R.I.P. William Morgan Sheppard

[fragger]

I only just found out that an actor who I have long admired, William Morgan Sheppard, passed away last month (6th January).

Sometimes billed as "Morgan Sheppard", he was a wonderful character actor - not one that many people would know, but who always left an impression on me. I have long been an admirer of his w0#k. And here's an interesting thing - he was the narrator for one of my all-time favourite games, Civilization V, and I never even knew it! I've played that game for years. But now that I think about it, that is definitely his voice all right. Can't believe I never recognized it

Among much else, he put in a brief appearance in the movie Gettysburg as Confederate General Issac Trimble, and although his appearance lasted only a couple of minutes, his was the performance that really stayed with me out of the whole four-hours of movie.

I posted this clip of the Civ V intro long ago on the old site, and now that I know who is voicing the character of "Father", I can see that the CG character is approximatey modelled on Sheppard. He also provides the in-game voice for various events, like whenever you make a tech discovery (with a unique piece of dialogue for each one) and victory voice-overs.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Interesting, another one of those actors who when you hear the name, you say "Who?" but looking at his list of credits on IMDB and you know, oh yeah, that guy. He's been in a lot of stuff, and many video games, he has that kind of voice.

[fragger]

Yeah, actors like him are a bit like session musicians - it's the ones whose names you never know who create the things you hear the most. They're also often among the best at what they do

[Art Blade]

 

[PZ]

Definitely a recognizable voice 

[nex]

I see he also did the first four Medal Of Honor

[mandru]

I'm afraid he was someone who's career managed to elude me.  I had to go clear back to 1987-1988 to find where he'd had a role in Max Headroom a TV program that I enjoyed.

He portrayed one of my favorite characters "the mohawked Blank Reg" who ran a mobile pirate radio station in both the TV series and the earlier 1985 Movie Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into The Future.  I thought he was an ultra-cool punked out rebel.  I would have watched a TV series on his antics alone.