Frank Welker

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Image:Frank welker pd.gif Frank Welker (born February 16, 1945 in Denver, Colorado), is an American voice actor. He is responsible for a broad spectrum of character voices, noises, and other vocal effects that have appeared over the last 40 years in American TV shows and movies. Welker is particularly noted for a wide range of non-verbal vocal effects, i.e., for aliens and (non-talking) animals.

Before he began his career as a voice actor, Welker was a live-action character actor, and appeared in such films as Elvis' The Trouble with Girls. One of Welker's earliest voice-over roles, starting in 1969, was as Fred Jones, the level-headed leader of the mystery-solving team from Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo, Where are You!, a role Welker has held through most of the show's various spin-offs and versions. This includes nearly all parodies and cameos of the character in other cartoons.

In the 1980s, he voiced Megatron, Soundwave and his cassettes, and Galvatron (Season 3) in the Transformers cartoon. In this he formed a team with Chris Latta, who voiced Starscream, Megatron's second in command. In 1988, Welker did the voice of Rulon leader Krulos in the TV-series Dino-riders. In this cartoon he again formed a team with Chris Latta, who voiced Rasp, Krulos' second in command. Again in G.I.Joe he formed a team with Latta. Other actors who featured in Transformers, Dino-riders and G.I.Joe are Jack Angel, Charlie Adler and Peter Cullen.

He is often referred to as a "voice acting god" Template:Fact in Hollywood for the sheer number of voices he has done, over 1200, ranging from 1969 with his work on Scooby-Doo, to the present day with his many roles in cartoons (Lilo & Stitch: The Series), films (The Cat in the Hat), and computer games (the Baldur's Gate series). In The Transformers, he voiced nearly all of the original Decepticons. With the release of the film, he took on the role of the Autobot Wheelie, and afterwards, took over the role of Galvatron from Leonard Nimoy. Having already provided the screams for Spock in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, this marked the second time he had inherited a role from Nimoy. Welker did more live action movies during the 1990s. Among his work includes vocal effects for the character Goro in 1995's Mortal Kombat, the movie being based on Midway's popular fighting game and he voiced the Devil Malebolgia in 1997's Spawn, the movie based on the very popular Todd McFarlane comic books. He also provided the voice - both speaking and non-speaking - of Nibbler in the cartoon TV series Futurama.

As of 2002, Welker is the voice of both Fred Jones and Scooby-Doo in What's New Scooby-Doo?, the latest series-based spin-off to Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! Many people found his Scooby voice to be much better than Scott Innes voice. He also does the voice of King Bowser in 2003's Mario Party 5, and 2005's Super Mario 64 DS.

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Partial filmography

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External link

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