Greg Baldwin | |
---|---|
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1982–present |
Spouse | Melissa Baldwin (m. 1984) |
Children | 2 |
Greg Baldwin is an American voice actor. He is best known for his roles as Frank Fontaine in BioShock , Uncle Iroh on the third season of Avatar: The Last Airbender and Aku on the fifth season of Samurai Jack , with the latter two as a voice match for the late Mako Iwamatsu.
Baldwin has worked in the theater extensively as Sidney Lipton in God's Favorite , Mushnik in Little Shop of Horrors , Dr. Zubritsky in Neil Simon's Fools , Count Otto Von Bruno in Bullshot Crummond, and the Baker in The Baker's Wife . [1] [2]
Contrary to internet rumors of being Mako Iwamatsu’s understudy in preparation for voicing Iroh in Avatar: The Last Airbender , Baldwin had actually earned the part by auditioning for it. He first began voicing the character for brief pieces of dialogue in the show’s second season due to Iwamatsu being unable to record for them before passing on, all of which were mixed in with the material Iwamatsu already completed. Baldwin would later voice the character full-time for the final season, various video games based on the franchise, and for the second and third seasons of The Legend of Korra .
Before The Last Airbender's final season aired, Baldwin also performed a substantial portion of Splinter's dialogue in the movie TMNT after Mako died during production. His recordings would once again be mixed in with Iwamatsu’s, thanks to their uncanny similarities. [3]
Nearly six months after The Last Airbender concluded, Baldwin would once again succeed Iwamatsu by voicing Aku in the 2009 video game Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall . And nearly three years after Korra concluded production, and after Iroh’s final appearance in Season 3’s “The Ultimatum”, Baldwin reprised the role of Aku for the fifth season of Samurai Jack . [4] In 2020, he’d later play Aku once again in the Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time video game.
At the time the fifth season of Samurai Jack was being released, series creator Genndy Tartakovsky was asked about Baldwin's casting and made the following statement in an interview with The Verge:
"It was hard. For a while, I thought we should reimagine Aku with a different voice, perhaps even use a different character. But then I realized I love Aku too much, so we auditioned a few people, and Greg really did the best job. Honestly, nobody can replace Mako, he was that special, that unique, especially the performance he made for Aku. But Greg did really well. On the last episode, Mako’s daughter and grandson came by, and they watched him record, and they were crying. It was really amazing, because they heard the voice of their dad and grandfather." [5]
Aside from often serving as a voice double for Iwamatsu, Baldwin has also voiced original characters for both Samurai Jack and the Avatar franchise, as well as for various TV shows and video games outside of those two series. He provided the voices of multiple characters in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures , and he made a guest appearance in SpongeBob SquarePants , Curious George , and The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack .
Baldwin was credited as the original actor for Atlas in BioShock ; he was replaced by Karl Hanover in the final version of the game and the character's original Southern drawl was changed into an Irish accent. [6] [7] His voice can also be heard in numerous other video games, including Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown , Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood , F.E.A.R. and Fallout 4 .
On April 2, 2021, Baldwin announced that he was cast in an undisclosed original role for the Disney Television Animation program, The Ghost and Molly McGee . [8] Upon release, Baldwin’s role was later revealed to be one of the members of the Ghost Council, and the show’s second season revealed his character’s name to be Bartholomew. Baldwin would also go on to provide additional voices for the series.
In a rare live-action performance, he appeared as communist writer Dutch Zweistrong in Hail, Caesar! . [9]
Baldwin currently resides in Albuquerque with his wife Melissa Baldwin. [10] Together they have two children, Sydney and Cooper. [11]
According to an interview with The Dot and Line, Baldwin was able to fill-in for Mako on his voice roles by listening to the cast album of Pacific Overtures , a musical that Mako starred in, which was a personal favorite album of Baldwin’s. [12]
In May 2023, Baldwin posed the question on his Twitter account as to whether he should run for Governor of New Mexico in 2026. [13] In November 2024, Baldwin reiterated his interest in running for governor "beyond [the] fractured two party system" as part of the White Lotus Party, named in reference to the secret society in Avatar: The Last Airbender which his voiced character, Iroh, is part of. [14]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2007 | TMNT | Splinter | Grouped under "Additional Voices" |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2004 | Xiaolin Showdown | Daddy Bailey | Episode: "Big as Texas" |
2004–05 | Brandy & Mr. Whiskers | Boris, Talk Show Host, Monkey | 3 episodes |
2007–08 | Avatar: The Last Airbender | Uncle Iroh, Additional Voices | 10 episodes |
2007 | SpongeBob SquarePants | Jack M. Crazyfish | Episode: "Blackened Sponge" |
2009 | Curious George | Morty the Cab Driver | Episode: "Wheels on the Bus" |
The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack | Sir Pattington, Constable | Episode: "Diamonds in the Stuff" | |
2010–12 | Star Wars: The Clone Wars | Tera Sinube, Casiss, Serapis, Gwarm, Doge Urus | 7 episodes |
2013–14 | The Legend of Korra | Uncle Iroh, Additional Voices | 4 episodes |
2016–17 | Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures | Furlac, Ranat, Additional Voices | 4 episodes |
2017 | Samurai Jack | Aku, Ringo, Orc Captain, Additional Voices | 7 episodes |
2021–24 | The Ghost and Molly McGee | Bartholomew, Julius Caesar, Additional Voices | 15 episodes |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2016 | Hail, Caesar! | Dutch Zweistrong | |
2016–18 | Adam Ruins Everything | Various | 4 episodes |
Samurai Jack is an American animated action-adventure dystopian television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network and Adult Swim. The show is produced by Cartoon Network Studios. Tartakovsky conceived Samurai Jack after finishing his work on his first Cartoon Network original series, Dexter's Laboratory, which premiered in 1996. Samurai Jack took inspiration from Kung Fu, the 1972 televised drama starring David Carradine, as well as Tartakovsky's fascination with samurai culture and the Frank Miller comic series Ronin.
Gennady Borisovich "Genndy" Tartakovsky is a Soviet-born American animator, writer, producer, and director. He is best known as the creator of various animated television series on Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, including Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars, Sym-Bionic Titan, Primal, and Unicorn: Warriors Eternal.
Makoto Iwamatsu was a Japanese-American actor, credited mononymously in almost all of his acting roles as simply Mako (マコ). His career in film, on television, and on stage spanned 5 decades and 165 productions. He was an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and Tony Award nominee.
David Anthony Faustino is an American actor who played Bud Bundy on the Fox sitcom Married... with Children. He has also voiced animated characters for Nickelodeon, including Mako on The Legend of Korra and Helia on Nickelodeon's revival of Winx Club.
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Avatar Aang, or simply Aang, is the titular protagonist of Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender, voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen. Aang was the last surviving Airbender, a monk of the Air Nomads' Southern Air Temple, and the youngest ever airbending master.
"The Tales of Ba Sing Se" is the 15th episode of the second season of the animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the 35th episode overall. The episode, directed by Ethan Spaulding, originally aired on Nickelodeon on September 29, 2006. It features six short vignettes of several of the series's main characters as they go about a day in the city of Ba Sing Se. The episode constitutes a break from the previous more serious, plot-heavy episodes, and instead focuses on character development; the main plot of the season is advanced only in one of the six vignettes, the tale of the winged lemur Momo.
"The Crossroads of Destiny" is the twentieth and final episode of the second season of the American animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the 40th episode overall. The show follows Aang, the last airbender and the “Avatar”, on his journey to bring balance to a war-torn world by mastering all four elements: air, water, earth, and fire. On his quest, he is joined by companions Katara, Sokka, and Toph Beifong, and hunted down by Fire Nation prince Zuko and princess Azula. The episode was written by head writer Aaron Ehasz and directed by co-creator Michael Dante DiMartino.
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