Have you ever watched an old film and thought I recognise that voice? Today any B-Z list celebrity can voice a character in an animated film and it would be hard to distinguish who is who; but the 3 following actors have such wonderful vocal tones that it is not hard to understand why their voices were chosen.
Edward G Robinson did not actually voice Chief Wiggum from The Simpson as he died in 1973 and the cartoon started in 1987 but the character's voice is an Hank Azaria impression of the film noir actor. Wiggum's voice was initially to be David Brinkley an NBC and ABC newsreader but his voice was considered too slow (thanks Wikipedia). In Little Caesar (1931) Robinson plays the hoodlum of the title and rounds up his henchmen with calls of 'Come on Boys' just as Chief Wiggum does in The Simpsons.
I recently watched The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) for the first time and loved it. The scene where John Wayne's corrects James Stewart's holding of a hand gun is great chemistry and very funny. Town Marshall Link Appleyard is played by Andy Devine who also voiced Friar Tuck in Walt Disney's Robin Hood (1973). Devine's raspy with just a touch of cowardliness voice was magnificent. Prior to Liberty Valance I had never heard of Devine but he appeared in over 400 films and has a star on Hollywood Boulevard.
There is a little known film starring Barabara Stanwyck and George Sanders called Witness to Murder (1954). Stanwyck's character Cheryl Draper lives alone and through her bedroom window witness's a woman being strangled in an adjacent apartment, later she learns that the murderer is a charismatic Ex-Nazi. Sanders was Shere Khan in Jungle Book (1967); his hypnotic and menacing voice was perfect for villains and scheming cads.
