William Richard "Billy" West (born April 16, 1952) is an
American voice actor. He launched his career in the early 1980s performing daily comedic routines on Boston's WBCN (TOP Rock station of the time) shortly after moving on to do the revival of
Beany and Cecil and was also a castmember on the
Howard Stern's radio show during the early to mid 1990s.
West is best known for his voice-work on
Ren & Stimpy,
Doug and
Futurama. His favorite characters are
Philip J. Fry (
Futurama) and
Stimpy (
Ren and Stimpy), both of which he originated. West's most notable film work was in
Space Jam (1996) providing the voice of both
Bugs Bunny and
Elmer Fudd; he has provided the same voices for other
Looney Tunes films and video games. West has been very outspoken over his displeasure about the influx of movie star actors providing voice-over for films and major shows.
As well as a voice artist, West is also a guitarist and singer-songwriter with a band called Billy West and The Grief Counselors.
Television
West has been in television since the late 1980s. His first role was for the 1988 revived version of
Beany and Cecil. West's first two high-profile roles came almost simultaneously:
Doug and
Ren & Stimpy, which were two of the first original three
Nicktoons (the other being
Rugrats). Over his career West has been the voice talent for close to 120 different characters including some of the most iconic animated figures in television history. He has become one of few voice actors who can impersonate
Mel Blanc in his prime, including characterizations of
Bugs Bunny,
Daffy Duck,
Elmer Fudd and other characters from
Warner Bros. cartoons. West's favorite characters are those he originated:
Philip J. Fry and
Stimpy.
[. Accessed October 26, 2006.]West was the voice of the show's namesake, Geeker, throughout
Project Geekers 13 episode run.
West was the voice of
Zim in the original pilot for
Nickelodeon's Invader Zim.
[ ] Richard Horvitz was chosen for the series role because West's voice was too recognizable, according to
Invader Zim creator
Jhonen Vasquez during DVD commentary.
West also voices a number of characters in the series
Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World. He does not play a regular character in that series, but appears in almost every episode of the show voicing various minor and one-off characters.
West voiced the character Moobeard in
Moobeard the Cow Pirate, a short animation featured on
Random! Cartoons.
Ren and Stimpy
West provided the voice of
Stimpy in
Nickelodeon's
The Ren and Stimpy Show from 1991 until 1996, and he provided the voice of Ren from 1993-1996 (after Ren's original voice and series creator
John Kricfalusi was fired by Nickelodeon for delivering un-airable episodes). West performed other characters on the series as well, such as Mr. Horse (another role that West was issued the role after Kricfalusi's departure) and the "Announcer/Salesman" of such shorts as the "Log" ads (a voice West would years later use as the Narrator for
The Weird Al Show).
According to West, he was originally supposed to do the voice of both Ren and Stimpy (and performed both characters on the tape that was used to sell the show to Nickelodeon), but then Kricfalusi chose instead that he would voice of Ren once the show was sold and he had West on board as part of the selling point. However, West provided Ren's maniacal laughter when John Kricfalusi was the voice of Ren.
Futurama
Billy West on the Exhibit floor at Comic Con in San Diego, California.
Billy West's roles in
Futurama include
Philip J. Fry,
Professor Hubert Farnsworth,
Dr. Zoidberg and
Zapp Brannigan, as well as various other incidental characters. As he and other
Futurama cast and crew point out in
DVD commentaries, West spoke to himself quite often during recording.
West went into the
Futurama auditions and was asked to try out for, as he says, "just about every part"; eventually landing the professor, Zoidberg, and Zapp Brannigan. It wasn't until some casting changes were made that West got the part of Fry, which originally had gone to
Charlie Schlatter. While West is known for doing many different and unique voices, the voice he does for Philip J. Fry is often considered to be closer to his natural voice than any other character he has done (in an audio commentary, he states Fry is just himself at age 25). This similarity, West acknowledges, was done purposefully in order to make it harder to replace him in the part along with placing more of himself personally into the role (DVD commentary).
The part of Zapp Brannigan was created for
Phil Hartman, but he died before the show started and West was issued
the role. West has described his interpretation of Zapp Brannigan's voice as an imitation of Hartman, but described the actual vocalizations of the character as being based on "two big, dumb radio announcers I know"
Futurama was renewed by
Comedy Central as four
direct-to-video movies broken into 16 television episodes. West reprised his roles for these films, and has been signed on for a new 26-episode season of Futurama due to air in 2010.
Jungle Junction
West has voiced the regular character Ellyvan on the children's CGI animated television show
Jungle Junction since its start in 2009.
Movies
Perhaps West's most notable film work came in the 1996 movie
Space Jam. Starring alongside
Michael Jordan, West provided the voice of both
Bugs Bunny and
Elmer Fudd. West reprised the roles of Bugs and Fudd in subsequent
Looney Tunes feature-length films and even returned as Fudd in the theatrically-released
Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
In 1998, West starred in the
direct-to-video film
Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island as
Shaggy, becoming the second person to portray the character (the first being
Casey Kasem).
In 2004, West voiced the classic character
Popeye in the 75th anniversary film
Popeye's Voyage: The Quest for Pappy, and made his
live-action film debut in
Mark Hamill's
Comic Book: The Movie. He also appeared in a
cameo in
Garfield: The Movie.
Other films featuring West's vocal talents include
Joe's Apartment,
Cats & Dogs,
Olive, the Other Reindeer,
TMNT,
The Proud Family Movie, and three
Tom and Jerry direct-to-video movies.
Selected filmography
Other media
Radio
Throughout the 1980s, Billy West provided character voices on
Charles Laquidara's
Big Mattress radio show on Boston's
WBCN. West was also one half of the award winning WBCN Production team from 1980-1986.
From 1989 through 1995,
West provided
The Howard Stern Show with character voices such as
Jim Backus,
Lucille Ball,
Raymond Burr,
Connie Chung,
Pat Cooper,
Sammy Davis Jr.,
Doris Day,
Ellen DeGeneres,
Louis "Red" Deutsch,
David Dinkins,
Mia Farrow,
Larry Fine,
Pete Fornatel,
Frank Gifford,
Kathy Lee Gifford,
Mark Goddard,
Bobcat Goldthwait, the
Greaseman,
Rudolph Giuliani,
Jonathan Harris (as Dr. Zachary Smith),
Leona Helmsley,
Lance Ito,
Elton John,
Jay Leno,
Nelson Mandela,
Jackie Martling (as the Jackie puppet),
Ed McMahon,
Al Michaels,
Bill Mumy (as Will Robinson), Cardinal
John Joseph O'Connor,
Maury Povich,
Soon-Yi Previn,
Marge Schott,
Frank Sinatra, Rae Stern (Howard Stern's mother),
George Takei,
Joe Walsh, and
Robin Williams until eventually leaving the show over money. West was an occasional contributor to
The Adam Carolla Show, a syndicated morning radio show that replaced Stern's show on CBS in LA.
On February 19 and 20, 2007,
The Howard Stern Show ran a special two-part retrospective of West's work with the show. It marked his first work with the show since leaving after his last show on November 1, 1995.
On June 9, 2009, West appeared on Jackie Martling's
Jackie's Joke Hunt on Stern's
satellite radio channel
Howard 101.
Commercial television
Billy West was the announcer of the program
Screen Gems Network which ran from 1999-2001. He was also the promotional announcer for
The Comedy Channel before it merged with HA! to become Comedy Central.
Over his career, Billy West has voiced multiple characters in television commercials.
These include (but are not limited to):
Speed Racer for Volkswagen
West voiced the
Speed Racer character in a late-1990s advertisement for
Volkswagen's GTI, because the commercial's producers couldn't locate
Peter Fernandez, the original voice of Speed. However, the producers did locate
Corinne Orr, the original voice for both the "Trixie" and "Spritle" characters.
Video games
West's talents have also extended into the realm of
video games. Characters most notably voiced by West are perhaps Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in numerous Looney Tunes video games.
Other video game characters voiced by Billy West include:
- Muttley and L'il Gruesome in Wacky Races (2000, 2001, 2008).
- Voice of Red, the red M&M in M&Ms: The Lost Formulas (2000).
- Atomic Bomberman in Atomic Bomberman
Music
West is also a
guitarist and
singer-songwriter with a band called
Billy West and The Grief Counselors. Their first album,
Me-Pod, is now available for purchase.
In 1982, West sang lead, doing an impersonation of
Mike Love, on a
Beach Boys-inspired tune, "Another Cape Cod Summer This Year," by studio band
ROUTE 28, written and produced by
Erik Lindgren on his Arf! Arf! Records label.
West has colaberated with Deborah Harry & Lou Reed,Los Lobos and played live on several occasions with Brian Wilson including the guitar solo on Beach Boys tune"Do it Again" on Late night TV's "David Letterman show in the mid 1990s.
Internet entertainment
He also provided voices for the
Eric Kaplan-created
webtoon Zombie College as well as voicing two characters in
Tofu the Vegan Zombie.
West has been very outspoken over his displeasure about the influx of movie star actors providing
voice-over for films and major shows.
Billy West is also a
veganVegetarian.
