Most distinctive voices in Hollywood

Holly Hunter.

Betty Bacall

John Gielgud, the velvet foghorn.

Billy Laughlin

Joanne Woodward. Right behind me at a concert at Tanglewood several years ago. The minute she started talking with her friend I knew it was Mrs. Newman. She never completely dropped that southern drawl.

I think actors who have regional accents partially ironed out by vocal coaches tend to have distinctive voices.

James Earl Jones.

Sam Elliott.

Chloe Webb

Patricia Neal

Ronald!

Kathleen Turner

Christine Baranski

The phone rings and the voice at the other end says:

Is this the Cocksucker residence? Now let me check the zip code. 212 Fuck You.

Good God!

They make gravel from his voice: Harvey Fierstein

“But you ARE, Blanche. You ARE in that chair."

You cawled?

Lauren Bacall middle age till her death had that beautiful rich and husky mid Atlantic accent. Anjelica Houston is another distinctive voice. Jack Nicholson. Bea Arthur.

Actress/Comedienne Wanda Sykes. She even talked about it once while on Ellen.

You check your blood sugar, and you check it often.

Marlee Matlin.

I’m going to hell, I know.

Janelle Monae

Jimmy Stewart.

1970s & 80s Lucille Ball

Time was when 'Corn? When did I eat corn!' would lave been the second reply, after bitchy R1.

Carol Kane

Susan Sarandon

Lindsay Lohan

Brenda Vaccaro

Mel Brooks

Woody Allen

Michael Caine

Michael Douglas

I’m having trouble coming up with contemporary actors and actresses. Why?

Will Arnett (douchey)

Casey Affleck (reedy)

Cher, singing or talking.

Scarlett Johansson. Most notably in "Her".

Brett Butler. A voice that could crack ice.

H. Jon Benjamin.

Julie Kavner.

Gene Hackman.

Renee Taylor.

Several actors famous for their way of speaking have put it on as a schtick: Gilbert Gottfried, Bette Davis (Susan Sarandon really confused people in "Feud" by using Bette's normal off-camera voice for most of the show, but she put on Davis's famously distinctive clipped way of speaking whenever her Bette was being filmed, which was pretty much true in real life).

I loved Lauren Bacall's voice. I guess the studio taught her to talk that way, but it was so mesmerizing in interviews later in life. Having some intelligence to back it up certainly helped.

Of course the actors who get imitated the most have the most distinctive ways of speaking. The most imitated male actors working today in terms of voice tend to be Christopher Walken (there is hardly a male actor in Hollywood who cannot imitate him), Matthew McConaughey, Woody Allen, Kelsey Grammer (although both his Frasier and his Sideshow Bob voices are put-on exaggerations).

Glenn Close has a very memorable way of speaking--she has a rich, mellow tone that is very recognizable and very pleasant. Winona Ryder is very imitable (with her frequent hesitancies and her nasal tone), and Melissa Villasenor on SNL can reproduce it nearly exactly. Oprah, of course, is also very easy to imitate, and many female comedians can do her quite well.

Winner: MARLO THOMAS

Another: Tony Franciosa

Franciosa sat behind me in the theater in NY in the 1990s, I didn't recognize his face, I did only after he talked.

Jodie Foster

From old Hollywood: Cary Grant, James Mason, Claude Rains, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Buddy Hackett.

Currently, maybe Jon Hamm and Peter Coyote.

Rose Marie

Roseanne

Of course Kathleen Turner

Donald Sutherland for pretty much everything. Chris Pine for BMW and John Hamm for Mercedes. I recognized their voices before I learned they were doing the commercials.

Carol Kane

Larry, are we on the air?

Stockard Channing, she narrates so much good stuff.

Joan Rivers, her voice and diction both very uniquely Joan.

Fran Drescher William Hurt Jeff Goldblum

Olivia Colman has a very distinctive way of speaking with her thick Norwich middle-class accent. I have never heard her hide it, so I will be fascinated to hear her as the Queen who has such a distinctive way of talking.

To this day, I still think the person who has imitated the Queen's voice the best was actually Carol Burnett, who of course ridiculously exaggerated it but was still pretty spot-on (especially in terms of how nasal and high it can be). Other women who have played her in more serious productions (such as Helen Mirren, Claire Foy, etc.) have brought out the plummy Windsor accent and the nasality, but have been afraid to make her voice as high and squeaky as it actually was for more of the Queen's life--I am hoping Colman will bring this out in her performance in "The Crown."

Keith David

Kate Mulgrew

There are many contemporary actors with great voices: Liev Schreiber, Henry Cavill, Vin Diesel, Iain Glen (and so many more from the cast of GOT..) Sam Elliott, Gal Gadot, Scarlett Johansson, Viola Davis

Jean Arthur's "sandy chirp" is top of my Vintage Hollywood list.

Bad distinctive voice: K.Stew's vocal fry. She can't do any other voice, whatever the role.

Larry David

Jon hamm?? Lol.

If you don’t have a chalkboard and fingernails, they’ll do:

Jennifer Tilly and Gilbert Gottfried

James Earl Jones

Matthew McConaughey.

Sally "you like me, you really really like me" Field and her awful, nasal voice

Marlo Thomas, you must be joking.

Juliette Lewis

Richard Pryor

Leah Remini wins this thread!

Gilbert Gottfried.

Cher!!!!!

I don't recall if he ever made a movie, but I really like Jim Dale's natural speaking voice and then he does the impossible and does voices for all the characters in the Harry Potter audio books.

Paul Lynde

Tallu

We need gifs with sound for this thread.

Orson Wells

-- "Ahhh, the French champagne …" He oozes contempt while drunk, yet there he is for the check.

Casey Kasem

Coming in at number one … on the asshole chart

I cannot believe no one has mentioned Morgan Freeman yet.

70s actor Richard Ward

Pure gravel

R21 yes you most definitely are and via the express route

Bea

Yaphet Kotto

Fairuza Balk

Laura Dern

Natasha Lyonne

Kirstie Alley

Martin Sheen.

Truman Capote! Listen to Gore Vidal in the beginning reading Truman. He gave me a chuckle with his description of Capote.

Sam Waterston

James Earl Jones,

Morgan Freeman

Fran Driver

Joan Rivers

Suzanne Pleshette once sat behind me in a theater. At first I thought it was a man behind me, but the voice sounded awfully familar, so I turned to look. When I saw Suzanne, I thought, "But of course!"

Chandler Bing’s dad: Helena Handbasket.

Demi Moore - I remember being on a trip to LA and hearing this familiar voice while I was eating breakfast. I turn my head and it was Demi.

Marilyn Monroe

Paul Newman

Gregory Peck

Keith David? Who dat?

Keith Morrison

James Mason

[quote]Brett Butler. A voice that could crack ice.

And smoked both.

Sissy Spacek, Debra Winger & Jodie Foster

Keith Morrison, good one!

Miss Ashley

Suzanne Pleshette

r92 see r80

Elizabeth Ashley could light up in a room.

Morgan Freeman was my first thought.

Another one is Sterling Holloway. He had an extensive filmography, but I suspect most people would recognise his voice from Disney films.

When I think of distinctive voices, I immediately think of Joan Greenwood, here in "The Importance of Being Earnest" from 1952.

And, of course, from the same film, the inimitable Dame Edith Evans.

R96, R97 The delightful Joan Greenwood and Dame Edith Evans are PERFECT casting.

They perfectly elucidate Wilde's wit.

(Dorothy Tutin, Margaret and Miles are also rather very good in this small jewel of a film)

Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson, Billy Bob Thornton, Shirley Temple as a kid

Judy Garland, Phyllis Diller, Frank Sinatra

Andy Devine

Glynis Johns

Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Julie Andrews.

Florence Kasumba from The Lion King and Black Panther. I find her voice very soothing and hypnotic.

The dwarf from Fantasy Island The Plane, the plane.

Lena Horne

Goldie Hawn, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau.

Ingrid Bergman and her sound-alike daughter Isabella Rossellini.

Cherry Jones

The Wrigleyville Cundump.

Peri Gilpin

[quote]Elizabeth Ashley could light up in a room.

Brett lit up in plenty of rooms...and closets...and backseats of cars. Motels. Alleyways.

Angela Lansbury

Rod Serling

Lucille Ball

Bea Arthur, Georgia Engel, Patricia Richardson, Meryl Streep, Roseanne Bar, Fran Drescher, Renee Taylor, Cher.

The Redgrave sisters.

A lot of you would not be good playing Family Feud.

Just saying.

Pat Buttram , best known as Mr. Haney"

ZsaZsa or Eva

R119, I’m wondering if their voices or their accents would be considered distinct.

Maybe not from each other, but to the general public yes.

Ellen Burstyn

Judi Dench

Roger Moore

We are scraping the bottom of a very ordinary barrel.

There are more interesting vocal artists in Britain.

Florence Stanley. Saw her out to lunch with her husband in Manhattan back in '93-'94. Our waiter pointed her out to us. I would've had no idea who she was (white haired at the time)but when she said something, that voice was unmistakable.

Whoopi Goldberg

Butterfly McQueen

Brenda Vaccaro

Reba McEntire and Kathy Bates

Shanna Reed