Let’s start with your early radio career. Tell me about that time in your life --- and your
transition from radio to voice-acting.
I started out as a radio DJ
and production guy. Over time I found that my rather eclectic skill set wasn’t being rewarded in that business. I had
always been curious about the people who voiced cartoons, national radio and TV commercials, promos and documentaries
and wondered if I might be able to compete in that arena. For a time I thought that they must be moon-lighting face actors.
You never heard about voice-overs in those days. Finally, in the early seventies, I learned that voice-over was a separate
and potentially lucrative business. So I decided to try to get into it. Things really kicked in when I came to Los Angeles
in the late seventies. While still working in radio, I began attending voice-over workshops and acting classes. Eventually
I landed an agent and started auditioning. After about five years I was successful enough in VO to leave radio behind.
I read in another interview that you were backstage with Jim Morrison and The Doors,
what was that like? What point in their career was that?
That was in the summer of 1968 in Honolulu. I was
working for the station that presented the concert. I wrote a piece on it which you can find at www.mildequator.com a Doors fan site. Click on ‘Showcase’ and scroll down.
In that same
interview you said that “MY parents didn’t want a TV in the house…” “so I was pretty much limited
to radio listening”. You said you became fascinated with voices and accents because of that. If TV was permitted
in your house as a child, would I be talking to a completely different Neil Ross today? Maybe you would have been seen
on television instead of just heard?
Interesting question. Hard to say. I think I was better suited for radio and voice-over.
I’m really an introverted extrovert. I like to perform but I don’t want too many people watching me do it. At
least I didn’t when I was younger. It’s probably just as well that I didn’t try to crack Broadway or Hollywood.
They’d have eaten me alive.
Ok, we’re here to talk about your time on G.I. Joe and your character
“Shipwreck”. How did you get involved in the show?
Same way it happens 99% of the time. I auditioned
for it.
And what about the voice of “Shipwreck”, how did that
come about?
I was trying various approaches and I could tell everyone was underwhelmed. Then somebody mentioned
Jack Nicholson’s sailor character in The Last Detail, a Hal Ashby film from the early seventies. (Well worth watching
if NetFlix has it.) That struck a chord with me and I went into what eventually became the Shipwreck voice. Everybody seemed
very pleased and a few days later my agent called and told me I got the part.
“Shipwreck”
was… and still is… my favorite character from that show. It had to have been his attitude and voice.
How much of his character did you actually get to create through his voice?
That’s hard to say. The
writers had more to do with that than I did. I played the part but they created it. But I have to say that of all the characters
I’ve performed Shipwreck was one of my very favorites. He wasn’t a ‘good guy’ or a ‘bad guy.’
He was a little of both. He was a loveable screw-up who danced to the beat of a very different drum. Great fun to play.
How many times do you think you’ve said “YO JOE!” during your
time as “Shipwreck”?
I shudder to think.
Voice-over has changed a lot over the years, whether it’s changing from multi-cast recording sessions
to individual recording sessions or the fact that it’s harder for a smaller actor to get parts because of Hollywood’s
infatuation on movies such as Shrek or Toy Story… where you see Hollywood movie stars helming the roles of each character.
Have these changes had any effect on you as a voice actor?
Well about the only thing you can really count on
in life is change. When I started out the voice-over business was a private little world of our own. I recall a casting
person in the early eighties opining that there were probably about 650 people in L.A. doing full time VO. The last figure
I heard (and this was a few years ago) was one casting place had over 19 thousand people in their computer talent list. There’s
probably even more now. There just aren’t as many opportunities as there once were. And, as you point out, the celebrities
have pretty much nosed us regular performers completely out of animated features. The bulk of what I do these days that
involves portraying characters would be in games. It is what it is, and at least I was around for the wonderful mid eighties
to mid nineties.
Do you ever get that awkward look when you first meet someone –
and then you realize that they recognize your voice? Do you have any examples?
No one has ever recognized me
by my voice.
You also tacked the role as Rambo on the animated series. One thing I noticed was that you did not try to impersonate
Sly Stallone’s voice – why was that?
Funny that you would say that.
When I auditioned for the show they said they wouldn’t be using me because what I was doing sounded too much
like Stallone. They cast someone else and then he dropped out for some reason and they came back to me. I asked if they
wanted me to change what I was doing and they said “no.” I could never figure out if they wanted a sound-alike
or not.
On IMDB.com your first role is “The Jetsons” in 1962, listed as “Additional
Voices”. What was your involvement on the show?
I did a guest role in a Jetsons episode somewhere in the mid to late eighties. Don’t
know why IMDB has it as 1962. In 1962 I was in high school!
You’ve done
a lot of Star Wars work over the span of your career – are you a big fan of the franchise?
I thought
the original film was just great, but I sort of lost track of it after that.
Tell
us what you’ve been up to lately.
I did the announcing on The AFI Tribute to
Mike Nichols last year and I’ve been involved in a few games. But, as you probably know, the makers aren’t too
keen on us talking about them while they’re in development, so I can’t give the titles.
