Franklin W. Welker is an American voice actor.
Ghostbusters Related
Known as the voice of Ray Stantz, Slimer, and others in The Real Ghostbusters and as a guest (voicing Ray only) in Extreme Ghostbusters.
Confirmed Ghostbusters Credits
Live-Action Acting Actor
Welker's first on camera film role was as a bar fight participant in Stan Dragoti’s Dirty Little Billy. He played a college kid from Rutgers University in the Elvis Presley picture The Trouble with Girls. He later co-starred with Don Knotts in Universal’s How to Frame a Figg. Welker also appeared in two Disney films, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes and Now You See Him, Now You Don't.
His on camera television appearances included Love American Style, The Partridge Family and The Don Knotts Show. He played a prosecutor in highly acclaimed ABC special The Trial of General Yamashita and as Captain Pace beside Richard Dreyfuss' Yossarian in Paramount television’s pilot, Catch-22. He appeared on Laugh In, The Dean Martin Roast, The Mike Douglas Show, The Tonight Show, Merv Griffin, The Smothers Brothers Show, The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour and Laugh Trax. In the latter show, he was a cast member alongside Jim Staahl and Howie Mandel. Frank also played an on camera role of a voice actor on an episode of Simon and Simon.
Career Voice Actor
Welker has been referred to as a "voice acting god" (by John DiMaggio and Billy West in the DVD commentary for Futurama) in Hollywood for the sheer number of voices he has done—over 1,200—ranging from his work on Scooby-Doo to the present day. His voice acting credits include television shows and films such as Curious George, Muppet Babies, Aladdin, Pocahontas and computer games such as the Baldur's Gate series, and CarnEvil. He was also a regular on the original Transformers series, playing a large number of roles, most notably Megatron and Soundwave.
Frank's ability goes beyond creating human voices and is often cast as animals and used for animal vocals, for example the animal-spirit Totoro in the Disney 2005 re-dub of My Neighbour Totoro. He was described as "unbelievable" at imitating animal sounds by Maurice LaMarche in a Futurama DVD commentary.
Welker did more live action movies during the 1990s. Among his work includes vocal effects for the character of Sil in Species, Shao Kahn and Reptile in 1995's Mortal Kombat, the Devil in 1986's The Golden Child, and Malebolgia in 1997's Spawn. Welker also provided the voice (both speaking and non-speaking) of Nibbler in the cartoon TV series Futurama.
As of 2002, Welker is the voice of both Fred Jones and Scooby Doo. This includes the most recent What's New, Scooby-Doo?, and the series-based spinoff, Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue! Also, Welker starred in most of the 2000s Scooby-Doo projects as Fred Jones and Scooby-Doo. He also was Sasquatch in The Legend of Sasquatch. Welker's talent was also recognized in Disney's Stitch: Experiment 626, voicing the jealous and maniacal Experiment 6-2-1.
Trivia
- On page one of Ghostbusters Issue #3, Frank Welker makes a non-canon cameo as a citizen running away from the Gozerian Terror Bear.
- On page 12 panel 4 of Ghostbusters: Get Real Issue #3, right of Peter is a list of names including Welker.
- On page 8 of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #4, it is revealed the last name of the Ghostbusturtle named Danny is Welker, a nod to Frank Welker.
