Roger Bumpass is an American actor, comedian, writer and producer. He was best known for voicing one of the main characters, the turquoise octopus Squidward Tentacles, in the popular animated series SpongeBob SquarePants and the chef in the animated television series Where's Carmen Sandiego on Earth?
Early life
The actor was born on November 20, 1951 in the capital and largest city of Arkansas, Little Rock. He studied at Little Rock State High School, where he first performed on the stage of the theater, and then entered Arkansas State University majoring in radio and television. Through training, Roger worked as a presenter at a student radio station, and also performed several duties: commentator, cameraman, sound engineer and even technical director, on the KAIT-TV television channel in Jonesboro. In particular, he led a comedy show called “The Festival of Meaningless Music of the Mid-Century with the participation of the Kumquat Theater”, which he himself wrote and produced. After graduating from university in 1976, at the insistence of one of the teachers, Roger Bumpass decided to take up the theater professionally and went to New York.
Carier start
In 1977, Roger managed to get a role in the musical comedy show "It's Not Funny, It's Bad", with which he toured all over the country until 1978. The following year, Bumpass starred in the comedy short film Disco Beaver from Space, and then appeared in a small episode of the post-apocalyptic action movie Escape from New York.
Voice roles
Actor Roger Bumpass during his career took part in about seven hundred projects, in particular, and as a voice actor. Work in this industry brought him fame and success, and thanks to the actor’s impressive voice range, he can voice characters with both high, nasal and deep cavernous voices. Bumpass gave the voice to the protagonist, Doctor Anorak in the full-length fantasy animated film Heavy Metal, and other characters in world-famous cartoons such as Spirited Away, Tarzan, Toy Story 2, Steel Giant, Monster Corporation ”,“ Lilo and Stitch ”,“ Treasure Planet ”and“ 101 Dalmatians ”. But his main work, the sound of the hot-tempered, cynical and incredibly hostile octopus Squidward, for which in 2012 he was nominated for an Emmy Award as an outstanding performer in an animation program.