Actors can cultivate their skills through years of training and learning their craft from all sorts of experts. They can take steps to improve their appearance, whether through natural, chemical or surgical means. But unless I’m missing something, the one part of a performer that it seems there’s no real way of attaining other than the happy accident of being born with it, is the quality of the voice. Certainly this is something that be augmented by how it’s used, and a case can most likely be made that the size of the voice doesn’t matter. But if Ted Williams, a.k.a. the homeless man with the golden voice, taught us anything, it’s that some people are just born with a gift for speaking in a way that tickles the eardrum just so.
This gift can be put to use in a variety of effective ways. Some use it to narrate documentaries to give them a sense of authority, or playfulness, or grace. Some provide character voiceover to narrative movies, serving as the narrator of a story who may or may not be featured on screen. There are those who provide voices to animated or game characters, or to disembodied speakers selling us products in commercials.
As far as movies go, these are 5 of the most memorable narrational voices to grace our ears with their sweet sounds.
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