Maurice LaMarche

Maurice LaMarche (born March 30, 1958) is a Canadian-American voice actor and comedian.

LaMarche was born in Toronto, Ontario, on March 30, 1958, to Guy LaMarche and Linda Bourdon.

His family moved to Timmins, Ontario, soon after he was born.

LaMarche's childhood was filled with his "own little world of cartoons and sixties television".

It was in his second year of high school that he learned of the popularity his talent for mimicry could garner him.

This realization came from a coincidental performance in a high school "variety night" when a couple of friends urged him to enter.

The act he performed at the variety night was "celebrities as waiters" which he used until the end of his stand-up career.

One of his neighbors and schoolmates was future comedian, Mike Myers.

At the age of nineteen, LaMarche took his high school act to an open mic night in New York City, performing to a reaction in which, as he describes, "they just totally ignored me".

This reaction was coupled with the criticism LaMarche received from fellow Canadian comedians who LaMarche describes as discouraging him from pursuing a career outside of Canada.

He returned to Canada, continued to do stand-up, and also started a career in voice work.

Three years later, LaMarche moved to Los Angeles to further his stand-up career.

This move, LaMarche says, would always be something he regretted doing instead of moving to New York: "... in retrospect, I thought it was a mistake. I think that a couple of years in New York would have made me a stronger comedian."

Over the next five years, LaMarche's career progressed, playing comedy clubs throughout the US, with several appearances on The Merv Griffin Show and An Evening At The Improv.

In spite of such interest, LaMarche believed that, while his impersonations and stage presence were professional, he needed to develop funnier comedy material.

LaMarche's entry into the voiceover industry was in 1980 in Easter Fever and Take Me Up to the Ball Game, two animated Canadian TV specials from Nelvana.

He also was a regular voice performer on Toronto's pioneering cult TV hit The All-Night Show, which debuted in September 1980; a continuing feature had the lips of LaMarche inserted into a photograph of a famous person, and having LaMarche imitate that person to deliver a show promo or announcement.

When LaMarche left the show in 1981, Jim Carrey was recruited to take his place as a voice actor.

It took a few years after his 1981 move to Los Angeles for LaMarche to establish himself in the American voiceover industry, which he initially pursued as a side endeavor during his full-time standup comedy career.

LaMarche was asked to be part of the 1985 HBO production Rodney Dangerfield Hosts the 9th Annual Young Comedians Special, on which also appeared Bob Saget, Rita Rudner, Louie Anderson, Yakov Smirnoff, and the breakout first appearance of Sam Kinison.

Although he was received and reviewed favorably, in looking back on his own performance in that special, LaMarche believed he was "probably about five years away from going from being a good comedian to being a great comedian" and being the "only impressionist that actually comes from somewhere".

During his standup career, LaMarche opened for such acts as Rodney Dangerfield, George Carlin, Howie Mandel, David Sanborn, and Donna Summer, usually in the main showrooms of Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

LaMarche began on Inspector Gadget with that show's second season in 1985, and went on to Dennis the Menace, Popeye and Son and The Real Ghostbusters where he played Egon Spengler.

On March 9, 1987, LaMarche's father was murdered, shot to death by a lifelong friend in a Toronto hotel lobby in front of dozens of witnesses.

This sent LaMarche into depression and alcoholism for the next two years, effectively stalling his stand-up career.

After getting sober on January 20, 1989, LaMarche returned to stand-up comedy in the early part of 1990.

As he was regaining self-confidence, his 18-year-old sister was killed in a car accident in September of that year.

At this point, though he remained sober, LaMarche decided to retire from stand-up comedy.

He said, "at that point I just threw up my hands and went, 'Oh, that's it. I don't have any funny left in me. I'm done'".

After The Real Ghostbusters, LaMarche became a regular mainstay of the voiceover industry, appearing in such shows as Tiny Toon Adventures, GI Joe, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: The Animated Series, Taz-Mania, Where's Waldo, The Little Mermaid, Batman: The Animated Series, and Bonkers before landing perhaps his most recognized role in 1993 as The Brain on Animaniacs and later its spin-off show Pinky and the Brain.

Following this, LaMarche worked on The Critic, Freakazoid!, and The Tick before then reprising his role of Egon in Extreme Ghostbusters.

The stretch of two years after this saw LaMarche portray characters in such shows as Hey Arnold! as Big Bob Pataki, Queer Duck, and The Chimp Channel.

During this time LaMarche would become the voice actor for Mortimer Mouse whom he would voice in the television series Mickey Mouse Works and House of Mouse.

He has voiced The Brain in Animaniacs as well as its spin-off Pinky and the Brain, Big Bob in Hey Arnold! (1996–2004), the title character from Inspector Gadget, and a variety of characters in Futurama, including Kif Kroker.

He also voiced Egon Spengler in The Real Ghostbusters and its follow-up Extreme Ghostbusters.

It was at this time, 1999, that LaMarche began work on Futurama, and since Futurama, he has continued to work steadily in television, including guest roles on The Simpsons (where he once again parodied Orson Welles).

His most recent regular role came as Hovis the butler on the Nickelodeon series Catscratch.

LaMarche was the voice of antagonist Father in Codename: Kids Next Door and was also the voice of Victor in Playhouse Disney's Handy Manny 2007 Halloween episode.

LaMarche has done various voice work for many Warner Bros. Animation and DiC Entertainment cartoons.

He also delivered the protracted belches for the "Great Wakkorotti" shorts on Animaniacs, in which Wakko Warner performed various pieces of music.