Maurice LaMarche (born March 30, 1958) is a
Canadian-born
voice actor and former
stand up comedian. He is best known for his voicework in
Futurama, as
Egon Spengler in
The Real Ghostbusters, and The Brain in
Animaniacs/
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. LaMarche's childhood was filled with his "own little world of cartoons and sixties television". It wasn't 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.
Stand up
LaMarche in 2006.
At the age of 19, LaMarche took his high school act to an
open mic night in
New York, performing to a reaction in which, as he describes, "they just totally ignored me". 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.
Three years later, at the age of 22, Maurice 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
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 Smirnov, 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". Unfortunately, LaMarche wouldn't get that chance.
On
March 9,
1987, Maurice 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. 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 eighteen-year-old sister was killed in a car accident in September of that year.
At this point, though he remained sober, LaMarche decided he just couldn't do standup comedy anymore.
"Oh, that's it. I don't have any funny left in me. I'm done."
During his standup career, Maurice 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.
Voiceover acting
Maurice's first entrance into the
voiceover industry was in
1979 in
Easter Fever and
Take Me Up To The Ballgame, two Canadian films. LaMarche didn't venture into
voiceover acting again until years later as a side endeavor during his full-time standup comedy career.
Maurice was recently interviewed about his voiceover career on movie podcast .
Television
Maurice 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. It was at this time,
1999, that Maurice LaMarche began work on
Futurama. 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.
Pinky and the Brain
Maurice 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, although the character wasn't modeled after Welles. 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.
The Critic
While working on
The Critic LaMarche once voiced 29 characters in one 30 minute episode.
His time on
The Critic also afforded LaMarche the opportunity to once again parody Welles, this time after a video reading of a will (the Critic's family was so wealthy, they'd hired Orson 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).
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 a live-action appearance 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.
Film
LaMarche has appeared in many
films including the voice of Orson Welles in
Ed Wood,
Pepe Le Pew in
Space Jam, the voice of
Alec Baldwin 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.
Outside of film, television, and radio, LaMarche's repertoire includes audio-books, as he recently served as narrator for a collection of
H.P. Lovecraft short stories.
Roles in television, film and video games
Other media
Not only that he was also the narrator for the suprisingly popular animated movie "Pom Poko"
