William Richard Verstin is an American actor, comedian, singer, musician, songwriter and radio host. He worked under the pseudonym Billy West. His voice-over was featured in a number of television series, films, video games, and commercials.
Born April 16, 1952 in Michigan. His family is of Irish descent. Married to Violet West.
This is how Billy West looks in the photo with his working characters.
He participated in the dubbing of more than a hundred characters during his career, such as Ren and Steampie from the same show, Doug Funny and Roger Klotz from the animated series "Doug", Fry, Dr. Zoidberg, Professor Farnsworth, Zapp Brannigan and many others from "Futurama". He records his voice for advertising. Currently is the voice of red M&M. In addition to his original work, he worked on Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Shaggy Rogers, sailor Papai and Woody Woodpecker. He was a member of the Howard Stern show, noted for mimicking Larry Fine of The Three Stooges, George Takei, better known as Lieutenant Sulu of Star Trek, Marge Schott, president and chief executive officer of the Cincinnati Reds baseball franchise.
A television
Billy West began his career in the 80s, performing daily comedic roles in one of the Boston radio stations. Left her in 1988 to work on the Bunny rabbit and Cecil tortoise. These were his first roles on television. The most notable work of the actor at that time was the voice acting of Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in the film "Space Jam" (1996). After the success of the picture was hired to work on the same characters, but for other films and video games of the series "Funny tunes".
During his career, Billy West has become the voice for nearly 120 different characters, including some iconic animated figures in the history of television. In 1998, Entertainment Weekly called Bill West "the new Mel Blanc" and noted his ability to imitate famous voices, although he preferred to use his unique style. Favorite heroes of the actor are Philip J. Fry and Stimpy.
Movie
One of the successful films with Billy West can definitely be called "Scooby-Doo on the island of zombies" (1998). He became the second person after Casey Kasem who voiced Shaggy Rogers. Billy was one of the main contenders for replacing Kassem in the animated series Scooby-Doo after Casey retired in 2009, but lost the role to Matthew Lillard.
In 2000 he participated in the scoring of Dinosaur ("Disney"). In 2004, West became the voice of the sailor Papaya in the film for the 75th anniversary of the character. In the same year he made his debut in the movie about comic book by Mark Hamill The Comic Book: The Movie. He also had a cameo at Garfield. Other paintings where West's vocal talents were realized were Joe, Cats and Dogs, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and three Tom and Jerry films.
Music
West is the guitarist and lead singer of Billy West and The Grief Counselors. They have already released their first Me-Pod album. Billy also toured as a guitarist with Roy Orbison and Brian Wilson.
In 1982, mocking Mike Love, he sang the song Another Summer Cod Summer This Year, written by Eric Lindgren. As a result, I got a label.
Collaborated with Debor Harry, Lou Reed and Los Lobos. Played live several times with Brian Wilson, including a guitar solo for the song Do it again! in the mid 90's.
The episode Futurama Proposition Infinity features the track Shut up and Love Me, which was written and played by Billy West with Greg Leonon.
Video games
As already mentioned, Billy West voiced Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in the games of the Funny Tunes franchise. However, this is not all the actor’s work in this niche.
Other video game characters voiced by Billy West include the following:
- Steampie in the Nicktoons Game Series.
- Dr. Zoidberg in The Simpsons Game (2007).
- Additional voices in Spyro: Dragonfly (2002).
- Sparx in "The Legend of Spyro: Eternal Night" (2007).
- Fry, Dr. Zoidberg, Professor Farnsworth, and Zapp Brannigan in Futurama (2003).
- Nash and Zam in Crash Nitro Kart (2003).
- Additional voices in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000).
- Murphy in the Rayman game series.
- Some voices in Mad Dash Racing.
- Hamton J. Pig in Tiny Toon Adventures: Toonenstein.
- Atomic bomber in the game of the same name.
- Emilio Baza in Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned.
- Yak in Nicktoons MLB (2011).
- Narrator in Minecraft Story Mode (2015).