Name the people whose speaking voices you think are the best and/or the worst!
I shall now name a few men whose voices that I consider first-rate.
Seth MacFarlane
Trace Adkins (I'm typically not crazy about southern accents, but Adkins, with a voice that fills the room and vibrates in your chest, delivers completely)
Frank Bruno (a similar deal, only he has a completely different accent! Sure, he speaks so fast you can hardly understand what he's saying, and his thick Cockney accent doesn't suit his voice at all, and he laughs like a rhinoceros, but still...)
Michael Clarke Duncan
Jon-Erik Hexum
Geoffrey Rush
Ron Perlman
Sylvester Stallone (once again, excellent voice, not the best speech/accent/delivery or whatever; but he ends up sounding uniquely badass with his famously slurred speech)
Harrison Ford
Tom Baker when younger
Peter O'Toole when younger
Ted Cassidy, best known for playing the lugubrious butler Lurch on "The Addams Family" and an iconic scene in a movie in which his character got kicked and most likely killed by Paul Newman's character. Trademark booming, sonorous, impossibly deep voice.
Robert MacNeil
James Earl Jones
Fred Gwynne; kind of like Ted Cassidy in that he played a Frankenstein-esque character: Herman Munster, to be exact. However, I liked his voice the most when he played the judge in My Cousin Vinny. He sounded like a southern Barry White!
Leslie Nielsen
William Marshall, who was by far most famous for playing Blacula. A powerful, Shakespearean bass-baritone.
Robert Mitchum
Orson Welles
Lorne Greene
Thurl Ravenscroft
Don Ameche
Paul Robeson
As you see, I'm into the whole amazingly deep voice kind of thing.
My favorite female voices:
Alexa Nikolas
Emma Stone
Sahara Smith---a singer who's pretty obscure, but her singing and speaking voice is like warm honey...
Sutton Foster
Cate Blanchett
Ashley Judd
Linda Fiorentino
The youthful Kathleen Turner
Meryl Streep
Bernadette Peters
Laura Nyro; excellent singing voice too
Vanessa Redgrave
Anne Bancroft
Lauren Bacall
My personal worst voices mostly include people that aren't very well-known, just for the record. And especially with the males. So don't be surprised of there is quite a few people you have no idea about.
Well, here they are.
Jesse Eisenberg
Jaleel White (his Urkel voice is too loud and grating; his natural voice is too high, thin, and wimpy, sort of like Mike Tyson; he should just speak in his Sonic the Hedgehog voice all the time. That would be badass.
Charlie Day
Casey Affleck
Bradley Cooper
Rory Stewart, a British author and politician; search his name on charlierose-dot-com and you can find a very recent interview of him.
Ben Affleck's voice is, at best, pretty poor as well. It's got the same creak and Boston accent as his brother's.
Jay-Z's speaking voice is quite bad.
Cuba Gooding, Jr.
David Schwimmer
Mike Tython, mothtly in hith younger dayth. Hith voith ith a bit lower than it uthed to be, but he thtill hath that lithp.
A contestant on The Biggest Loser last season, Moses Kinikini, had a s***ty speaking voice.
Bobcat Goldthwait, even when not hamming it up for stand-up.
Jon Landau, a film producer
David Carr, a NYT columnist, had just about the worst speaking voice ever known to man. His cancer seems to have gotten better now, but he still has that painfully high rasp.
Howie Nave, a film critic from Nevada, has a quite annoying voice and delivery.
Comedian Bobby Slayton should not be allowed a career that allows him to speak.
John Travolta has a surprisingly weak voice, but it's not as though you pictured a top-notch speaking voice from a man who looks like him.
Norman Finkelstein; even though he's an insightful political scientist, his voice is high and reedy and he talks so Jewishly, it’s most likely painful for him.
Steven Tyler's high, frail speaking voice isn't unexpected, as he's screamed all day and night for 40 years.
General Larry Platt, the "Pants On The Ground Guy" reminds me of that falsetto-voiced crack addict Dave Chapelle played on that show, which I don't remember the name of...
Reverend Floyd H. Flake; he’s also on Charlie Rose.
Rod Stewart; a kind of similar deal with Steven Tyler, only more gravelly and more muffled. And he has a British accent.
George Lucas
Joe Pesci
Barney Frank
Dick Vitale
Author and poet Reynolds Price sounded like hell before he died; you can find interviews of him on YouTube. There's one in which his voice is so gravelly, it's as though he's speaking in two voices at once.
Composer John Williams
Charles B. Rangel
Arlen Specter's voice is so thin and cold, and his thick Midwestern accent bothers me most of the time.
Author Carlos Fuentes; you can also find him on Charlie Rose.
Harry Belafonte, although his singing voice is surprisingly good.
Mel Brooks
As you may have noticed, my worst male voices are sort of the polar opposite of my best male voices: high-pitched, thin, weak, wispy, not much of a lower register, usually rough, raspy, scratchy, and/or gravelly. Note how I didn’t include Gilbert Gottfried, which most people consider to be the worst male voice of all time. I just think it’s ridiculous for people to think he has the worst voice, because he SCREECHES all the time! Listen, if you screeched all day, people would think you’re insufferable too. Here are a few videos of Gottfried’s normal voice. Most of the time, still somewhat abrasive, but like a very toned-down version of his stand-up voice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdbElWMnkyY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC7h7Aa9_zE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3XB6jCWDIg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBlQ-B7-xtY
And search on YouTube “rabbi gottfried” and you’ll find a goldmine of Gottfried’s natural voice, complete with lack of even a New York accent.
The worst female speaking voices:
Fantasia Barrino
Sophia Bush
Sarah Vowell---not so much her voice, timbre-wise, as her speech (a bad lisp), delivery (creaky much of the time), phrasings, tonality, intonations, inflections...well, everything about her voice except her voice in itself, I guess.
Rachael Ray. She got her throat fixed about two years ago, so she doesn't sound as bad as she used to. Her voice is still grating, though...
Mo'Nique. I do declare, though, she was a marvelous actress in Precious (and I'm sure she did well in other things she's been in), but God only knows her voice was entirely suitable for her character.
Rita Cosby
Sarah Palin
Rosie O'Donnell's voice, taken in isolation, is pretty good, actually. It has a good pitch and resonance, but her delivery and tonality is, at worst, very grating. She also has that fast-talking New York accent. And, of course, she’s a dangerous idiot.
Kathy Griffin
Julia Sweeney
Kathleen Vinehout
Fran Drescher's normal speaking voice has always been considerably better than her Nanny voice, and now it's even better than it has been. Still, you know...She's Fran Drescher...
Roseanne Barr
Rita Braver
Paula Deen's voice is okay, but I can't stand listening to her. Her southern accent is really a bit much, and her inflections and just the way she says things annoys me very much.
Joy Behar
Joan Rivers
Barbara Walters
So...well, you know what to do. Feel free to second people I've mentioned; say you don't agree with a choice of mine, but please do so respectfully enough, as I can be quite defensive; introduce me to new people, which is always exciting to me. Feel free to make Top 10 lists, by all means! I'll most likely come back with a few of my own eventually.
ETA: Barry White was not on my list. As opposed to saying this:
He sounded like a southern
Barry White!
I really meant to say this:
He sounded like a southern Barry White!
If I were to say the former, I would have typed a period after the word "southern;" grammatically, I am very finicky.
I shall now name a few men whose voices that I consider first-rate.
Seth MacFarlane
Trace Adkins (I'm typically not crazy about southern accents, but Adkins, with a voice that fills the room and vibrates in your chest, delivers completely)
Frank Bruno (a similar deal, only he has a completely different accent! Sure, he speaks so fast you can hardly understand what he's saying, and his thick Cockney accent doesn't suit his voice at all, and he laughs like a rhinoceros, but still...)
Michael Clarke Duncan
Jon-Erik Hexum
Geoffrey Rush
Ron Perlman
Sylvester Stallone (once again, excellent voice, not the best speech/accent/delivery or whatever; but he ends up sounding uniquely badass with his famously slurred speech)
Harrison Ford
Tom Baker when younger
Peter O'Toole when younger
Ted Cassidy, best known for playing the lugubrious butler Lurch on "The Addams Family" and an iconic scene in a movie in which his character got kicked and most likely killed by Paul Newman's character. Trademark booming, sonorous, impossibly deep voice.
Robert MacNeil
James Earl Jones
Fred Gwynne; kind of like Ted Cassidy in that he played a Frankenstein-esque character: Herman Munster, to be exact. However, I liked his voice the most when he played the judge in My Cousin Vinny. He sounded like a southern Barry White!
Leslie Nielsen
William Marshall, who was by far most famous for playing Blacula. A powerful, Shakespearean bass-baritone.
Robert Mitchum
Orson Welles
Lorne Greene
Thurl Ravenscroft
Don Ameche
Paul Robeson
As you see, I'm into the whole amazingly deep voice kind of thing.
My favorite female voices:
Alexa Nikolas
Emma Stone
Sahara Smith---a singer who's pretty obscure, but her singing and speaking voice is like warm honey...
Sutton Foster
Cate Blanchett
Ashley Judd
Linda Fiorentino
The youthful Kathleen Turner
Meryl Streep
Bernadette Peters
Laura Nyro; excellent singing voice too
Vanessa Redgrave
Anne Bancroft
Lauren Bacall
My personal worst voices mostly include people that aren't very well-known, just for the record. And especially with the males. So don't be surprised of there is quite a few people you have no idea about.
Well, here they are.
Jesse Eisenberg
Jaleel White (his Urkel voice is too loud and grating; his natural voice is too high, thin, and wimpy, sort of like Mike Tyson; he should just speak in his Sonic the Hedgehog voice all the time. That would be badass.
Charlie Day
Casey Affleck
Bradley Cooper
Rory Stewart, a British author and politician; search his name on charlierose-dot-com and you can find a very recent interview of him.
Ben Affleck's voice is, at best, pretty poor as well. It's got the same creak and Boston accent as his brother's.
Jay-Z's speaking voice is quite bad.
Cuba Gooding, Jr.
David Schwimmer
Mike Tython, mothtly in hith younger dayth. Hith voith ith a bit lower than it uthed to be, but he thtill hath that lithp.
A contestant on The Biggest Loser last season, Moses Kinikini, had a s***ty speaking voice.
Bobcat Goldthwait, even when not hamming it up for stand-up.
Jon Landau, a film producer
David Carr, a NYT columnist, had just about the worst speaking voice ever known to man. His cancer seems to have gotten better now, but he still has that painfully high rasp.
Howie Nave, a film critic from Nevada, has a quite annoying voice and delivery.
Comedian Bobby Slayton should not be allowed a career that allows him to speak.
John Travolta has a surprisingly weak voice, but it's not as though you pictured a top-notch speaking voice from a man who looks like him.
Norman Finkelstein; even though he's an insightful political scientist, his voice is high and reedy and he talks so Jewishly, it’s most likely painful for him.
Steven Tyler's high, frail speaking voice isn't unexpected, as he's screamed all day and night for 40 years.
General Larry Platt, the "Pants On The Ground Guy" reminds me of that falsetto-voiced crack addict Dave Chapelle played on that show, which I don't remember the name of...
Reverend Floyd H. Flake; he’s also on Charlie Rose.
Rod Stewart; a kind of similar deal with Steven Tyler, only more gravelly and more muffled. And he has a British accent.
George Lucas
Joe Pesci
Barney Frank
Dick Vitale
Author and poet Reynolds Price sounded like hell before he died; you can find interviews of him on YouTube. There's one in which his voice is so gravelly, it's as though he's speaking in two voices at once.
Composer John Williams
Charles B. Rangel
Arlen Specter's voice is so thin and cold, and his thick Midwestern accent bothers me most of the time.
Author Carlos Fuentes; you can also find him on Charlie Rose.
Harry Belafonte, although his singing voice is surprisingly good.
Mel Brooks
As you may have noticed, my worst male voices are sort of the polar opposite of my best male voices: high-pitched, thin, weak, wispy, not much of a lower register, usually rough, raspy, scratchy, and/or gravelly. Note how I didn’t include Gilbert Gottfried, which most people consider to be the worst male voice of all time. I just think it’s ridiculous for people to think he has the worst voice, because he SCREECHES all the time! Listen, if you screeched all day, people would think you’re insufferable too. Here are a few videos of Gottfried’s normal voice. Most of the time, still somewhat abrasive, but like a very toned-down version of his stand-up voice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdbElWMnkyY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC7h7Aa9_zE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3XB6jCWDIg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBlQ-B7-xtY
And search on YouTube “rabbi gottfried” and you’ll find a goldmine of Gottfried’s natural voice, complete with lack of even a New York accent.
The worst female speaking voices:
Fantasia Barrino
Sophia Bush
Sarah Vowell---not so much her voice, timbre-wise, as her speech (a bad lisp), delivery (creaky much of the time), phrasings, tonality, intonations, inflections...well, everything about her voice except her voice in itself, I guess.
Rachael Ray. She got her throat fixed about two years ago, so she doesn't sound as bad as she used to. Her voice is still grating, though...
Mo'Nique. I do declare, though, she was a marvelous actress in Precious (and I'm sure she did well in other things she's been in), but God only knows her voice was entirely suitable for her character.
Rita Cosby
Sarah Palin
Rosie O'Donnell's voice, taken in isolation, is pretty good, actually. It has a good pitch and resonance, but her delivery and tonality is, at worst, very grating. She also has that fast-talking New York accent. And, of course, she’s a dangerous idiot.
Kathy Griffin
Julia Sweeney
Kathleen Vinehout
Fran Drescher's normal speaking voice has always been considerably better than her Nanny voice, and now it's even better than it has been. Still, you know...She's Fran Drescher...
Roseanne Barr
Rita Braver
Paula Deen's voice is okay, but I can't stand listening to her. Her southern accent is really a bit much, and her inflections and just the way she says things annoys me very much.
Joy Behar
Joan Rivers
Barbara Walters
So...well, you know what to do. Feel free to second people I've mentioned; say you don't agree with a choice of mine, but please do so respectfully enough, as I can be quite defensive; introduce me to new people, which is always exciting to me. Feel free to make Top 10 lists, by all means! I'll most likely come back with a few of my own eventually.
ETA: Barry White was not on my list. As opposed to saying this:
He sounded like a southern
Barry White!
I really meant to say this:
He sounded like a southern Barry White!
If I were to say the former, I would have typed a period after the word "southern;" grammatically, I am very finicky.
Last edited:
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