Maurice LaMarche

Maurice LaMarche
LaMarche at the 2010 Comic Con in San Diego, California, on a panel for Futurama.
Born	Maurice LaMarche March 30, 1958 (1958-03-30) (age 53) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Occupation	Voice actor, retired Stand up comedian
Years active	1980-present
Spouse	Robin Eiseman
Awards	Annie Awards Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Male Performer in an Animated Television Production 1998 for Pinky and the Brain

Maurice LaMarche (born March 30, 1958) is an Emmy Award winning Canadian-American voice actor and former stand up comedian. He is best known for his voicework in Futurama as Kif Kroker, as Egon Spengler in The Real Ghostbusters, Verminous Skumm and Duke Nukem in Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Big Bob Pataki in Hey Arnold!, and The Brain in Animaniacs and Pinky and The Brain.

Early life

LaMarche was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, but his family moved to Timmins, Ontario very soon after he was born.^[1] LaMarche's childhood was filled with his "own little world of cartoons and sixties television".^[2] It was not until his sophomore year of high school that he learned of the popularity his talent for mimicry could garner him. This realization came from a coincidental performance in a high school "variety night" when a couple of friends urged him to enter. The act he performed at the variety night was "celebrities as waiters" which he actually used all the way up until the end of his stand up career.^[3]

Stand up

LaMarche in 2006

At the age of 19, LaMarche took his high school act to an open mic night in New York City, performing to a reaction in which, as he describes, "they just totally ignored me".^[4] This reaction was coupled with the backlash LaMarche received from fellow Canadian comedians who LaMarche describes as discouraging him from pursuing a career outside of Canada.^[5]

Three years later, at the age of 22, LaMarche moved straight to Los Angeles to further his stand up career. This move, LaMarche says, would always be something he regretted doing instead of moving to New York.

"... in retrospect, I thought it was a mistake. I think that a couple of years in New York would have made me a stronger comedian." - Maurice LaMarche^[6]

Over the next five years, LaMarche's career would gradually progress, playing comedy clubs all over the U.S., with several appearances on Merv Griffin and "An Evening At The Improv", but in spite of such interest, LaMarche always believed that, while his impersonations and stage presence were strong, he needed to develop funnier comedy material. Despite being so critical of himself, LaMarche would be granted the opportunity of being part of the 1985 HBO production, Rodney Dangerfield Hosts the 9th Annual Young Comedians Special, on which also appeared Bob Saget, Rita Rudner, Louie Anderson, Yakov Smirnoff, and the breakout first appearance of Sam Kinison. Although he was received (and reviewed) favorably, in looking back on his own performance in that special, LaMarche believed he was "probably about five years away from going from being a good comedian to being a great comedian" and being the "only impressionist that actually comes from somewhere".^[7] Unfortunately, LaMarche would not get that chance.

One of LaMarche television roles was when he made a guest appearance on an episode of The Facts Of Life "Seven Little Indians" portraying Rod Serling. In the episode, Serling had a fascination of mentioning Tootie's name, played by Kim Fields.

On March 9, 1987, LaMarche's father was murdered, shot to death by a lifelong friend in a Toronto hotel lobby, in front of dozens of witnesses. This sent LaMarche into depression and alcoholism for the next two years, effectively stalling his stand up career.^[8] After getting sober on Inauguration Day in 1989, LaMarche embarked again into the world of his first love, standup comedy, in the early part of 1990. However, just as he was regaining lost momentum, tragedy struck once more, as his 18-year-old sister was killed in a car accident in September of that year. ^[9] At this point, though he remained sober, LaMarche decided he just could not do standup comedy anymore.

"Oh, that's it. I don't have any funny left in me. I'm done."^[9] - Maurice LaMarche

During his standup career, LaMarche opened for such acts as Rodney Dangerfield, George Carlin, Howie Mandel, David Sanborn and Donna Summer, usually in the main showrooms of Las Vegas and Atlantic City.^[10]

Voiceover acting

LaMarche's first entrance into the voiceover industry was in 1980 in Easter Fever and Take Me Up to the Ball Game, two Canadian films from Nelvana.^[11] LaMarche did not venture into voiceover acting again until years later as a side endeavor during his full-time standup comedy career.

Television

LaMarche began on Inspector Gadget and went on to Dennis the Menace, Popeye and Son and The Real Ghostbusters. After The Real Ghostbusters, LaMarche became a regular mainstay of the voiceover industry appearing in such shows as Talespin, Tiny Toon Adventures, GI Joe, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: The Animated Series, Taz-Mania, Where's Waldo, The Little Mermaid, Batman: The Animated Series, and Bonkers before landing perhaps his most recognized role in 1993 as The Brain on Animaniacs (and later its spin-off show Pinky and the Brain). Following this, LaMarche worked on The Critic, Freakazoid!, and The Tick before then reprising his role of Egon in Extreme Ghostbusters. The stretch of two years after this saw LaMarche portray characters in such shows as Duckman, Hey Arnold! as Big Bob Pataki, Queer Duck, King of the Hill, The Chimp Channel, and Sonic Underground as Sleet. During this time Maurice would become the voice actor for Mortimer Mouse who he would voice in the television series Mickey Mouse Works and Disney's House of Mouse. It was at this time, 1999, that LaMarche began work on Futurama. He won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 2011 for portraying Orson Welles' head and Lrrr in the episode "Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences". Since Futurama LaMarche has continued to work steadily in television, including guest roles on The Simpsons (where he once again parodied Orson Welles). His most recent regular role came as Hovis the butler on the Nickelodeon series Catscratch.

LaMarche has done various voice work for many Warner Bros. Animation and DiC Entertainment cartoons. He also delivered the protracted belches for the "Great Wakkorotti" shorts on Animaniacs, in which Wakko Warner performed various pieces of music. In 2011, LaMarche reprises his role as Yosemite Sam in Cartoon Network's new series, The Looney Tunes Show.

Pinky and the Brain

LaMarche plays the character of The Brain in Pinky and the Brain. In creating the voice for Brain, LaMarche says he looked at a picture of the character and immediately thought of Orson Welles,^[12] although the character wasn't modeled after Welles.^[13] Voicing Brain gave LaMarche the opportunity to make use of his signature impersonation of Welles. Many Pinky and the Brain episodes are nods to Welles' career. LaMarche won an Annie Award for his role as the Brain, and was nominated for an Emmy. Lamarche would later use this accent to voice Father in Codename: Kids Next Door.

The Critic

While working on The Critic, LaMarche once voiced 29 characters in one 30-minute episode.^[14]

His time on The Critic also afforded LaMarche the opportunity to once again parody Orson Welles, this time after a video reading of a will (the Sherman family was so wealthy, they had hired Welles to narrate it) dissolves into a commercial for Mrs. Pells Fishsticks (as well as another for Rosebud Frozen Peas, and another for Blotto Bros. wine).

The Inspector Gadget universe

LaMarche has voiced Inspector Gadget (originally voiced by Don Adams) in two Inspector Gadget films (direct-to-video and television movies) as well as two television series (the original, and Gadget and the Gadgetinis), plus two live-action appearances in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! LaMarche also voiced Chief Quimby.

Heroes

LaMarche acted, voice only, in the second episode of the hit NBC show Heroes, "Don't Look Back", as the villain Sylar. His voice is heard in a chilling recorded phone conversation on Chandra Suresh's answering machine. The role of Sylar was later played by Zachary Quinto.^[15]

Film

LaMarche has appeared in many films, including dubbing the voice of Orson Welles over Vincent D'Onofrio's on-camera performance in Ed Wood; Pepe Le Pew in Space Jam; supplying the voice of the Alec Baldwin puppet in Team America: World Police, and reprising his roles from Queer Duck and Futurama in the direct-to-video films Queer Duck: The Movie and Futurama: Bender's Big Score, respectively.

His one on-camera theatrical film performance was in the 1981 Canadian feature Funny Farm, not to be confused with a later Chevy Chase vehicle of the same name. The film follows the story of a young standup comedian's attempt to break into the big-time on the L.A. comedy scene. LaMarche played Dickie Lyons, an impressionist who befriends the main character, Mark Champlin. The film also starred Howie Mandel, Eileen Brennan, and Miles Chapin.

In Mark Hamill's 2004 movie Comic Book: The Movie, LaMarche made a rare live appearance to be in the special features of the DVD alongside Pinky and the Brain co-star Rob Paulsen. Among other gags, he re-enacted his impression of Orson Welles' famous frozen peas commercial outtake.

Roles in television, film, and video games

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1980	Easter Fever	Don Rattles Steed Martin Peter Easter Bat	Animated special
1980	Take Me Up to the Ball Game		Animated special
1983	Inspector Gadget	Chief Quimby	Animated series
1986	Real Ghostbusters, TheThe Real Ghostbusters	Egon Spengler	Animated series
1986	The Transformers	Six-Gun	Animated series
1986	Dennis the Menace	George Wilson Henry Mitchell	Animated series
1986	Popples	Puzzle	Animated series
1987	Facts of Life, TheThe Facts of Life	Rod Sperling	Live action
1987	Popeye and Son	Popeye	Animated series
1988	Beany and Cecil	Dishonest John	Animated series
1989	G.I. Joe	Copperhead Low-Light Spirit Serpentor Destro Heavy Duty Big Ben Red Star	Animated Series
1990	Captain Planet and the Planeteers	Verminous Skumm	Animated series
1990	Tiny Toon Adventures	Dizzy Devil Orsen Whales Yosemite Sam	Animated series
1990	TaleSpin	General Patton	Animated series
1990	Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: The Animated Series	Zoltan Ketchuck Tomato Guy	Animated series
1991	Taz-Mania	Hugh Tasmanian Devil Daffy Duck	Animated series
1991	Felix the Cat: The Movie	The Grandfather	Direct-to-video Animated film
1992	Cool World	Interrogator #2 Mash drunken bar patron Dr. Vincent "Vegas Vinnie" Whiskers	Live action/Animated film
1993	Animaniacs	Brain Spartacus Bob Hope Squit Wakko (burping only)	Animated series
1993	Bonkers	Mr. Blackenblue March Hare Smarts Tuttle Turtle	Animated series
1994	Tick, TheThe Tick	Human Ton & Handy Pigleg Mr. Smartypants Various other characters	Animated series
1994	Critic, TheThe Critic	Jeremy Hawke Orson Welles Additional Voices	Animated series
1994	Ed Wood	Orson Welles	Voice only
1995	Duckman	Merv Griffin	Animated series
1995	Freakazoid!	Longhorn The Lobe Dan Captain "K"	Animated series
1995	Napoleon	Snake and frill-Necked Lizard	Voice only
1995	Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, TheThe Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries	Yosemite Sam others	Animated series
1995	Gadget Boy and Heather	Boris Mulch and Humus Myron Dabble Chief Strombolli G9	Animated series
1995	Pinky and the Brain	The Brain	Animated series
1996	Space Jam	Pepe Le Pew	Animated film
1996	Dexter's Laboratory	Simion	Animated series
1996	Rocko's Modern Life	Conglomo Lizard	Animated series
1996	All Dogs Go to Heaven 2	Lost & Found Officer	Animated film
1996	Hey Arnold!	Big Bob Pataki Occasional Characters	Animated series
1997	Space Goofs	Etno	Animated series
1997	Extreme Ghostbusters	Egon Spengler	Animated series
1998	Histeria!	Abraham Lincoln	Animated series
1999	Inspector Gadget: Gadget's Greatest Gadgets	Inspector Gadget Chief Quimby	Voice only Animated film
1999	Mickey Mouse Works	Mortimer Mouse Professor Ratigan	Animated series
1999	Wakko's Wish	Brain Squit	Direct-to-video Animated film
1999	Chimp Channel, TheThe Chimp Channel	Harry Waller Bernard the Sarcastic Cockatoo	Voice only
1999	Dilbert	The World's Smartest Garbageman	Animated series
1999	Queer Duck	Oscar Wildcat Mr. Duckstein Other Characters	Animated series
1999	Sonic Underground	Sleet SWATbots Athair (Great Grandfather of Knuckles)	Animated series
1999.1 !1999- 2003	Futurama	Kif Kroker Morbo Calculon Lrrr Horrible Gelatinous Blob Walt Hedonism Bot DonBot Additional characters	Animated series
2000	Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman	Mr. Lawrence Talbot	Voice only Animated film
2000	Hard Drinkin' Lincoln	John Wilkes Booth	Animated series
2001	Disney's House of Mouse	Mortimer Mouse	Animated series
2001	Oblongs, TheThe Oblongs	Tommy Vinegar	Animated series
2002	Inspector Gadget's Last Case: Claw's Revenge	Inspector Gadget	Direct-to-video Animated film
2002	Hey Arnold!: The Movie	Big Bob Pataki Head of Security	Animated film
2002	Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring	Spike and Alley Cat	Direct-to-video Animated film
2002	Codename: Kids Next Door	Father	Animated series
2002	Balto II: Wolf Quest	Balto	Direct-to-video Animated film
2003	101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure	Horace	Direct-to-video Animated film
2003	K10C: Kids' Ten Commandments	Omri and Amos	Animated series
2004	Team America: World Police	Alec Baldwin	Voice only
2004	Balto III: Wings of Change	Balto	Direct-to-video Animated film
2004	Felix the Cat Saves Christmas	Rock Bottom	Direct-to-video Animated film
2004	Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers	Shorty, one of The Beagle Boys	Direct-to-video animated film
2004	Comic Book: The Movie	Himself	"Behind the Voices" Special feature Live action
2004	Duck Dodgers	K'chutha Sa'am	Animated series
2005	Tripping the Rift	Gus	CGI-animated series
2005	My Gym Partner's A Monkey	Principal Poncherello Pixiefrog, Mr. Mandrill, Mr. Hornbill, Mr. Blowhole	Animated series
2005	Catscratch	Hovis	Animated series
2005	Firehouse Tales	Chief	Animated series
2005	Krypto the Superdog	Mechanikat	Animated series
2005	Pom Poko	Narrator	Animated film (English dub)
2006	Tak & the Power of Juju	Chief	Animated series
2006	Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas	Yosemite Sam	Animated film
2006	Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law	Apache Chief Fred Flintstone Wally Gator Quick Draw McGraw Inch High Private Eye Atom Ant Various	Animated series
2006	Shuriken School	Mr. No Naginata Kubo Utamaro Zumichito Daisuke Togakame	Animated series
2006	Operation: Z.E.R.O.	Father	Animated television film
2006	Casper's Scare School	Pirate Thurdigree Burns	Animated television film
2006	Barnyard	Igg the Cow	Animated film
2006	Queer Duck: The Movie	Oscar Wildcat	Direct-to-video
2007	Futurama: Bender's Big Score	Kif Kroker Morbo Calculon Lrrr Additional characters	Direct-to-video Animated film
2007	Random! Cartoons	Klemp Birdsdorf Pickle Cop Dog Catcher Elecaptain Sam Bjorn Working Troll #1
2008	Crash: Mind over Mutant	Dr. Nitrus Brio	Uncredited Video game by Radical Entertainment
2008	Futurama: Bender's Game	Various characters	Direct-to-video Animated film
2008	Jewish Nudist Buddhist, TheThe Jewish Nudist Buddhist	God	Independent film
2008	Guild Wars: Eye of the North	Vekk Lork	Video game expansion pack
2008	Dead Space: Downfall	White Bavaro	Direct-to-video Animated film
2008	Tripping the Rift: The Movie	Gus	Direct-to-video CGI-animated film
2008	Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs	Kif Kroker Various Characters	Direct-to-video Animated film
2009	Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder	Kif Kroker The Donbot Clamps Calculon Morbo Lrrr Various characters	Direct-to-video Animated film
2009	Bob & Doug	Various characters	Animated series
2010- present	Futurama	Kif Kroker Morbo Calculon Lrrr Horrible Gelatinous Blob Walt Hedonism Bot DonBot Additional characters	Animated series
2011-present	Looney Tunes Show, TheThe Looney Tunes Show	Yosemite Sam	Animated series
2011	Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated	Vincent Van Ghoul	Animated series
2011	Batman: Arkham City	Mr. Freeze	Video game by Rocksteady Studios
2011	Adventure Time	Grand Master Wizard	1 episode

Other media

• Commercials
  • Kellogg's Froot Loops spokesbird Toucan Sam.
  • The animated Willy Wonka character in Nestlé's Willy Wonka Candy Company' commercials
  • Narration for Lexus commercials.
• Video games
  • Several characters in Lucasarts' Full Throttle
  • Yoshimo and Renal Bloodscalp in the award-winning RPG, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn.
  • Jack O' Lantern in The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
  • Vekk in Guild Wars Eye of the North
  • The Brain in Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt
  • Doctor Nitrus Brio in Crash: Mind over Mutant
  • Mr. Freeze in Batman: Arkham City
  • Mortimer Mouse Disney Golf
  • Toadman in Battle Beast
  • Narrator in the commercial for the video game Nightmare Creatures ^[16]
  • William Shakespeare in The Simpsons Game
• Web Originals
  • Avocado Soldier in Axe Cop Motion ^[17]

References

1. ^ Interview with Quick Stop Entertainment (5th question) Interview with Quick Stop Entertainment (8th question)
2. ^ Plume, Ken. "Interview with Quick Stop Entertainment (12th question)". Quickstopentertainment.com. http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/?p=1153&page=1. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
3. ^ Plume, Ken. "Interview with Quick Stop Entertainment (18th question)". Quickstopentertainment.com. http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/?p=1153&page=1. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
4. ^ Plume, Ken. "Interview with Quick Stop Entertainment (questions 19-21)". Quickstopentertainment.com. http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/?p=1153&page=1. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
5. ^ Plume, Ken. "Interview with Quick Stop Entertainment (Questions 22-26)". Quickstopentertainment.com. http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/?p=1153&page=1. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
6. ^ Plume, Ken. "Interview with Quick Stop Entertainment (40th question)". Quickstopentertainment.com. http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/?p=1153&page=1. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
7. ^ Plume, Ken. "Interview with Quick Stop Entertainment (Questions 42-43)". Quickstopentertainment.com. http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/?p=1153&page=1. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
8. ^ Plume, Ken. "Interview with Quick Stop Entertainment (43rd question)". Quickstopentertainment.com. http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/?p=1153&page=1. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
9. ^ ^{a b} Plume, Ken. "Interview with Quick Stop Entertainment (51st question)". Quickstopentertainment.com. http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/?p=1153&page=1. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
10. ^ Plume, Ken. "Interview with Quick Stop Entertainment (45th question)". Quickstopentertainment.com. http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/?p=1153&page=1. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
11. ^ "Interview with Quick Stop Entertainment (2nd page, Questions 33 and 39". Quickstopentertainment.com. http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/?p=1153&page=2. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
12. ^ "Interview with Quick Stop Entertainment (5th question)". Quickstopentertainment.com. http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/?p=1153&page=2. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
13. ^ "Interview with Quick Stop Entertainment (3rd page, 27th question)". Quickstopentertainment.com. http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/?p=1153&page=3. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
14. ^ "Interview with Quick Stop Entertainment (4th page, 19th question)". Quickstopentertainment.com. http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/?p=1153&page=4. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
15. ^ Salem, Rob (2008-09-20). "Zachary Quinto interview: Vulcan vs. Villain". TheStar.com. http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/Television/article/501883. Retrieved 2008-09-20. ""Before Quinto was cast, the character's early, off-camera presence was the uncredited work of Toronto-born voice veteran Maurice LaMarche"" 
16. ^ "Blatant Bias: Opposite of Dream Creatures". Blatantbias.blogspot.com. 2009-02-09. http://blatantbias.blogspot.com/2009/02/opposite-of-dream-creatures.html. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 
17. ^ "Axe Cop Episode THREE". YouTube. http://youtube.com/watch?v=R6LslccLidw. Retrieved 2010-08-26. 

External links

• Maurice LaMarche Interview on Talk Radio Meltdown

• Maurice LaMarche at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview with Maurice LaMarche on "The Joe Cook Program"

Persondata
Name	Lamarche, Maurice
Alternative names
Short description	Voice actor
Date of birth	1958-03-30
Place of birth	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Date of death
Place of death