My favourite voice belongs to Will Lyman, probably best known as narrator of FRONTLINE but an actor who has had many roles, usually fairly minor though.  Another person I always enjoy is Peter Thomas who is now in his eighties but working, at least until 2007.  He did narration for MEDICAL DETECTIVES and FORENSIC FILES and many other films and commercials.  It is hard to imagine this is the voice of an old man on those recent shows.

I once knew a producer who hired the Winnipeg voice of KTel commercials.  Producer loved the guy and said he never met a person who was as precise at timing a track through intuition.

Other favourites?

Quoted from 654

My favourite voice belongs to Will Lyman,

Other favourites?

Paul Frees.

Of course, you could go back to the OTR days when the list of great voice actors was just about endless, ranging from Marvin Miller to Elliott Lewis to Mel Blanc.

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How about Keith David, the narrator of Ken Burns' excellent 'Baseball' miniseries.

And for those who go back a few years, Alexander Scourby, the voice of  the venerable 'Victory at Sea.'

And the late great John Facenda, the original voice of NFL Films, before Harry Kalas took over.

For me, it's John O'Hurly.  Yes, Mr Peterman.  I've never seen or heard someone parody themselves so well.

Donald Sutherland's voice on Volvo ads is like butter too.

Keith David and John O'Hurley are excellent examples, but for my money, voice talent in North America begins and ends with Harry Shearer.

Forget the Mr. Burnses and Dr. Hibbards in his arsenal. It's the bit parts that have solidified him as the best out there, in my mind, anyway.

What, no Don LaFontaine mention?

Don will always be Movie Trailer man...not so much commercial voice over.  A good call on Harry Shearer.  There's a great series out there on Advertising by Bill O'Reilly, which I understand has some outstanding stuff on it.

Quoted from FRED

  There's a great series out there on Advertising by Bill O'Reilly, which I understand has some outstanding stuff on it.

I recall a series a few years ago weekends on CBC Radio One by O'Reilly, who I take is or was a Toronto advertising guru.  I believe it ran during the most recent CBC talent strike. The sound clips of vintage commercials were terrific.  But as this pertains to narration/voiceover talent ...??

What about names from our own backyard?  I recall a guy who worked in commercial radio, then went to CBC Vancouver, only to become the favorite flavor for narration hereabouts for almost a decade.  What was his name .......

I remember when every third radio spot in Vancouver was voiced by either Bill Reiter or David Hoole.  Both were distinctive, Reiter for his characterizations and Hoole for voice style.

Bill Reiter I agree with, always thought he had a license to print money.  

What about Jim Byrnes?

Victoria's Barry Bowman gets my vote. The former morning mayor of CFAX for a couple of decades has produced an excellent series for the Royal Victoria Museum. He was also "the" voice of BC Ferries for a number of years.

Couple of local names that shouldn't go unmentioned in this category are Bill Phillips who was heard just about everwhere .. even the telephone .. for some years in the 80's, I think it was.  
And Jim Conrad, who is probably the best known current Vancouver commercial voice.  Known in the US for his Toyota TV spots, and hereabouts for his imaging for CKNW and BCTV. (Global? I don't know if he was still imaging after the name change.)

Still on the local angle, mark my vote down for the late Long John Baldry, whose distinctive sound graced quite a few spots over the years, and, if it hasn't been changed, can still be heard daily narrating a film in the theatre atop Grouse Mountain.

Surprised that nobody has mentioned David Kaye -- his  unique style and sound can be heard on spots, imaging, animation, & film worldwide.  

Gotta add Steve Zirnkilton...

"In New York City's war on crime..."

Not only the voice of the Law & Order franchise, also does some other great narration work...

Quoted from mikedup

Couple of local names that shouldn't go unmentioned in this category are Bill Phillips who was heard just about everwhere .. even the telephone .. for some years in the 80's, I think it was.  
And Jim Conrad, who is probably the best known current Vancouver commercial voice.  Known in the US for his Toyota TV spots, and hereabouts for his imaging for CKNW and BCTV. (Global? I don't know if he was still imaging after the name change.)

If you're going to talk about local names, look no further than the marvellous Al Jordan. Unlike some who have one kind of read, Al could do hard, medium and soft. He's amazing.

Someone mentioned local commercial voice people from the 70s. John Wilson was doing a fair bit of production then and so was Franz Russell.

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