Voice acting in the United States

For live action production, voice acting often involves reading the parts of computer programs (Douglas Rain; Majel Barrett), radio dispatchers (Shaaron Claridge), or characters who never actually appear on screen but who give instructions by telephone (John Forsythe in Charlie's Angels), or mailed recording (Bob Johnson in Mission: Impossible). "Stunt double" voice actors are sometimes employed; if a voice actor or actress loses his or her voice, someone who sounds similar can step in. For example, when Jeremy Irons' vocal cords became strained during the recording of The Lion King song "Be Prepared", Jim Cummings was called in to finish the song.

It is not unusual to find among the ranks of voice actors people who also act in live-action film or television, or on the stage (see e.g., J. Scott Smart, an "old time radio" actor). For those actors, voice acting has the advantage of offering acting work without having to bother with makeup, costuming, lighting, and so on. An occasional advantage is the fact that through voice acting, an actor can reprise a role that he has played in live action but would be otherwise too aged to portray. An example of this is Walter Koenig in Star Trek New Voyages who reprises his role as Lt. Pavel Chekov.

For much of the history of North American animation, voice actors had a predominantly low profile as performers, with Mel Blanc the major exception. Other early exceptions include Cliff Edwards in Pinocchio, Edward Brophy in Dumbo, Guinn Williams in Mr. Bug Goes to Town, Peggy Lee in Lady and the Tramp, and Jim Backus as Mister Magoo in a long running series of short cartoons. Over time, many movie stars began voice acting in films, with some of the earliest examples being "Gay Purr-ee", starring the voices of Judy Garland, Robert Goulet, Red Buttons, Hermione Gingold, and Morey Amsterdam, and The Jungle Book, which counted among its cast contemporary stars such as Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima, George Sanders and Sterling Holloway. On TV, the Rankin-Bass studio employed the voices of such notable performers as Burl Ives, James Cagney, Jimmy Durante, Danny Kaye, Mickey Rooney, and Buddy Hackett in their animated specials; Filmation used the talents of Ed Asner and Alan Oppenheimer; and popular comic actor Paul Lynde voiced several characters in Hanna-Barbera series, but refused to take on-screen credit for his work there. The most notable voice talent that lent her voice for many studios' projects in the modern era was the late Linda Gary, who handled many major roles in film and television (many of which was for the Filmation studio, and often working with friend and colleague Ed Asner). Though she passed away in 1995, her voice continues to be used today in many recent animated films via archival recordings. Corey Burton is another notable voice talent who, like Gary, performs in many television series and theatrical features to this day, especially those for the Disney studio.

But the film which truly brought about this modern perception, however was Aladdin which was marketed with a noted emphasis on Robin Williams' role, against the actor's own wishes. The success of the film eventually spurred the idea of highlighting the voice actors as stars of a film, this becoming the norm in film marketing, with a greater focus on hiring Hollywood celebrities for name power, rather than performers with most experience in voice acting, particularly the Toy Story (Tom Hanks and Tim Allen) and Shrek (Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and Antonio Banderas) franchises. British animation has also used household names, most notably Chicken Run (Mel Gibson, Timothy Spall, Miranda Richardson and Jane Horrocks), Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Peter Kay and Liz Smith) and The Magic Roundabout (Tom Baker, Jim Broadbent, Joanna Lumley, Ian McKellen and Bill Nighy). By contrast, using anime voice actors as a box office draw was developed far earlier in Japan.

Some voice actors, such as Billy West, are highly critical of using movie stars for voice roles in animated feature films.[2] A particular point of contention is the practice of bringing on veteran voice actors (who are generally capable of greatly altering their voices and inflections in order to create personalities for characters) to read for a part, and then use the recording of the professional voice actor as a guide for the movie star, even though the actual character creation work is being done by the unpaid voice actor. West struck back at this practice in Comic Book: The Movie, in which the entire main cast comprises voice actors, including Jess Harnell, Lori Alan, Daran Norris, Mark Hamill and Tom Kenny. The practice of hiring singers to "fill in" for voice actors in a singing role has also seen change, as both Jeremy Irons and Mel Gibson have done singing in the respective films The Lion King and Pocahontas, rather than have a singer as substitute (However, the former did most of his own singing, but due to straining his vocal cords, he didn't finish; instead, Jim Cummings did his partial singing voice for the rest of the song).

Reggie Brown, a voice actor and Barack Obama impersonator, while being escorted off stage.

Voice actors have a relatively small but dedicated fan base, with appearances at large events like Comic-Con International, various anime conventions, and websites dedicated to profiling their work.

Commercials for television and radio are also cast using voice acting agencies. Ernie Anderson was one of radio's most prominent voices throughout the 1970s and 1980s and was heard on radio stations across the United States. Nationally syndicated disc jockey Casey Kasem of "American Top 40" provided the voice of Shaggy in the Scooby-Doo TV cartoon series. While Don LaFontaine filled the category of "The Voice of God" narrator of thousands of movie preview trailers until his death in 2008, Ashton Smith, Howard Parker and Ben Patrick Johnson now provide most of the narration for movie trailers. David Mark was heard around the world for various radio stations and across the country for Fox TV, UPN and ABC TV. Kareem Taylor can be heard as the promotional voice for CNN, AT&T, Taco Bell and Comedy Central.