10 Great Voice Actors Of 'Star Wars' And Their Contribution To The Franchise

Star Wars

May 7

Microphone for voice actors — Image Source: Tube Ranker

Here are ten amazing people who have impacted the Star Wars Universe. It’s easy to acknowledge the actors we see on screen, but let’s give some love to the ones hidden away in the recording studio.

10. Matthew Wood

We Love Them For: General Grievous’ classic lines.

Star Wars: Despite being a sound editor, Matthew Wood is now probably one of the most memed actors in Star Wars. He provided the mechanised voices for all of the battle droids in the saga. Every quip, and that ‘Roger, Roger’ from Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace is his work. He also provided the vocals for one of the most unique villains in Star Wars, General Grievous. The multi-lightsaber-wielding separatist seems to go viral every few years, in part, due to Matthew Wood’s ability to make the most out of simple dialogue. And he has a mean smoker’s cough.

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Behind the scenes, he’s worked as a sound editor on pretty much everything that Disney has produced for Star Wars, e.g. Andor, Ahsoka, and Star Wars: The Bad Batch. Matthew Wood has been a constant presence at Lucasfilm since being recruited to work on the 2004 recuts of the original trilogy.

Other Work: Although he has done other voice work, Matthew Wood’s most notable work outside of Star Wars is for sound editing. He was the supervising sound editor on Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and Star Trek into Darkness.

9. Frank Oz

Why We Love Them: Yoda….obviously

Star Wars: Frank Oz played Yoda from his first appearance in Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, up until 2020 where he was last featured on Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge and computer game Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge. The year before he had performed in the last of the sequel movies. Frank Oz has recorded vocals for video games, animated, CGI/blue screen, and puppet Yodas. Has any other performer worked with so many different versions of their character?

Other Work: Frank Oz is the voice of Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear from The Muppets, as well as Sesame Street’s Bert, Grover and the Cookie Monster. In the 1980s he worked with the Henson’s on Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal.

8. Sam Witwer

Why We Love Them: Making us believe that Qui Gon’s wounds were fatal, but Darth Maul’s weren’t.

Star Wars: Sam Witwer played Darth Maul in one of the best villain character arcs in Star Wars. Yes, okay, cutting him in half and bringing him back again was…..a stretch of the imagination. But Sam Witwer’s performance was so strong that audiences stopped caring pretty quickly. Sam Witwer’s voice switches between intensity and subtlety with effortless control. It’s astounding. We’d also argue that his death scene (his actual death scene) is the best in the entire franchise. No one but Witwer could have pulled that off. Witwer has lent his voice to a few other Star Wars characters, most notably, Starkiller in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed computer game.

Other Work: Sam Witwer’s career has flourished since landing the part of Davis Bloome in Smallville. He’s had a good run with teen shows, landing major roles in Supergirl and Riverdale. He also headlined the US adaption of the British TV series Being Human.

7. Freddie Prinze Jr.

Why We Love Them: For making us cry.

Star Wars: Freddie Prinze Jr voiced Kanan Jarrus aka Caleb Dume in Star Wars Rebels and his character put viewers through the mill. Kanan was an example of how a Jedi can have everything possible thrown at him and still stay sane and on the light side of the Force. Freddie Prinze Jr dug deep when doing the emotional scenes, and tissues are a requirement for season four’s "Jedi Night".

Freddie Prinze Jr had great chemistry with the rest of the cast, and if Disney doesn’t find a way to bring Kanan into live-action (flashbacks are a thing) with this actor, the fans might have to have words.

Other Work: Freddie Prinze Jr gained fame with teen rom-com, She’s All That, but, of late, he’s been more comfortable behind a mic. Mass Effects fans will recognise him as James Vega, but he’s also a Robot Chicken regular.

6. Alan Tudyk

Why We Love Them: For the laughs.

Star Wars: Rogue One was a serious, hard-hitting movie. It needed some comic relief, and we got that in the form of Alan Tudyk’s sarcastic, dry, and pedantic K-2SO. Alan Tudyk’s deadpan delivery and comic timing are a major part of what makes this droid a fan favorite.

Other Work: Alan Tudyk has been a Disney regular since he took on the role of a disgruntled parrot in Disney’s Aladdin in 2019. He’s since appeared in Frozen, Encanto, Raya and the Last Dragon and more recently Wish., Rogue One isn’t Tudyk’s first robot, he played Sonny in Will Smith’s Issac Asimov adaption, I, Robot.

5. Tom Kane

Why We Love Them: The sheer amount of projects he’s worked on.

Star Wars: Tom Kane aka the narrator of the opening crawl in Star Wars: The Clone Wars is the only single actor that is in every episode of the series. Tom Kane signed up to the franchise in 1996 when he was cast for the role of Leebo on Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire for PC and he has been hired on projects for Lucasfilm ever since. Tom Kane has voiced Yoda, Ackbar, Admiral Yularen, Qui Gon Jinn, and a whole heap of others in animation (including Star Wars: The Bad Batch and Star Wars Rebels), computer games, and LEGO projects! Unfortunately due to a health issue, he announced his retirement at the end of 2021, but his legacy will live on.

Other Work: Tom Kane famously voiced Darwin the monkey in Nickelodeon’s The Wild Thornberrys, Millennials also might remember him from the cult TV series Johnny Bravo where he voiced a number of the guest characters including Pantene Claw. Tom Kane continued to have success in the gaming industry, starring in Final Fantasy VII (one of the best in the franchise) as Marquis Halim Ondore IV. Kane was also in the much-praised Batman: Arkham Asylum as Jim Gordan.

4. Matt Lanter

Why We Love Them: For giving Anakin Skywalker the nuanced fall to the dark side we all wanted from the prequels.

Star Wars: Matt Lanter was cast as the voice of Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: The Clone Wars in 2008. Hayden Christensen had his hands tied by a combination of George Lucas’ writing and limited screen time. But in a series format, David Filoni and Matt Lanter helped redeem Anakin’s transition from Jedi to Sith. Lanter’s excellent voice work truly made the role his own. From the Clovis beat down, which demonstrated the toxic relationship with Padmé, to the teaching of his own padawan. Lanter also helmed the famous Mortis Arc, one of the fan favourites, which is becoming more and more central to the lore of Star Wars.

Other Work: Matt Lanter will happily work on other franchises. He’s voiced several high-profile superheroes including the Blue Beetle (The Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths), Aquaman, (The Death of Superman, The Reign of the Superman), and the Winter Soldier (Avengers Assemble). But Lanter is also comfortable in front of the camera. He fronted the time travel series, Timeless. And he also took the lead as the male love interest in the major motion picture Pitch Perfect 3.

3. Ashley Eckstein

We Love Them For: Making us fall in love with Ahsoka.

Star Wars: When Ahsoka brashly announced herself as Anakin’s padawan, fans hated her. As always, David Filoni had a plan, a complicated character arc that would allow Ahsoka to grow through conflict and trials. It needed a great voice talent to pull this off, someone who could sound young, but not childish, strong but not aggressive. The bantering relationship between Ahsoka and her master could have come off cheesy or annoying if not for Ashley Eckstein’s (and Lanter’s) sharp delivery. Between the casting and the writing, a fan favourite was born. It was inevitable that Ahsoka would eventually get her own series.

Other Work: Ashely Eckstein is one of the chosen few to have voiced a Studio Ghibli movie, she appears on the dub of Only Yesterday as Yaeko Okajima, the lead’s fussy older sister. Like many of her co-stars, she has worked on superhero-based animated projects including DC Super Hero Girls and Avengers Assemble. Eckstein also had a brief role in the rebooted She-Ra and the Princess of Power series as Tallstar.

2. Dee Bradley Baker

We Love Them For: The Bad Batch

Star Wars: Almost every single Clone Trooper that’s ever been animated by Disney has been voiced by Dee Bradley Baker. Rex, Fives, Echo, they were all Dee Bradley Baker. He’s had to create distinct personalities for each clone, and there’s been a lot of them. Most of Star Wars: The Bad Batch was this guy alone, in a studio with a mic talking to himself.

Other Works: Dee Bradley Baker has had an exceptional forty-year-long career. Now, he’s probably best known as Klaus, the body-swapped fish in American Dad, although anyone with children may recognise him as Diamondhead, Cash, or Ultimate Spider Monkey from his many appearances in Ben 10. There are just too many films and series to mention, he’s been a part of every franchise, Marvel, DC, Studio Ghibli, the Winx Club, and he was even the voice of Daffy Duck in the Hollywood Blockbuster Space Jam. He’s just as famous in the gaming industry, voicing multiple characters on Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate Two. He also provided the voice for Wakka on Kingdom Hearts and the Gravemind in The Halo franchise. Is there nothing this man can’t do?

1. James Earl Jones

We Love Them For: Making Sith Lords cool.

Star Wars: Back in the 1970s David Prowse was cast as Vader, he had the imposing height, but his broad Yorkshire accent was more farmer than Sith. George Lucas had a re-think and cast James Earl Jones for the dub and the rest is history. James Earl Jones’ voice is iconic Vader.

Other Work: Put a generation of kids in therapy as Mufasa. Has a glittering 70-year career in show business. Has been on everything. We can’t even narrow it down to sum it up.

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