classy Brit. The British get Stephen Fry. Enough said, I think.
posted by Hogshead at 3:13 PM on July 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

Move over, Mel Blanc.
posted by Twang at 4:33 PM on July 22, 2007

OK, I'll snark: Audiobooks are for lazy, lazy people.

When I lived with my parents, I had a 50-minute drive from home to classes, and another coming home. Audiobooks were a godsend, though I was much more a fan of Stephen Brigg's excellent readings of Terry Pratchett. Meanwhile, a friend of mine works the late shift as a Panera Bread baker, and he loves audiobooks.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:24 PM on July 22, 2007

Much prefer the Stephen Fry UK versions. Listening to them right now, actually.
posted by supercres at 5:42 PM on July 22, 2007

Audiobooks are for lazy, lazy people.

Good for blind people too.
posted by alasdair at 1:22 AM on July 23, 2007

Marshall P Knutt would be proud!
posted by kenchie at 1:23 AM on July 23, 2007

Cassetteboy's takes on Stephen Fry's take on Harry Potter (NSFW or sensitive HarryPotterites) 1 2
posted by criticalbill at 8:11 AM on July 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

come to think of it that cassetteboy might be worth an FPP
posted by criticalbill at 8:14 AM on July 23, 2007

criticalbill, I'm a bad man for laughing at that and you, sir, are a badder man for posting it.
posted by howfar at 10:20 AM on July 23, 2007

criticalbill: I would avidly read such a FPP. I've got 'the Parker Tapes' but otherwise know nothing of this man - er, boy's genius.
posted by jtron at 10:56 AM on July 23, 2007

OK, I'll snark: Audiobooks are for lazy, lazy people.

Huh? I read Asimov's Robots of Dawn in probably 6 hours total. I'm listening to the audiobook this week, which will take me twice as long. And maybe it's because I'm a visual person, but it takes more deliberate concentration for me to get as much out of an audiobook as I can get from a book. So that's 12 hours of effort, as opposed to 6 hours of ease. Don't see how that makes one lazy. It's a different medium, that's all. Sometimes you want to read a story, and sometimes you want to hear one told.
posted by vorfeed at 1:33 PM on July 23, 2007

The audiobook voice world record sounds a little too narrow in focus, but who am I to snark about this guy? I have enough trouble keeping all the damn characters straight, let alone come up with individual voice for all of them.
posted by JHarris at 1:40 PM on July 23, 2007

I adore Stephen Fry, so it pains me to say it but: after having compared them for myself, I prefer Jim Dale's readings of the Harry Potter books. He gives them so much life with his many voices. And he gives just the right dryness to the funny bits in the narration (as opposed to dialogue). I don't think Fry's readings are bad at all -- I'll listen to them just because I like his voice -- I just find Dale's more immersive.
posted by tomboko at 9:48 PM on July 23, 2007