Michael Bell

**Michael Patrick Bell** (born July 30, 1938) is an American actor, comedian, voice actor, voice director, and animal-rights activist who is most active in voice over roles. He is best known for doing Chaz Finster and Drew Pickles in *Rugrats* and *All Grown Up*. He is the husband of actress Victoria Carroll.

He was the voice of Quackerjack in *Darkwing Duck*, the Collector in the two-part *Bonkers* pilot episode "Going Bonkers",  Mr. Perry in TaleSpin, Aziz, Amal, and the Al Muddy Sultan in the *Aladdin* TV series. He later voiced Stokey in *Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco*, Pongo in *House of Mouse*, and General Dodonna in *Star Wars Rebels*.

## Career

### 1970s and 1980s voice work

Michael had an important part in animated entertainment in the 1970s and 1980s. His first voice-over role was that of Stutz, the leader of *The Houndcats*. In 1973, he was Mark on the Hanna-Barbera series *Speed Buggy*. From 1973 to 1984, Michael Bell played two of his best-known roles, Zan and Gleek on all of the *Super Friends* incarnations with the exception of *Challenge of the Super Friends* and *The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians*, where for some reason, The Wonder Twins were omitted from the series (even though, Bell voiced The Riddler on *Challenge of the Super Friends*).

He was also Doctor Ben Cooper in *Jana of the Jungle* and in 1979, he voiced the title character of *The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show* and later made a guest appearance as Doctor Octopus in another super-hero show, *Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends*. He voiced Redbeard the Pirate's Ghost in the *New Scooby Doo Movies* episode "The Ghostly Creep from the Deep" as the second Redbeard themed monster in *Scooby Doo*.

Outside of animation, Bell performed on records and commercials, including the Young Man in A&M Records' *Story of Halloween Horror* album in 1977 and Parkay Margarine and Mug Root Beer. Bell provided the overdubbing of Peter Criss’ dialogue in the band KISS's NBC-TV movie *KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park*. In 1980, Bell provided the voice of the title character in *The B.B. Beegle Show*, an unsold TV show pilot that featured puppets.

Throughout the 1980s, Michael Bell starred in four hit animated series; as Grouchy Smurf, Lazy Smurf, Handy Smurf and Johan the human in NBC-TV's *The Smurfs*, as Autobot Prowl, Scrapper, Sideswipe, Bombshell, First Aid, Swoop, Gort, Brainstorm and Doctor Fujiyama in *The Transformers* and *The Transformers: The Movie*, as Duke, Xamot, Blowtorch and numerous orhers in Marvel's *G.I. Joe*, *G.I. Joe: The Revenge of Cobra* and 'G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero *and as Bruce Banner/The Hulk in* The Incredible Hulk*. In the last one, The Hulk was voiced by Bob Holt, while his human side, Bruce Banner was Michael Bell. Bell joked about how Bob Holt would be annoyed that he was growling his throat out, while Bell got the easier stuff.*

### Later voice work

Bell continued to work in animation in the 1990s and into the 21st century in movies and television, including roles such as Quackerjack from Disney's *Darkwing Duck* and Ezekiel Rage in *The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest*. From 1991 to 2004, in the *Rugrats* and *All Grown Up!*, he voiced three of the main characters' parents; Drew Pickles, Charles Finster Sr., and Boris Kropotkin. Mr. Bell was also featured as Opus in the Bloom County television special "A Wish for Wings That Work."

Michael Bell did the voices of Drake on *W.I.T.C.H.*, Max Hauser, Duke's Dad on *G.I. Joe: Renegades* and additional roles in *Tangled*.

### Video game voice work

Bell is a prolific voice in video games. He performed in *Raziel*in three games in the *Legacy of Kain* series, among many others.

### Live-action roles

Bell appeared in live-action exploitation shorts and PSAs - scare films made in California during the 1960s, ranging in content from venereal disease (*Damaged Goods*) to psychedelic drug abuse (*Trip To Where*).

He made guest appearances in multiple episodes of the *Star Trek* series. He also appeared in the *Star Trek: The Next Generation* pilot episode, “Encounter at Farpoint”, as Bandi administrator Groppler Zorn, and in the *Star Trek: Deep Space Nine* episodes “The Homecoming” as a Bajoran and in “The Maquis.”

Bell appeared in episodes of *Dallas* as Les Crowley during the 1980-81 season and in the *M\*A\*S\*H* episode “Souvenirs” as chopper pilot Lt. Willie Stratton. He played in two episodes of *Three's Company* as Rama Mageesh and Michael, a sleazy dance instructor. He also played Bill Duncan, Sabrina (Kate Jackson)'s ex-husband on *Charlie's Angels*, as well as appearing as King Edward Spencer on Kate Jackson's series *Scarecrow and Mrs. King*.

### Voice director

Bell worked as a voice director on *Kidd Video* and *Peter Pan and the Pirates*.

## Union activism

On March 30, 2012 the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) completed a merger of equals forming a new union SAG-AFTRA. As a result of this merger, a group of actors including Bell, fellow voice actor Wendy Schaal, Schaal's former stepmother Valerie Harper, actors such as Edward Asner, Martin Sheen and Ed Harris immediately sued against SAG President Ken Howard and several SAG Vice Presidents to overturn the merger and the two unions separated because of their claims that the election was improper. The lawsuit is currently working its way through the court system.

## Personal

Bell was born in Brooklyn, New York. He is married to actress Victoria Carroll and together they have a daughter, Ashley Bell. He is an animal rights activist. As of 2012 Bell served on the Board of Directors of the Screen Actors Guild, Hollywood Division. Bell is the godfather of actor Steve Guttenberg.