The baritone boom of cartoon villainy.
Tony Jay (2 February 1933 — 13 August 2006) was a British actor who played mostly villainous roles with a deep, highly distinctive voice, both in live-action and animation. His natural speaking voice just oozed magnificence.
He died at 73 in August 2006 from complications from endoscopic surgery.
Of my roles, I am justly proud:
- Time Bandits - (Voice of the Supreme Being)
- The Jungle Book 2 - (Shere Khan)
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame - (Judge Claude Frollo, a role he described as his “bid for immortality”)
- Reboot - (Megabyte)
- Super Secret Secret Squirrel (1993-1995): The Chief (a Cape buffalo).
- Beauty and the Beast - (Monsieur D'Arque)
- Legacy of Kain - (Elder God, Mortaniusnote )
- Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance - (Xantam)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) - (Dregg)
- Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series - (Wraith)
- Spider-Man: The Animated Series - (Baron Mordo)
- TaleSpin - (Shere Khan again, only as a Corrupt Corporate Executive this time).
- Teen Titans - (narrator of "Transformation". It was also his last role before he died.)
- Animaniacs - (narrator; some episodes, most notably "Gunga Dot")
- Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me - (narrator)
- Mighty Max - (Virgil, the mentor and a rare sympathetic role, and even narrating a number of the later toy commercials)
- Lois & Clark - (Lex Luthor's assistant Nigel, a rare live role)
- King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow (CD version): Captain Saladin, Underworld Gate.
- Gargoyles - (Anubis)
- The Bard's Tale - (the 2004 version, as The Narrator)
- Tom and Jerry: The Movie - (Mr. Lickboot. "We've got to have...MONEEEYY....")
- The Tick - (Chairface)
- An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island - (Toplofty)
- Fallout - (Lieutenant)
- Planescape: Torment - (appears around the midpoint and near the end as The Transcendent One)
- Armed and Dangerous - (King Forge)
- Weird Answer Kommand - The Boss.
- Sacrifice - (Mithras)
- Skeleton Warriors - Golden Skull (the narrator of the opening and closing scenes for each episode)
- X-Men Legends - (Magneto, but only for the first game as he fell ill before the second one began development)
- Fantastic Four: The Animated Series - (Galactus and Terrax, but after season 1 he only played the former)
- Treasure Planet - Narrator
- Rugrats - Dr. Lipschitz, additional voices
- Return to Castle Wolfenstein - OSA Director
- Star Trek: The Next Generation - Minister Campio in "Cost of Living".
- Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends - The voice of Spiderus, who at first seemed to be a villain, but was later revealed simply to be a grump at times and later became a father. He got to sing in this one.
- Xyber 9: New Dawn - Machestro
- Invasion America - The Dragit.
- Twin Peaks - Douglas Milford.
- Twins (1988) - Dr Werner, a kindly Mad Scientist (in an instance of Playing Against Type).
May be the only actor to appear in both The '80s TV series Beauty and the Beast and the 1991 Disney Animated Canon feature film Beauty and the Beast.
Troper...you are worthy:
- The Big Guy: He was 6'4".
- Evil Sounds Deep: His deep, powerful voice is what led him to be type-cast as bad guys.
- Large Ham: Occasionally. Especially as Frollo and Lord Dregg.
- One-Take Wonder: He recorded all of his lines for Beauty and the Beast as part of his audition. After hearing his tape the producers decided his performance was perfect, and that there was no point bringing him in just to record the same lines over again, so they sent him a paycheck and used the recording as it was.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Whenever he did an American accent, he sometimes did so well you could barely recognize his voice, but usually, his standard RP accent slipped in and out.
- Typecasting: He was mainly cast in villainous roles, especially the Evil Brit type. This has mostly to do with his voice having a truly chilling, menacing tone while still being very clear and suitable for a more cultured Big Bad.
- Playing Against Type: While largely known for portraying villains, Jay was just as capable of doing more heroic roles, such as Dr. Lipschitz the baby psychologist on Rugrats, the OSA Director on Return to Castle Wolfenstein, The Smart Guy Virgil on Mighty Max, and a small role as the friendly farmyard bull in Thumbelina. To a lesser extent, the scientist who Philium Benedict has "detained" as punishment for the shorting out of the weather laser in Recess: School's Out. And on Twin Peaks, where he plays the Dirty Old Man Douglas Milford whose most villainous trait is his Sibling Rivalry with his brother Dawyne. Also, Spiderus on Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends, who was more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, or at worst a Cranky Neighbor. Even in Legacy of Kain, where he's most known for playing the Elder God from Soul Reaver onwards, he first played Mortanius in Blood Omen, who is a Well-Intentioned Extremist and the Token Good Teammate of the Circle of Nine.
- This was used to set up a Subverted Trope in Gargoyles, where he portrayed Anubis. Everybody Hates Hades, but in this case, Anubis was not a bad guy, just an honest god doing a job.
- Apparently his Typecasting was so well known, that it was even emulated by certain voice actors (eg, Richard Waugh's performance as Albert Wesker from the Resident Evil series was cited to have been based on that of Tony Jay's performance as Shere Khan). His voice also served as an inspiration for Helmut Bakaitis' performance as The Architect from The Matrix Reloaded.
