The Voice That Launched A Thousand Quips
From page 4 of TV Guide, Saturday 27th November 1999:
insider
THE VOICE THAT LAUNCHED A THOUSAND QUIPS
A cartoon’s ending credits usually cue a kid to get a snack. But as a boy growing up in Detroit, Billy West thought that was the most fascinating part of the show. “I would see two names listed under Voices. Or one,” says West, 48. “But I had heard 20 different things. I flipped out. I thought that was the greatest thing in the world.”
These days, when West reads those names, he often sees his own. One of the premier voice actors in animation, he helped create such disparate characters as Voltron’s Pidge and Futurama’s Fry. “All you have to act with is your throat,” he says of his craft. “You can’t saw the air with your arms. You can’t make faces.”
West received perfect training during his many years in radio, which included a stint on Howard Stern’s show. “I thought Howard was just the greatest, really brilliant and organic and spontaneous.” Then in 1990 Nickelodeon hired him to voice the title character of Doug and Ren & Stimpy’s Stimpy (he later took on Ren as well).
The in-demand animactor lives in the Hollywood Hills with his wife, Violet Benny, an actress-comedian. Says West: “I feel so glad to be working and making a living at stuff that I tortured my family with.”
Janet Weeks
