For a long time, actors who starred in big-budget blockbusters thought accepting roles in television series meant their careers were all but over. Voice-over roles in cartoons, animations or video games didn’t even cross their minds.
However, improvement in visual aesthetics and storytelling allowed TV to enter a golden age in the early 2000s. Video games combined those two elements with better graphics and a world that is not bound to Earth’s laws.
Nowadays there are consoles in most US homes as video games have become a very profitable entertainment business. The $91.5 billion video game industry has caught the attention of movie stars.
Mark Hamill gave the Joker his iconic voice
Even though Mark Hamill is universally known as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars saga, his video game alter ego may well be able to rival which is truly Hamill’s career defining moment.
His long-standing voice-over role of the Joker is comparable to Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning portrayal of The Clown Prince in the The Dark Knight. Movie fans will always know Hamill as the hero of Star Wars, but hardcore gamers are very aware of his super-villain identity.
Hamill voiced in various incarnations of the Batman cartoon and video game series for almost twenty years, from 1992 to 2011. His final voice work as the Joker was in the award-winning video game, Batman: Arkham City.
Kiefer Sutherland gave his voice and face to Snake
The 24 star provided the facial motion capture and English voices of Big Boss and Venom Snake in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
Kiefer Sutherland, aka Jack Bauer, also voiced in Call of Duty: The World at War, in which Gary Oldman was cast as a voice actor as well.
Sutherland voices the narrator and squad leader of the American campaign, Sergeant Roebuck, while Oldman voices that of the Soviet version, Sergeant Reznov.
Gary Oldman worked with Elijah Wood in Spyro
Commissioner James W. “Jim” Gordon in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy, Gary Oldman participated in the creation of the popular The Legend of Spyro video game trilogy and provided the voice to the Fire Guardian Ignitus.
Ignitus is the mentor of series protagonist Spyro the Dragon. Elijah Wood, Frodo in the The Lord of the Rings trilogy, voices Spyro.
As said before, Oldman voices Sergeant Viktor Reznov and scientist Daniel Clarke in Call of Duty. He also does Sergeant Jack Barnes in the Spearhead expansion for Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.
Most recently he voiced Lord Vortech, the evil mastermind who wants to control the LEGO Multiverse, in the 2015 Lego Dimensions video game. In his next project, Oldman will portray Admiral Ernst Bishop in the upcoming single-player campaign of the space sim video game Star Citizen.
Samuel L. Jackson voiced the main villain in GTA: San Andreas
The actor, best known for doing everything, voiced the main antagonist, Officer Frank Tenpenny, in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. His character got ranked 87 on IGN Entertainment’s 2010 list of the “Top 100 Videogame Villains.”
Fallout 3 Director created a character for Liam Neeson
Retired CIA field operative Bryan Mills for many, but also Qui-Gon Jinn for others, Liam Neeson, voiced James, the main character’s father, in Fallout 3. The game’s executive producer Todd Howard said the character was created thinking of Neeson.
According to Howard, the actor provided the dramatic tone for the the third game in the Fallout series. The 2008 title was extremely well received by critics and shipped 4.7 million copies by the end of that year.
Source: Mental Floss
