Corey Burton

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**Corey Gregg Weinberg** (born August 3, 1955), known professionally as **Corey Burton**, is an American voice actor, known as the voice of Ludwig Von Drake, Captain Hook and others for The Walt Disney Company, Shockwave in *The Transformers*, Brainiac in the DC animated universe, Count Dooku and Cad Bane in various *Star Wars* media, Hugo Strange in *Batman: Arkham City*, and Zeus in the *God of War* series.

## Early career

Burton began his career at age 17 under the name **Corey Weinman**, with an imitation performance of voice actor Hans Conried for Disney. He studied radio acting with Daws Butler (*Time for Beany*, *Merrie Melodies*, *Yogi Bear*) 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 demeanor and Asperger syndrome, but credits the diverse world and character design of Disney's The Haunted Mansion attraction as his inspiration to move forward.

## 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. His roles include:

* Ludwig Von Drake in *DuckTales* and its 2017 reboot.
* Dale in *Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers*.
* The White Rabbit and Mad Hatter in *Disney's House of Mouse*.
* Gruffi Gummi and Toadwart in *Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears* (replacing Bill Scott).
* Zeus in *Disney's Hercules: The Animated Series* (replacing Rip Torn).
* Quint and Speedy the Snail in *Timon & Pumbaa*.
* Gaëtan "Mole" Molière in *Atlantis: The Lost Empire* and *Atlantis: Milo's Return*.
* Ansem the Wise in the *Kingdom Hearts* series.
* Professor Owl in the *Disney Sing-Along Songs* series.
* King Stefan in *Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams*.
* Buzz Lightyear in the Disney on Ice adaptation of *Toy Story 3*.
* Yen Sid and Captain Hook in *Epic Mickey*.
* Doc Hudson in various *Cars* media and *Radiator Springs Racers* (replacing Paul Newman).
* General Knowledge from the former Cranium Command attraction at Epcot.
* Dale, Bruno Biggs and Moe Whiplash from *Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour*.

### Paul Frees

Burton is perhaps best known to Disney fans for his imitation of the late voice actor Paul Frees 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*.

Burton 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.

Burton 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.

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

Burton performed a Frees imitation as the voice of the announcer in the 1999 film *Dudley Do-Right*.

### *Fantasia*

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

## Animation

### *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 favorite character to perform in the original series. Despite this, he turned down the offer to reprise the role in *Transformers: Dark of the Moon*, so the part was given to Frank Welker, the voice of Megatron / Galvatron.

### *Star Wars*

For *Star Wars*, Burton voiced Count Dooku and Cad Bane in *Star Wars: The Clone Wars* and several 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*.

### Other television highlights

* Narrated the 1992 Discovery Channel documentary *Great White!*.
* Scarecrow, Ronald Marshall and Yuri Dimitrov in *Batman: Gotham Knight*.
* V.V. Argost and Leonidas Van Rook in *The Secret Saturdays*.
* The titular character in *James Bond Jr.*.
* The Pupununu in *Tak and the Power of Juju*.
* Invisibo in *Freakazoid!*.
* Old Queeks in *Mike, Lu & Og*.
* Captain Marvel in *Superman/Batman: Public Enemies*.
* Red Tornado, Silver Cyclone, Doctor Mid-Nite, Will Magnus, Joker (Scooby-Doo version), Mercury and Thomas Wayne in *Batman: The Brave and the Bold*.
* Count Dooku, Cad Bane and Ziro the Hutt in *Star Wars: The Clone Wars*.
* Tomax in *G.I. Joe*.
* Goon, Kanawk and Tauron in *Robotix*.
* Law in *G.I. Joe: Renegades*.
* Brain, Dudley H. Dudley, Hamilton Hill, James Gordon and Wizard in *Young Justice*.
* Dash Whippet for *Pound Puppies*.
* Brainstorm, Malware and Mr. Baumann in *Ben 10: Omniverse*.
* Dracula in **Avengers Assemble** and **Ultimate Spider-Man**.
* Ranger Smith in *Boo Boo Runs Wild* and *A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith*.

## Other work

* Played Jerry Lyden in the radio series *Alien Worlds*.
* Has done work for the Universal Studios theme parks.
* Does voice-overs for Old Navy commercials and a promo for *Final Fantasy XII*.
* In the WWE, Burton provided voice-overs for the WrestleMania XXV recap segments.
* Various characters in the 1980 cult classic *Closet Cases of the Nerd Kind*.
* The titular creatures in the *Critters* film series.
* Narrator for the video game *Brütal Legend*.
* Tromell Guado and Maester Kelk Ronso in the video game *Final Fantasy X*.
* Volteer the Electric Guardian Dragon, Exhumor and Mason in *The Legend of Spyro* trilogy.
* Zeus in the *God of War* series.
* Footman, Bricabrac, Goggles, Fluffy Show Announcer and WACME Quiz Master in the 1996 adventure game *Toonstruck*.
* Numerous supporting roles on Focus on the Family's radio drama *Adventures in Odyssey*.
* Doctor N. Gin and Doctor Nefarious Tropy in the *Crash Bandicoot* series.
* Jack in the theme park attraction The House at Haunted Hill.
* Narrator of the film *The A-Team*.
* Hugo Strange in *Batman: Arkham City* and *Lego DC Super-Villains*.
* John Grey (Jean Grey's father) for *Wolverine and the X-Men*.
* Provided voice samples for the song "Machete" by DJ Hazard and the album *Universus* by ShockOne.
* Game Narrator for Disney Coaster.
* Announcer for the El Rey Network.
* Played the Narrator and the Guest in *Flying Logos*.
* Still heard on the safety info for the parking lot trams for Disneyland and Magic Kingdom (as of 2011)

## Filmography

### Theme parks

* Alice in Wonderland – White Rabbit, Playing Cards
* Cranium Command – General Knowledge, Chicken
* Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls – Snidley Whiplash, Narrator
* Fantasmic! – Chernabog, Captain Hook, Pirates
* Haunted Mansion Holiday – Ghost Host
* Horizons – Futureport "Brava Centauri" Announcer
* Journey Into Your Imagination – Figment
* Mr. Toad's Wild Ride – Judge, Cop, Farmer
* Peter Pan's Flight – Captain Hook, Mr. Smee
* Pirates of the Caribbean – Stuffed Pirate
* Radiator Springs Racers – Doc Hudson
* Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – Grumpy
* The Cat in the Hat – Fish
* Wonders of Life – Narrator
* Parking Lot Trams - Spiel Voice

## References

1. ↑ "Corey Burton". *AllMovie*. https://www.allmovie.com/artist/corey-burton-p9792. Retrieved January 12, 2020.
2. ↑ Template:Citation
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Template:Cite video game
4. ↑ Evanier, Mark (2015-04-10). "Freberg Stories #2". http://www.newsfromme.com/2015/04/10/freberg-stories-2/. Retrieved 2016-03-18.
5. ↑ "Corey Burton Uninterested In Reprising Shockwave For Transformers 3, David Warner Is Rumored - Transformers News - TFW2005". *tfw2005.com*. 19 December 2010. http://news.tfw2005.com/2010/12/19/corey-burton-uninterested-in-reprising-shockwave-for-transformers-3-david-warner-is-rumored-171124. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
6. ↑ Template:Cite video game
7. ↑ "I Know That Voice, A Documentary About the World of Voice Acting". *Laughing Squid*. http://laughingsquid.com/i-know-that-voice-a-documentary-about-the-world-of-voice-acting/. Retrieved October 6, 2014.

## External links

* Template:Official website
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* Corey Burton @ BehindTheVoiceActors
* Seibertron.com Interview with Cory BurtonTemplate:Dead link

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