When I first imagined this series it was under the assumption that my “greats” would be older actors who worked for decades in the field before eventually passing on. I wasn’t naive enough to think that every  voice actor who had died would have done so of old age, after a long and illustrious career, peacefully and in his/her sleep; I just didn’t expect to come across such an immense talent robbed so early, and in such a tragic way.

Phil Hartman was born in 1948 in Ontario, Canada. Ten years later his family immigrated to the US. He eventually wound up on the West Coast, attending California State University and majoring in Graphic Design. Hartman began making a career out of his major by starting his own company and making album covers.He proved to be very talented, designing for bands like Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, whose logo he created.

As is the cliché, Mr. Hartman’s voice acting career started humbly. He voiced some bit roles in the original Scooby Doo and Smurfs, all the while honing his comedic performances by touring with a group of fellow comedians, eventually befriending Paul Reubens, who he helped to create the character of Pee Wee Herman, and even co-wrote the script for Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, with. He was making appearances on Pee Wee’s playhouse, doing phenomenal work on SNL as an uncanny impressionist (most infamously as Bill Clinton and Frank Sinatra) and voicing minor characters for Ducktales, Darkwing Duck and Talespin when he got the biggest break he would have in voice acting.

During the second season of The Simpsons Hartman was brought in for what was originally intended to be a one-time appearance on the show.  Instead, he had such fun and the staff loved him so much that he ended up doing 50 episodes in total, voicing Troy McClure, Lionel Hutz and various background characters, the former being his most well-known voice role. Such was his popularity on the show, both with the staff and the general public, that he was used as often as possible and even got an episode dedicated purely to Troy McClure and his back story. In an article published in Entertainment Weekly shortly after his death, Matt Groening was quotes as saying that Phil ” was a master.” and that ” [Groening] took him for granted because he nailed the joke every time”.

Phil’s fantastic portrayal of smarmy, jerky, and egotistical characters was truly where his mastery lay. Groening even had him set to play a few roles in his next animated series Futurama, the most prominent role being that of Zapp Brannigan. Sadly that wasn’t going to happen for Hartman.

On May 28th, 1998, a strained marriage and his wife’s long history of substance abuse came together in a horrifying conclusion. After a fight, about what no one knows for sure, Phil went to bed while his wife, Brynn, mixed herself a cocktail of alcohol, cocaine and Zoloft. At about 2 am she came into the bedroom and shot Phil to death in his sleep, then later killed herself, making orphans of their two young children.

The shock of this news was mind-blowing to everyone who knew him. Mr. Hartman was kind, giving, personable and down-to-earth, making this sensational tabloid ending to his life so much more unexpected. The world lost an amazing talent, and his friends and family lost a person who, from every description I’ve ever read, was one of the best human beings one could hope to have in his or her life. R.I.P, Phil Hartman.

You Might Remember Him From Such Roles As:

• Troy McClure as Taylor in the stage musical of Planet of the Apes , where Hartman showed us he could SIIIIIIIIIIING!
• Air, the air conditioner from Brave Little Toaster
• Various characters in most of the English dubs of Hiyao Miyazaki’s films, such as Kiki’s Delivery Service and Princess Mononoke
  
• His one-episode stints as Paddywhack on Darkwing Duck, Ace London on Talespin, and Captain Frye on Ducktales.
• I hate to leave anything out, but he had bit parts in so many things. Tiny Toons, The Critc, Ren and Stimpy….

This is easily the most frustrating feature I’ve had to do. Tress MacNeille is one of the biggest names in all of voice-actor-dome, has been working in the industry for thirty-one years and has 247 credits to her name; but as far as the internet is concerned, the woman has no identity. I’ve spent so long trying to work that into some kind of spy reference movie joke thingy that I’m never going to get this done if I don’t move on. The most I’ve gotten out of an extensive (meaning before I got bored) search of anything with the woman’s name in it is her birth date (June 20, 1951) and place (Chicago, according to IMDB, but that changes depending on what you read), and the fact that she was part of the comedy group The Groundlings, which Phil Hartman was also in, early on.

Tress is one of the most present forces in the art of voice acting. There probably isn’t a child in this nation who didn’t hear her voice every time they sat down in front of the television. I can remember being about ten and realizing that Babs Bunny sounded a lot like Charlotte Pickles who reminded me a lot of Gadget who sounded like a much nicer version of Lady Bane from Gummi Bears. Her voice is something that, once you’ve heard it, you hear it everywhere. And I do mean EVERYWHERE. It would be a real challenge to name a single animated anything that she wasn’t involved in at some level.

Mostly Ms. MacNeille tends toward insane or older characters. Even her “normal” characters have a lilt of insanity to their voice; something I’ve come to view as her trademark. No matter what anyone says, she has one of the best insane laughs I have ever heard. She’s on a Mark Hamill level of getting full-on into the crazy, and that’s just how I like my crazy.

Ooh! How about “Finding information on her is like finding out the President’s lunch schedule!” Ha!

No?

You’ve Probably Also Heard Her As:

• Daisy Duck since 1999
• Mom and Linda the newscaster in Futurama (along with about a bazillion others)
• Grandma from Hey Arnold
• Chip Chipmunk since 1989
• Suzi from Full Throttle
• Various characers in English dubs of many of Hayao Miyazaki films
• Agnes Skinner and about a bazillion others from The Simpsons
• Dot Warner and Hello Nurse from Animaniacs
• First Lady from Pinky and the Brain
• Queen Merla from Voltron (Thanks for pointing that out, Drew)
• Honestly just search her IMDB, because there isn’t enough strength in my fingers to do all the typing I’d need to name everything.