Maurice LaMarche

On 8 September 2018 LaMarche was featured in the commercial for the upcoming open world driving game Forza Horizon 4.

LaMarche has done various voice work for many Warner Bros. Animation and DiC Entertainment cartoons. He also delivered the protracted belches for the "Great Wakkorotti" shorts on Animaniacs, in which Wakko Warner performed various pieces of music. In 2011, LaMarche reprised his role as Yosemite Sam in Cartoon Network's new series, The Looney Tunes Show, and its spin-off, New Looney Tunes.

Much of his best known voicework is from Futurama where he voiced Zapp Brannigan's beleaguered assistant Kif Kroker, melodramatic soap acting unit Calculon, the Nero-esque Hedonismbot, Morbo the news anchor, and Lrrr, ruler of the planet Omicron Persei 8, among numerous others. He has also done his Orson Welles impression on the show, winning a 2011 Outstanding Voice-Over Performance Emmy for his portrayal of Lrrr and Orson Welles in the episode "Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences". He won another Emmy the following year for the Futurama episode "The Silence of the Clamps".

In Mark Hamill's 2004 movie Comic Book: The Movie, LaMarche made a rare live appearance to be in the special features of the DVD alongside Pinky and the Brain co-star Rob Paulsen. Among other gags, he re-enacted his impression of Orson Welles' famous frozen peas commercial outtake.

LaMarche provided the voice of Yosemite Sam for the Yosemite Sam and the Gold River Adventure dark ride at Six Flags Over Texas, which opened in 1994.

LaMarche has been married to Robin Eisenman since May 19, 1991; together they have a son, Jonathan.

LaMarche has also lent his voice to commercials. He voiced Kellogg's Froot Loops spokesbird Toucan Sam, the animated Willy Wonka character in Nestlé's Willy Wonka Candy Company commercials, and the narrator for Lexus commercials. He would also appear as himself, doing the voice of Popeye the Sailor for the Long John Silver's restaurant chain in the early 1990s.

On March 9, 1987, LaMarche's father was murdered, shot to death by a lifelong friend in a Toronto hotel lobby, in front of dozens of witnesses. This sent LaMarche into depression and alcoholism for the next two years, effectively stalling his stand-up career. After getting sober on January 20, 1989, LaMarche embarked again into the world of standup comedy, in the early part of 1990. As he was regaining lost momentum, his 18-year-old sister was killed in a car accident in September of that year. At this point, though he remained sober, LaMarche decided he just could not do standup comedy anymore. He said, "at that point I just threw up my hands and went, 'Oh, that's it. I don't have any funny left in me. I'm done'".

Over the next five years, LaMarche's career would gradually progress, playing comedy clubs over the U.S., with several appearances on The Merv Griffin Show and An Evening At The Improv, but in spite of such interest, LaMarche believed that, while his impersonations and stage presence were strong, he needed to develop funnier comedy material. Despite being so critical of himself, LaMarche would be granted the opportunity of being part of the 1985 HBO production, Rodney Dangerfield Hosts the 9th Annual Young Comedians Special, on which also appeared Bob Saget, Rita Rudner, Louie Anderson, Yakov Smirnoff, and the breakout first appearance of Sam Kinison. Although he was received and reviewed favorably, in looking back on his own performance in that special, LaMarche believed he was "probably about five years away from going from being a good comedian to being a great comedian" and being the "only impressionist that actually comes from somewhere".

It took a few years after his 1981 move to L.A. for LaMarche to establish himself in the American voiceover industry, which he initially pursued as a side endeavor during his full-time standup comedy career. LaMarche began on Inspector Gadget in 1983, and went on to Dennis the Menace, Popeye and Son and The Real Ghostbusters where he played Egon Spengler. After The Real Ghostbusters, LaMarche became a regular mainstay of the voiceover industry, appearing in such shows as Tiny Toon Adventures, GI Joe, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: The Animated Series, Taz-Mania, Where's Waldo, The Little Mermaid, Batman: The Animated Series, and Bonkers before landing perhaps his most recognized role in 1993 as The Brain on Animaniacs and later its spin-off show Pinky and the Brain. Following this, LaMarche worked on The Critic, Freakazoid!, and The Tick before then reprising his role of Egon in Extreme Ghostbusters. The stretch of two years after this saw LaMarche portray characters in such shows as Hey Arnold! as Big Bob Pataki, Queer Duck, The Chimp Channel, and Sonic Underground as Sleet. During this time Maurice would become the voice actor for Mortimer Mouse whom he would voice in the television series Mickey Mouse Works and Disney's House of Mouse. It was at this time, 1999, that LaMarche began work on Futurama, and since Futurama LaMarche has continued to work steadily in television, including guest roles on The Simpsons (where he once again parodied Orson Welles). His most recent regular role came as Hovis the butler on the Nickelodeon series Catscratch. LaMarche was the voice of Victor in Playhouse Disney's Handy Manny Halloween episode.

His one on-camera theatrical film performance was in the 1981 Canadian feature Funny Farm, not to be confused with a later Chevy Chase vehicle of the same name. The film follows the story of a young standup comedian's attempt to break into the big-time on the L.A. comedy scene. LaMarche played Dickie Lyons, an impressionist who befriends the main character, Mark Champlin. The film also starred Howie Mandel, Eileen Brennan, and Miles Chapin.

LaMarche's entry into the voiceover industry was in 1980 in Easter Fever and Take Me Up to the Ball Game, two animated Canadian TV specials from Nelvana. He also was a regular voice performer on Toronto's pioneering cult TV hit The All-Night Show, which debuted in September 1980; a continuing feature had the lips of LaMarche inserted into a photograph of a famous person, and having LaMarche imitate that person to deliver a show promo or announcement. When LaMarche left the show in 1981, a young up-and-coming comic named Jim Carrey was recruited to take his place as a voice actor.

Maurice LaMarche (born March 30, 1958) is a Canadian voice actor and former stand-up comedian. He has voiced Egon Spengler in The Real Ghostbusters and its follow-up Extreme Ghostbusters, the Brain in Animaniacs and its spin-off Pinky and the Brain as well as a variety of characters in Futurama.