Ben Whitehead

Last updated

Ben Whitehead
Born
Benjamin Whitehead

(1977-05-15) 15 May 1977 (age 47)
Cheshire, England [1]
OccupationActor
Years active2003–present [2]
Website Official website

Benjamin Whitehead (born 15 May 1977) is a British actor. He is the second actor to provide the voice of Wallace in the Wallace & Gromit franchise, replacing Peter Sallis. [3]

Contents

Career

Whitehead began working on films with Aardman Animations in 2003. [2] In 2009, he voiced Wallace in Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures , [4] a four-part, episodic, adventure game by Telltale Games. [5] Following Peter Sallis' last work as Wallace in 2010, [6] [7] Whitehead became the official voice of the character beginning with Wallace & Gromit's Musical Marvels , Prom 20 of the 2012 season of the BBC Proms. [8] Outside of acting, Whitehead is also Aardman's read-in artist.

Whitehead has performed in Great Scott!, an Antarctic epic touring comedy from Gonzo Moose. He performed a one-man show at The London Horror Festival and voiced the title role in Golem (Young Vic and tour), produced by multi award-winning theatre company 1927, directed by Suzanne Andrade and Paul Barritt. [2]

Filmography

Film

YearTitleRoleNotes
2005 Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit Mr. Leaching (voice)
2008 A Matter of Loaf and Death Baker Bob (voice)Short
2012 The Pirates! Band of Misfits The Pirate Who Likes Sunsets and Kittens (voice)United Kingdom version
So You Want to Be a Pirate!Announcer (voice)Short film
2013Secrets of the Dark HouseHusband
2018 Early Man Additional voices
2023Eigengrau Half-Life [9] Michael HobbsShort film
2024 Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl Wallace (voice)

Television

YearTitleRoleNotes
2012 BBC Proms Wallace (voice)1 episode
2019 Berry Bees Additional voices26 episodes
2024 Strictly Come Dancing Wallace (voice)1 episode

Video games

YearTitleRole
2005 Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit Mr. Leaching, Hutch
2009 Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures Wallace
2015 Anno 2205 John Rafferty
2016 Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun Male Civilian, Officer
2017 The Pillars of the Earth Remigius, Civilians
2019 Layers of Fear 2 Journalist
Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince Sir Florianus
A Year of RainAdditional voices
2020 Total War Saga: Troy
Wallace & Gromit: The Big Fix UpWallace
2021 Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One Additional voices
2023 Wallace & Gromit in The Grand Getaway Wallace

Web

YearTitleRoleNotes
2020 Down Therapist, Boss1 episode

Theatre

Related Research Articles

Wallace & Gromit is a British claymation comedy franchise created by Nick Park and produced by Aardman Animations. The series centres on Wallace, a good-natured, eccentric, cheese-loving inventor, and Gromit, his loyal and intelligent anthropomorphic beagle. It consists of four short films, two feature-length films, and numerous spin-offs and TV adaptations. The first short film, A Grand Day Out, was finished and released in 1989. Wallace has been voiced by Peter Sallis and Ben Whitehead. While Wallace speaks very often, Gromit is largely silent and has no dialogue, communicating through facial expressions and body language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aardman Animations</span> British animation studio and production company

Aardman Animations Limited, stylised as AARDMAN since 2022, is a British animation studio based in Bristol. It is known for films and television series made using stop motion and clay animation techniques, particularly those featuring its plasticine characters from Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep, and Morph. After some experimental computer-animated short films during the late 1990s, beginning with Owzat (1997), Aardman entered the computer animation market with Flushed Away (2006). As of February 2020, it had earned $1.1 billion worldwide, with an average $135.6 million per film. Between 2000 and 2006, Aardman partnered with DreamWorks Animation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Park</span> English filmmaker (born 1958)

Nicholas Wulstan Park is an English filmmaker and animator who created Wallace & Gromit, Creature Comforts, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep, and Early Man. Park has been nominated for an Academy Award six times and won four with Creature Comforts (1989), The Wrong Trousers (1993), A Close Shave (1995) and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005).

<i>A Close Shave</i> 1995 animated short film

A Close Shave is a 1995 British stop-motion animated short film co-written and directed by Nick Park and produced by Aardman Animations with Wallace & Gromit Ltd., BBC Bristol and BBC Children's International. It is the third film featuring Wallace & Gromit, following A Grand Day Out (1989) and The Wrong Trousers (1993). In the film, Wallace and Gromit foil a sheep rustling operation operated by a sinister dog, Preston.

<i>The Wrong Trousers</i> 1993 animated short film

The Wrong Trousers is a 1993 British stop-motion animated short film directed and co-written by Nick Park. It was produced by Aardman Animations in association with Wallace and Gromit Ltd., BBC Bristol, Lionheart Television and BBC Children's International. It is the second film featuring the eccentric inventor Wallace and his dog Gromit, following A Grand Day Out (1989). In the film, a villainous penguin, Feathers McGraw, uses a pair of robotic trousers to steal a diamond from the city museum.

<i>A Grand Day Out</i> 1989 animated short film

A Grand Day Out is a 1989 British stop-motion animated short film and the first installment in the Wallace & Gromit series. It was directed, animated and co-written by Nick Park at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield and Aardman Animations in Bristol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Sallis</span> English actor (1921–2017)

Peter John Sallis was an English actor. He was the original voice of Wallace in the Academy Award-winning Wallace & Gromit films and played Norman "Cleggy" Clegg in Last of the Summer Wine from its 1973 inception until the final episode in 2010, making him the only actor to appear in all 295 episodes. Additionally, he portrayed Norman Clegg's father in the prequel series First of the Summer Wine.

<i>Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit</i> 2005 animated film by Nick Park and Steve Box

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a 2005 claymation comedy film directed by Nick Park and Steve Box and featuring Park's Wallace and Gromit characters. It was produced by DreamWorks Animation in collaboration with Aardman Animations. It was the second feature-length film by Aardman, after Chicken Run (2000). The film debuted in Sydney, Australia on 4 September 2005, before being released in theaters in the United States on 7 October 2005 and in the United Kingdom on 14 October 2005.

<i>Wallace & Gromits Cracking Contraptions</i> 2002 British film

Wallace & Gromit's Cracking Contraptions is a British series of ten Wallace & Gromit stop motion animations varying in length from 1 to 3 minutes. Each episode features one of Wallace's new inventions and Gromit's skeptical reaction to it. The series was produced and released in 2002 by Aardman Animations. All ten shorts were aired on BBC One after the television premiere of Chicken Run (2000).

<i>Shaun the Sheep</i> British childrens television series

Shaun the Sheep is a British stop-motion animated silent children's television series which is developed by Aardman Animations. A spin-off in the Wallace & Gromit franchise, the series focuses on the adventures of Shaun, the eponymous sheep previously starring in A Close Shave, as the leader of his flock on an English farm. The series premiered on 5 March 2007 on CBBC in the UK, also airing on BBC Two. Since 2020, the series is streamed globally on Netflix. In March 2024, it was announced that the seventh series is in development and will premiere in 2025. With 170 episodes over 6 series, Shaun the Sheep is one of the longest-running animated series in British television.

<i>Wallace & Gromit in Project Zoo</i> 2003 video game

Wallace & Gromit in Project Zoo is a platform video game developed by Frontier Developments and published by BAM! Entertainment for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows. It is the first console game to feature Aardman Animations' characters Wallace & Gromit, with Peter Sallis reprising his role as the voice of Wallace. The game follows the duo as they battle with Feathers McGraw.

<i>A Matter of Loaf and Death</i> 2008 animated short film by Nick Park

Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death is a 2008 British stop motion animated short film produced by Aardman Animations and created by Nick Park. It is the fifth Wallace & Gromit film, and the first short film since A Close Shave (1995).

Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures is an episodic graphic adventure game based around the characters of Wallace & Gromit created by Nick Park and produced by Aardman Animations. The game was developed and published by Telltale Games. It consists of four episodes, which were released to Microsoft Windows from March 23 to July 30, 2009, and to Xbox 360 from May 27 to November 4, 2009.

<i>Wallace & Gromits World of Invention</i> 2010 British TV series or programme

Wallace & Gromit's World of Invention is a British science-themed miniseries, starring Peter Sallis, Ashley Jensen, Jem Stansfield, and John Sparkes, produced by Aardman Animations, which aired on BBC One during 2010, from 3 November to 8 December and Channel 10 during 2011, from 20 September to 6 October. The programme focuses on inventions based around various themes, and consists of live-action films interlaced with animated claymation segments hosted by characters Wallace & Gromit, featuring a side-plot connected to that episode's theme. While Sallis reprises his role as the voice of Wallace, live-action film segments were either narrated by Jensen or presented by Stansfield, with Sparkes providing the voice of unseen archivist Goronwy, a unique character for the programme.

<i>The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!</i> 2012 film by Peter Lord

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! is a 2012 animated swashbuckler comedy film produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation in association with Aardman Animations, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The second and final collaborative project between Sony and Aardman, it is Aardman's first book-based movie as well as their first stop-motion feature film since Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), and Sony Pictures Entertainment's first stop-motion film. The film was directed by Peter Lord, co-directed by Jeff Newitt, and written by Gideon Defoe, based on Defoe's 2004 novel The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists. The film stars the voices of Hugh Grant, David Tennant, Imelda Staunton, Martin Freeman, Salma Hayek, and Jeremy Piven, and follows a crew of amateur pirates in their attempt to win the Pirate of the Year competition.

<i>Wallace & Gromits Musical Marvels</i> 2012 British TV series or programme

Wallace & Gromit's Musical Marvels is the name of Prom 20 of the 2012 season of The BBC Proms. It features orchestral renditions of music featured in the Wallace & Gromit series of films. Ben Whitehead reprises his role as Wallace. Due to its popularity, it became a full touring show in 2013, premiering at The Plenary in Melbourne, Australia on 9 February 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sean Vanaman</span> American video game designer

Sean Vanaman is an American video game designer, writer, and podcaster. He was the co-project leader and lead writer of The Walking Dead, and Puzzle Agent 2. He also wrote the third episode of Tales of Monkey Island, and was the designer of Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures, and the writer of the third episode, Muzzled. He was one of the regular hosts of the Idle Thumbs podcast and is one of the co-founders of Campo Santo, the company that produced Firewatch.

Aardman Animations is an animation studio in Bristol, England that produces stop motion and computer-animated features, shorts, TV series and adverts.

<i>Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl</i> 2024 animated film by Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is a 2024 British claymation action comedy film produced by Aardman Animations and the BBC in association with Netflix, and directed by Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham. It is the sixth Wallace & Gromit film, the first since A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008), and the second feature-length film after The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005). It features the return of the villainous penguin Feathers McGraw from The Wrong Trousers (1993), who takes revenge on Wallace and Gromit by reprogramming their robotic garden gnome.

References

  1. "Ben Whitehead on replacing Peter Sallis in Wallace & Gromit: 'The key is not to be jarring' | Radio Times". www.radiotimes.com.
  2. 1 2 3 "Ben Whitehead". Wireless Theatre Company . 13 May 2020. Retrieved 6 December 2024.
  3. "Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures: Episode 1 - Fright of the Bumblebees Review". Adventure Gamers. 24 March 2009. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
  4. "Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures: Episode 2 - The Last Resort Review". Adventure Gamers. 5 May 2009. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  5. "Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures Episode 1: Fright of the Bumblebees Review". Just Adventure. 7 May 2009. Retrieved 6 December 2024.
  6. "Wallace & Gromit: World of Invention - Movie Review". Common Sense Media. 13 March 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  7. "Wallace and Gromit to present BBC1 science and inventions show". The Guardian . 29 August 2009. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  8. "Telltale tidbits". The International House of Mojo. 28 August 2012. Retrieved 29 August 2012.
  9. "Eigengrau Half-Life". IMDb . 11 July 2023. Retrieved 6 December 2024.