Update: It seems UK's The Guardian became aware of Frank Welker's unofficial status as Hollywood's top earner. Also The Numbers site has a new chart that breaks down the totals but oddly most are half the size they use to be so not really sure what changed from the chart below to the new one. Still Welker remains top dog at $6.2 billion followed by Samuel L Jackson ($5.2B), Tom Hanks ($4.4B), John Ratzenberger ($3.9B) and Harrison Ford ($3.7B).
Flickering Myth discovered an interesting stat on The Numbers.com. Transformers' Frank Welker is the highest grossing movie star ever with a total gross of about $12.5 billion. This is based on the total movie worldwide box office gross of movie actors, regardless of the size of their role in a film. This large total is despite most of his voice work being for television with the Transformers movie franchise (as Megatron) accounting for about 40% of that total. The next four top actors are Samuel Jackson ($10.15B, thanks to Marvel movies), Warwick Davis ($9.7B, mostly due to Harry Potter), Tom Hanks ($9.16B due to his legendary film career), and John Ratzenberger ($8.3B, mostly due to all the Pixar love).
Mr. Welker's other movie voice credits include Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Dumbo, others), Caddyshack II (the Gopher), All Dogs Go To Heaven (Devil Dog), Gremlins 2 (Mohawk), A Bug's Life (Thumper), Toy Story 2 (Bullseye), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Max the Dog), and many more. If you have never read his credits you really should give them a pass at it is truly amazing just how many childhood favorite shows and characters he has lent his voice too over his 40+ years long career. He probably has had more of impact on people's childhood then most people are even aware and really is deserving of more credit than the Hollywood establishment gives him and other voice actors.
Dont forget to mention Futurama as Nibbler ;)
ReplyDeletemisleading stats...
ReplyDeleteThe man does good work :)
ReplyDeleteLooked him up after Revenge of the Fallen simply because Soundwave, to me, sounded like Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadjet. And to my surprise? He was Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadjet. He was in a LOT of films from my childhood. All minor roles, but hey, it adds up.
ReplyDelete$12.5 billion??? this article makes it sound like thats how much money hes made.
ReplyDeleteFred Jones and scooby doo
ReplyDeleteFrancesco Quinn (voice of Dino) passes away at age 48 from heart attack :(
ReplyDeleteOh no! :'o( I loved his Dino voice. So tragic. Hopefully he realized just what an awesome contribution he's made to DOTM. Damn, now I'm going to be sad when I see that character when I see that movie. I guess if there's a new movie, they'll have to find another voice for him.
ReplyDeleteThat's sad :(
ReplyDeletethats all soundwave EVER was .....dr. claw ran through a vocoder or autotune thing. go back and listen to original soundwave, if you listen through the synthesized part you hear it plain as day. thats what made me so mad about revenge of the fallen....all they had to do was autotune it and it would have been perfect. the money they could have saved by leaving Devastators "balls" out of the movie. they could have ....blah blah blah I sound like ne of those assholes.
ReplyDeletefrank Welker is GOD.
or he's at least probably voiced him at some point.
Frank Welker is my idol, role model, and inspiration. He completely deserves to be at the top. He is so underrated and I hate that. I want the world to see his brilliance... Or maybe he doesn't want it that way. I mean, making all that money and not having to deal with publicity. Someday, I want to meet him in person. It would accomplish my dream.
ReplyDeleteFound out the other day, by pure accident, he was the voice of Darwin, the dolphin in SeaQuest DSV. Very talented person i would think....
ReplyDelete