Tony Jay (2 February 1933 â€" 13 August 2006) was an English-American actor, voice actor and singer. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was known for his voice work in animation, film and video games. Jay was particularly well known for his distinctive baritone voice, which often had him cast as villainous characters. He was best known as the voice of Claude Frollo from Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Megabyte from ReBoot, and the Elder God (and the original Mortanius) from the Legacy of Kain series.
Career
Tony Jay appeared on-screen in several films and on television, including Love and Death, Twins, Night Court, The Golden Girls and Eerie, Indiana. He also developed a career in the theatre, in plays such as The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Great Expectations, and The Merchant of Venice. Jay's other non-animation roles included Paracelsus on the 1987 CBS series Beauty and the Beast; Minister Campio on Star Trek: The Next Generation; and Lex Luthor's villainous aide-de-camp Nigel St. John in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.
He was also well known for his role as the voice of the virus Megabyte in the animated series ReBoot, and for his voice-work as Judge Claude Frollo in Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame and in the Walt Disney World version of the nighttime light and fireworks show Fantasmic!. He also voiced Monsieur D'Arque, the amoral asylum superintendent, in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Jay also in 1995-96 had an animation voice as he voiced a vile alien warlord named Lord Dregg, the new main villain of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series in the show's last two seasons.
He is also well-known among Legacy of Kain fans for his voicing of the original Mortanius and of the Elder God, alongside several other minor characters. He was also the successor of George Sanders in the role of Shere Khan from Disney's The Jungle Book. Jay voiced the character in TaleSpin and reprised his role of the character for fifteen years after it ended until his death. The Jungle Book 2 was his final reprisal of the role.
Jay was a devotee of classic Broadway, and made several recordings and performances of old-time Broadway lyrics, in spoken-word form. A CD of these readings, Speaking of Broadway, was released in 2005; a version recorded years earlier of the same collection was titled Poets on Broadway, as is his website. It features Jay reciting lyrics written by the likes of Noël Coward, Ira Gershwin and Oscar Hammerstein and was composed entirely by him, according to the CD liner notes.
Personal life
Jay was born in London in 1933. He attended Pinner County Grammar School. He moved to South Africa in 1955 and was involved with many radio productions on the SABC Commercial Radio Service, Springbok Radio, until 1980. He later moved to the United States, and became a naturalized citizen. He was Jewish.
Death
In April 2006, he underwent surgery in Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles to remove a non-cancerous tumour from his lungs. He never fully recovered from the operation and was in a critical condition throughout the following months. Jay eventually died on 13 August 2006 at the age of 73. He was survived by his wife Marta and son Adam. He is also survived by his brother Robert and sister in law Lynda.
Filmography
Notable characters Tony Jay voiced include:
Film
- All Dogs Go to Heaven 2, Reginald
- Asterix and the Big Fight (film), Narrator
- An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island, Toplofty
- Beauty and the Beast, Monsieur D'Arque
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Judge Claude Frollo: Nominated - Annie Award for Best Individual Achievement for Voice Acting
- The Jungle Book 2, Shere Khan
- My Stepmother Is an Alien, Council Chief
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Narrator
- Recess: School's Out, Dr. Rosenthal
- Scooby-Doo! in Arabian Nights, Lord of the Amulet
- Thumbelina, Cow (Uncredited)
- Time Bandits, Voice of the Supreme Being
- Tom and Jerry: The Movie, Lickboot the Lawyer
- Treasure Planet, Narrator
- Twins, Professor Werner, also the narrator
Television
- 2 Stupid Dogs, The Chief
- Aladdin, Khartoum
- Ancient Prophecies, Announcer/Introduction
- Beauty and the Beast, Paracelsus
- Beethoven, Watson
- Bruno the Kid, Jarlsberg
- Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Dr. Animus
- Caesar's Magical Empire attraction, Ceronomus the wizard
- Captain Planet, The Yeti
- Darkwing Duck, Death
- Eerie, Indiana, Boris Von Orloff
- Fall of Eagles, Tsar Alexander III
- The Fantastic Four, Galactus and Terrax
- Garfield and Friends, Edward F. Furrow
- Gargoyles, Anubis
- Hey Arnold!, Rex Smythe-Higgins I and a "mythical disembodied voice"
- House of Mouse, Shere Khan, Magic Mirror, and Ostrich
- The Golden Girls, Hungarian sculptor Laszlo
- The Little Mermaid, The Magical Wishing Starfish
- Little Dorrit, The Doctor
- Lois & Clark, Nigel St. John
- Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series, The Wraith
- Mighty Max, Virgil the Lemurian
- Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends, Spiderus: Nominated - Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production & Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program (Note: This was Jay's final role before his death.)
- Peter Pan and the Pirates, Alf Mason
- ReBoot, Megabyte
- Rugrats, Dr. Lipschitz and other characters
- Savage Dragon, Overlord
- Secret Squirrel, The Chief
- Skeleton Warriors, Narrator
- Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Baron Mordo
- Star Trek: The Next Generation, Minister Campio
- Superman: The Animated Series, Sul-Van
- TaleSpin, Shere Khan
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Lord Dregg
- The Tick, Chairface Chippendale
- Twin Peaks, Dougie Milford
- Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat, Jaggo Donut
- Xyber 9, Mechestro
Video games
- September 1992: Captain Saladin, ArchDruid, Gate, and Lamp Trader in King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow
- November 1996: Mortanius the Necromancer in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
- The Elder God in the Legacy of Kain series
- Zephon in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
- March 1997: Drek'Thar in Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans
- November 1997: Lieutenant in Fallout
- January 2004: General Attis in Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel
- February 1998 The Sorcerer in Die by the Sword (1998 computer game)
- December 1999 The Transcendent One in Planescape: Torment
- March 2000: Shere Khan in The Jungle Book Groove Party
- June 2000: Kresselack in Icewind Dale
- November 2000: Mithras in Sacrifice
- November 2001: The Director in Return to Castle Wolfenstein
- December 2001: Xantam the Beholder in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
- July 2002: King Terenas Menethil II in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
- March 2003: Chancellor Florian Gustov Niemann in Freelancer
- December 2003: King Forge in Armed and Dangerous (video game)
- January 2004: Leader of the Rangers in Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter
- February 2004: Peles in Champions of Norrath
- September 2004: Magneto in X-Men Legends
- October 2004: The Narrator in The Bard's Tale (2004)
Narration
Notable projects for which Tony Jay provided narration include:
- Albert Fish, a 2006 film
- Asterix and the Big Fight (film)
- Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
- The Bard's Tale
- The History Channel series Civil War Combat
- Dark Age of Camelot, a MMORPG set in Arthurian times.
- Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel
- Hunter: The Reckoning
- Inside a Death Camp: The Sobibor Story, a 2005 TV documentary about the Sobibór Nazi death camp
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
- Skeleton Warriors
- Teen Titans (in the episode Transformation)
- Treasure Planet
- Twins
- H. H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer, a 2004 documentary on the notorious Herman Webster Mudgett
- Blackstone audiobooks unabridged presentation of Horace Walpole's classic Gothic Romance "The Castle of Otranto"' and audio adaptation of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari".
Voice-overs
Notable projects for which Tony Jay narrated include:
- LBC Radio (London) - Tony Jay narrated voice-overs for the station's main jingle packages between 1974 and 1980.
- SPRINGBOK RADIO (South Africa) - Tony Jay acted, wrote & produced many radio series in South Africa on the Commercial Radio Service, Springbok Radio.
- Kirby's Dream Land 2 commercial.
References
External links
- Tony Jay at the Internet Movie Database
- Special Springbok Radio Audio Tribute
- Tony Jay at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)