Michael Bell
Bell at the 2015 Retro Con
Born	(1938-07-30)July 30, 1938 (age 87) Brooklyn,New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1956–present
Spouse	Victoria Carroll ​ (m. 1984)​
Children	Ashley Bell
Website	michaelbellvoices.com

Michael Bell (born July 30, 1938) is an American actor who is most active in voice over roles. He has acted in video games and animated series, includingLegacy of Kain,The Transformers,G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero,The Houndcats,Rugrats,The Smurfs,The Incredible Hulk andSnorks and appeared on-screen in film and television, including the TV programsDallas andStar Trek.

Michael Bell was born on July 30, 1938,^[1][2] inBrooklyn, New York, to a Jewish family.^[3]

His live action film career has included roles in films such asThunder Alley (1967),Blue (1968),The Proud Rider (1971)^[4]Brother John (1971),Rollercoaster (1977),Fast Company (1979),How to Beat the High Cost of Living (1980) andC.H.U.D. II: Bud the C.H.U.D. (1989). Bell also appeared in live-action exploitation shorts andPSAs - scare films made in California during the early 1960s, ranging in content from venereal disease (Damaged Goods) to psychedelic drug abuse (Trip To Where).

He appeared in theStar Trek: The Next Generation pilot episode, "Encounter at Farpoint", as Bandi administrator Groppler Zorn, and in theStar Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes "The Homecoming" as aBajoran and in "The Maquis."

Bell appeared in multiple episodes ofDallas as Les Crowley during the 1980–81 season, inM*A*S*H in the episode "Souvenirs" as Willie Stratton and also guest starred in two episodes ofThree's Company as Rama Mageesh and Michael, a sleazy dance instructor in the sixth-season episode "Some of That Jazz" (1981). Bell played Bill Duncan, Sabrina (Kate Jackson)'s ex-husband onCharlie's Angels, as well as appearing as King Edward Spencer on Jackson's seriesScarecrow and Mrs. King. In 1970, he appeared in an episode ofThe Silent Force.

Bell had an important part in animated entertainment in the 1970s and 1980s. His first voice role was that of Stutz, the leader ofThe Houndcats. In 1973, he was Mark on theHanna-Barbera seriesSpeed Buggy. He voiced Redbeard the Pirate's Ghost inThe New Scooby-Doo Movies episode "The Ghostly Creep from the Deep" as the second Redbeard themed monster in Scooby-Doo. Bell also reprised Mark on the same cartoon in the episode "Weird Winds of Winona".

From 1977 to 1984, Michael Bell played two of his best-known roles,Zan andGleek on variousSuper Friends incarnations. He also voicedThe Riddler onChallenge of the Superfriends. He also provided the voice ofLex Luthor as a young man, in the episode "History of Doom". However,Stan Jones was the voice of the adult Luthor throughout the series. Bell later played Luthor in the 1988Superman series.

He was also Doctor Ben Cooper inJana of the Jungle and in 1979, he voiced the title character ofThe Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show and later made a guest appearance asDoctor Octopus in another superhero show,Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.

Outside of animation, Bell performed on records and commercials, including the Young Man inA&M Records'Story of Halloween Horror album in 1977, and Parkay Margarine and Mug Root Beer ads. Bell provided the overdubbing ofPeter Criss' dialogue in the bandKISS's TV movieKISS Meets the Phantom of the Park. In 1980, he provided the voice of the title character inThe B.B. Beegle Show, an unsold TV show pilot that featured puppets.

Throughout the 1980s, Michael Bell starred in four hit animated series;

• asGrouchy Smurf, Lazy Smurf,Handy Smurf and Johan inThe Smurfs
• asProwl,Scrapper,Sideswipe, Bombshell,First Aid, Swoop, Gort,Brainstorm and Doctor Fujiyama inThe Transformers andThe Transformers: The Movie
• asDuke, Xamot,Blowtorch and numerous others inG.I. Joe: A Real American Hero andG.I. Joe: The Movie
• as Lance & Sven inVoltron: Defender of the Universe.

He also starred in the 1982 animated seriesThe Incredible Hulk.The Hulk was voiced byBob Holt, while his human side, Bruce Banner, was played by Bell. In a 2004 interview, Bell joked about how Holt would be annoyed that he was growling his throat out, while Bell's acting was much easier on his throat.^[5]

During this time, the actor also played Hiro Taka onSpiral Zone and Allstar Seaworthy onThe Snorks (1984-1989)

Bell continues to work in animation in the 1990s and into the 21st century in movies and television, with roles such asQuackerjack fromDisney'sDarkwing Duck, Aziz onAladdin andEzekiel Rage onThe Real Adventures of Jonny Quest. He was also featured as Opus in the Bloom County television specialA Wish for Wings That Work.

From 1991 to 2004, in theRugrats andAll Grown Up!, he voiced three of the main characters' parents;Drew Pickles, Charles Finster Sr., and Boris Kropotkin.

Bell did the voices of Drake onW.I.T.C.H., Max Hauser, Duke's Dad onG.I. Joe: Renegades, Willy Wachowski onHandy Manny and additional roles inTangled (2010).

In 2018, Bell reprised his role as Quackerjack on the reboot ofDuckTales.

He is also a prolific voice in video games, which includeSoldier of Fortune II: Double Helix,Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos,Diablo II: Lord of Destruction,Age of Empires III,Baldur's Gate,Ratchet & Clank, the character Dark Fact in the gameYs I & II, and the characterRaziel in three games in theLegacy of Kain series, among many others. He also plays the Fear inMetal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

He narrated the documentary programsEarth's Fury (also known asAnatomy of Disaster internationally),Expeditions to the Edge,Bullet Catchers andMysteries of Asia, while he narrated some episodes ofE! True Hollywood Story.

In 1983, he and his future wife Victoria Carroll opened The West End Playhouse in Van Nuys. The two of them organized, wrote, directed, and acted in dozens of productions.

One of the most notable wasThe Ladies of the Camillias in which Bell played the villain Ivan and Victoria starred as Madame Sarah Bernhardt. The play won multiple Drama Logue Awards.^[6]

He served as the theater's director until 1988, when by mutual agreement to devote more time to their child, Bell and Carroll sold the theater to Edmund Gaynes and Pamela Hall.^[7]

Bell was the voice director forKidd Video,Peter Pan and the Pirates, as well as the web seriesThe LeBrons.

On March 30, 2012, theScreen Actors Guild (SAG) and theAmerican Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) completed a merger of equals forming a new unionSAG-AFTRA. As a result of this merger, a group of actors including Bell, fellow voice actorsWendy Schaal,Clancy Brown, Schaal's former stepmotherValerie Harper, and other actors including former SAG PresidentEdward Asner,Martin Sheen,Ed Harris, andNancy Sinatra immediately sued against the current SAG PresidentKen Howard and several SAG Vice Presidents to overturn the merger and separate the (now merged) two unions because of their claims that the election was improper.^[8] The plaintiffs dropped their lawsuit several months later.^[9]

In 1991, Bell and his colleagueMelanie Chartoff conceived the Grayway Rotating Drain, agraywater recycling device for reuse of shower and sink water in the home. The following year, they finished and patented the product with the help of Ronald K. Ford.^{[10][11][12][13][14]}

Bell has been married to actressVictoria Carroll since 1984.^[15] Together they have a daughter,Ashley Bell, who is also an actress.^[16] He is ananimal rights activist. He is the godfather of actorSteve Guttenberg, who cites Bell as his inspiration to become an actor.

Bell served on the board of directors of the Los Angeles Local ofSAG-AFTRA in 2016 until 2019.^[17]

• Kidd Video – Casting and voice director
• Peter Pan and the Pirates – Voice director
• The LeBrons

Wikimedia Commons has media related toMichael Bell.

• Official website
• Michael Bell atIMDb
• Michael Bell athttp://www.voicechasers.com

• 1938 births
• Living people
• 20th-century American male actors
• 21st-century American male actors
• 20th-century American Jews
• 21st-century American Jews
• American casting directors
• American inventors
• American male film actors
• American male stage actors
• American male television actors
• American male video game actors
• American male voice actors
• American voice directors
• Hanna-Barbera people
• Jewish American male actors
• Male actors from Brooklyn

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use American English from June 2024
• All Wikipedia articles written in American English
• Use mdy dates from June 2024
• Articles with hCards
• Commons category link from Wikidata