Corey Burton

**Corey Gregg Weinberg** (born August 3, 1955; known professionally as **Corey Burton**) is an American actor.

## Early Life

Burton was born Corey Gregg Weinberg in the Granada Hills neighbourhood of Los Angeles on August 3, 1955.

## Career

### Early

Burton started his career at age 17 under the stage name Corey Weinman, with an imitation performance of Hans Conried for Disney. He studied radio acting with Daws Butler for four years and went on to work with nearly all of the original Hollywood radio actors in classic-style radio dramas. He was unsure at first about pursuing voice-work, due to his shy demeanour and Autism Spectrum Disorder, but credits the diverse world and character design of Disney's The Haunted Mansion attraction as his inspiration to move forward. He voiced 169 different characters across 124 episodes of Adventures in Odyssey, a series by the Evangelical Christian organization Focus on the Family.

### Disney

Burton has done extensive voice-work for Disney, including animated features and theme park attractions at the Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World, and Tokyo Disney Resort. He provides the "Feature Presentation" voice on direct-to-video video releases and can be heard as the narration voice at Disneyland. He provided the voice of Captain Hook in Disney's Return to Never Land and dubbed the voice of Deems Taylor in Fantasia for the film's 2000 and 2010 re-releases.

Burton has voiced sound-alikes and original characters for over 50 Disney Storyteller records.

### Paul Frees

After voice actor Paul Frees died, Burton imitated Frees' voice as the Ghost Host in Disneyland's Haunted Mansion Holiday attraction. He also recited the classic line "Welcome, foolish mortals" in the opening of the film version of The Haunted Mansion.

He was approached to record a new safety spiel for the intro to the original Haunted Mansion ride. He declined and the spiel was instead recorded by voice actor Joe Leahy.

He provides many others Paul Frees-like voices for Disneyland Park, including several newer pirates in the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction (like the "Pooped Pirate" and the pirate voice that guides you on and off the boat), Grumpy on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train attraction, and several voices in Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

He performed another Frees imitation for comedian Stan Freberg's album Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America, Volume Two.

He performed a Frees imitation as the voice of the announcer in the 1999 film Dudley Do-Right and did likewise as the voices of the alien foreheads in Larry Blamire's 2008 satire Trail of the Screaming Forehead.

### Fantasia

In the 60th Anniversary Edition and the 2010 special edition of Disney's Fantasia, Burton re-recorded all of Deems Taylor's commentaries.

### Transformers

Burton appeared as Shockwave, Sunstreaker, Brawn, and Spike Witwicky in the original Transformers animated series by Sunbow Productions and Marvel Productions. He would later voice Megatron, Ratchet, Ironhide, Brawn, Cyrus "The Colossus" Rhodes, Spike Witwicky, and Longarm Prime / Shockwave in Transformers: Animated by Cartoon Network.

Burton stated in an interview that Shockwave was by far his favourite character to perform in the original series. Despite this, he turned down the offer to reprise the role in Transformers: Dark of the Moon, as he felt he had voiced the character enough times. Consequently, the part was given to Frank Welker, the voice of Megatron / Galvatron.

### Star Wars

For Star Wars, Burton voiced Count Dooku, Cad Bane, and Ziro, the Hutt in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and has continued to voice Cad Bane in Star Wars: The Bad Batch and The Book of Boba Fett. He has also voiced several characters in video games.

### Kingdom Hearts

For the Kingdom Hearts series, Burton voiced Ansem the Wise in Chain of Memories, Birth by Sleep, and Dream Drop Distance due to Christopher Lee's health problems. For the cinematic version of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, he re-dubbed Lee's lines for the Nintendo DS version. He reprised his role as Ansem the Wise for Kingdom Hearts III.

### Brainiac

Burton has portrayed the supervillain Brainiac in the DC animated universe. He appeared as the character in Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League, Static Shock, and Justice League Unlimited. Although not set within the DCAU, he also reprised his role in Legion of Super Heroes, DC Universe Online, and Lego DC Super-Villains.

## Awards and Nominations

 Outstanding Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production
 2011