THE VOICES BEHIND THE SIMPSONS, FROM BART AND HOMER TO SIDESHOW BOB
There aren't many voices more recognisable in the western world than those of The Simpsons. America's most famous family has been on screens since the late-1980s and the show's 36th season is currently airing on TV in the States. There aren't many human beings on Earth who couldn't pick Bart Simpson or Homer Simpson out of a line-up.
As a result, the key members of its voice cast have snagged themselves a single job that could sustain an entire career. In the competitive and often low-paid world of voice acting, a running character on The Simpsons is absolute gold dust.
But many fans of the show won't ever have really thought about the real humans behind the yellow-hued cartoon caricatures. So let's delve into some of those actors and find out where else you might have seen them away from the borders of Springfield.
Dan Castellaneta
Dan Castellaneta was already a cast member on The Tracey Ullman Show when the first animated shorts featuring the Simpson clan were conceived. Rather than spend cash on hiring an entire selection of new voice actors, the show's team asked Castellaneta to do the voice of Homer. It began as an impression of Oscar-winning actor Walter Matthau, but Castellaneta eventually tweaked it to be more versatile.
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As well as providing the voice for Homer Simpson, Castellaneta is responsible for several other key Simpsons characters. It's Castellaneta behind Krusty the Clown, Groundskeeper Willie, and Mayor Quimby, among many others. He's now also the voice for the various animals on the show, including the Simpsons' dog Santa's Little Helper.
Nancy Cartwright
Nancy Cartwright began her training as a voice actor at the tail end of the 1970s and spent the 80s making minor appearances in numerous films and TV shows. But when she went to audition for a girl called Lisa in a series of animated shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, she made a decision that would change her life. She didn't much care for Lisa, but was fascinated by the role of her brother: Bart.
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As well as providing the voice for perhaps the most widely-known animated character in the world, she also voices various schoolboys on the show. It's Cartwright who provides Nelson Muntz's signature laugh and she also portrays kids including Ralph Wiggum and the Flanders boys. She's also a prolific voice actor elsewhere, including in Animaniacs, The Critic, and as naked mole-rat Rufus in Kim Possible.
Julie Kavner
Along with Castellaneta, Kavner was already part of the cast of The Tracey Ullman show when The Simpsons first arrived in sketch form. By this time, she was already an award-winning actor and had won an Emmy for her role as Brenda Morgenstern in the CBS sitcom Rhoda. But her legacy is now wrapped up in her performance as Marge and various other raspy-voiced members of the Bouvier family.
Kavner's success on The Simpsons has allowed her to remain away from the media spotlight for the most part. Her contract apparently stipulates that she never needs to promote the show in video form.
Yeardley Smith
While Nancy Cartwright made the switch from Lisa to Bart at her audition, Yeardley Smith went the opposite way. Her voice was perceived as being too high to play Bart, but it turned out she was perfect for Lisa. She has continued to perform on stage alongside The Simpsons, as well as appearing in classic 90s films including City Slickers and As Good As It Gets.
Unlike her co-stars, Smith has remained largely within the role of Lisa, as opposed to providing other voices. She has a handful of minor characters on her roster, but predominantly she's just Lisa. And hey, one truly iconic animated character is more than enough for everybody.
Hank Azaria
If you're ever unsure of who's voicing a male supporting character on The Simpsons, there's a good chance that it's Hank Azaria. He has voiced more than 30 characters since being a part of the show's original cast, with some of the most prominent being bar proprietor Moe Szyslak and terrible cop Chief Wiggum. He's also responsible for, to name just a few: Comic Book Guy, Disco Stu, Professor Frink, Snake, and Homer's unforgettable nemesis Frank Grimes.
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Azaria also has a wide-ranging screen career away from The Simpsons, having appeared in classic films like Heat, The Birdcage, and the 1998 version of Godzilla. He has also appeared in Friends, which frankly shows that he gobbles up classic comedy shows in a greedy fashion. Why does anyone need more than one?
Harry Shearer
Harry Shearer came into The Simpsons with an enviable comedy legacy already in his back pocket. He was a Saturday Night Live cast member in the 1970s and 1980s before co-writing and co-starring in the classic music mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap. Since then, he's also had success as an actor in films like The Truman Show and tried his hand at directing too. There's even a Spinal Tap sequel in the works.
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Shearer has some of the absolute best members of The Simpsons' supporting ensemble in his locker, including Mr Burns, Reverend Lovejoy, Otto, and Ned Flanders. Like Azaria, he has dozens of voices in his history as a cast member. It's fair to say the show wouldn't be the same without him in the voice booth.
Kelsey Grammer
The Simpsons has always welcomed A-list guest stars, with some of Hollywood's biggest names stepping into the booth for one-off Simpsons appearances. But none of them have ever made an impact quite like Kelsey Grammer did when he first played Sideshow Bob — former right-hand man to Krusty the Clown and Bart's ultimate arch-enemy. In the 1990 episode Krusty Gets Busted, Bart exposed Bob for trying to frame Krusty as an armed robber. Two years later, Bob returned with murder on his mind.
Grammer has repeatedly reprised the role of Bob over the years, winning an Emmy for the role. Grammer is, of course, a titan of the small screen for his work as Frasier Crane, but for the generation below that character's fans, he will always be Sideshow Bob — or Beast from the X-Men.
Frank Welker
Some actors have a niche. A lot of voice actors have a niche. But few of them have a niche quite like Frank Welker, who is one of the foremost animal voice actors of all time. His voice acting career is so prolific that he is the fourth highest-grossing actor of all time, despite the fact you might never have seen his face. He has also voiced such famous animals as Garfield and Scooby-Doo, as well as the robot villain Megatron in various Transformers projects.
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In The Simpsons, Welker provided the voice of Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II until 2014, when he stepped down from the roles after the voices began to affect his throat. However, he can certainly count The Simpsons as another lucrative string to his showbiz bow.
The first 35 seasons of The Simpsons are available in the UK via Disney+.
This article originally appeared on Yahoo TV UK at https://uk.news.yahoo.com/simpsons-cast-voices-voice-actors-160904225.html 2025-02-20T16:18:00Z
