Michael Bell
| This article is about . For other uses of "Michael", see Michael (disambiguation)|The name or term "Michael" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Michael (disambiguation).}} |
Michael Bell (born July 30, 1938) is an American voice actor and occasional screen actor. Over the course of his prolific voice acting career, some of his most recognized roles include Duke, Major Bludd, Xamot and numerous others from G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Lance and Sven from Voltron, The Riddler, Zan the Wonder Twin and Gleek from Superfriends, Raziel from Legacy of Kain, Quackerjack on Darkwing Duck, Lawrence in the Ratchet and Clank franchise, The Fear in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Grouchy Smurf on The Smurfs, Bruce Banner on The Incredible Hulk, Doctor Octopus on Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, Cyclops on Pryde of the X-Men and Drew Pickles, Chaz Finster and Grandpa Boris from Rugrats.
In terms of screen acting, Bell has appeared as three different characters in two Star Trek series. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Screen Actor's Guild and is the godfather of actor [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Steve Guttenberg|{{#if:||Steve Guttenberg}}]]. His wife is fellow voice actress [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Victoria Caroll|{{#if:||Victoria Caroll}}]] and is the father of actress [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Ashley Bell|{{#if:||Ashley Bell}}]].
Roles
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- Bombshell
- Bonecrusher ("The Autobot Run" only)
- Brainstorm
- Doctor Fujiyama the Famous Scientist
- First Aid
- Frankenstein's assistant
- Gort
- Hi-Q (Powermasters commercial only)
- Junkyard ("Junkion 1")
- Killer Carp (Battle Beasts commercial only)
- Laserbeak (season 1)
- Possum Brown
- Prowl
- Primon
- Rad (Action Masters commercial only)
- Scrapper
- Sideswipe
- Space-Age Jack
- Swoop
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Incidentals
Convention appearances
Notes
- Bell has auditioned for several modern Transformers series, including the live-action films and Animated (where he auditioned for both Prowl and Swoop), but alas, it was not to be. He also auditioned for the roles of Ratchet and General (later Agent) Fowler in Transformers: Prime, but lost the roles to Jeffrey Combs and Ernie Hudson, respectively. He finally returned to the franchise after nearly a decade of trying in Rescue Bots as High Tide...a role he ironically never actually auditioned for, but was instead offered by Ginny McSwain.
- Bell was one of the eight voice actors featured in Shout! Factory's cast reunion in the 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection of the original series.
- Bell managed to voice about 15 characters utilizing 3 or maybe 4 different voices.
- Bell also attempted to produce and voice direct a motion comic adaptation based on the All Hail Megatron series from IDW Publishing, he would've reprised his role as Scrapper and also taken on the role of Skywarp.
External links
Interviews
- April 21, 2012 Interview with Michael Bell at Geewunner.com (archived)
- September 14, 2024 The Voice of Prowl: Interview with Michael Bell | Transformers G1 | 40th Anniversary on the Hasbro Pulse YouTube channel