Our friend Medievaldragon
let us know that actor
Michael McConnohie will be
live on the Internet this weekend -- he's going on air over at Blogtalkradio Sunday at 7pm PDT, and apparently he'll also be talking to fans. McConnohie has done film and television voicework and acting for a while, but for our purposes, he's probably best known as quite a few of the characters wandering around Northrend and Outland:
King Ymiron,
Commander Kolurg,
Uther the Lightbringer, the
Epoc Hunter, and
Kel'thuzad. Oh, and he does one more voice in the game: The Lich King (remember that guy?).
I don't know how much this guy wants to talk about
Warcraft, but then again,
the group hosting him seems to be pretty geeky (they've had folks from Star Trek and Stargate on before), so maybe it'll be all about McConnohie's work for Blizzard (and not, say, his stint on General Hospital). If you want to talk to the Lich King himself, you can call in Sunday night at (914) 338-0314. I bet it'll be quite an experience.
Tags: arthas, blogtalkradio, interview, king-ymiron, michael-mcconnohie, northrend, outland, star-trek, stargate, streaming, the-lich-king, uther, warcraft
Filed under: Fan stuff, Blizzard, Interviews, Wrath of the Lich King
Dec 5th 2009 at 8:00PM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Belfonisis Dec 5th 2009 8:07PM
"All. Must. Die."
Jordan Dec 5th 2009 8:30PM
Kel'Thuzad: She is persistent. Reminds me of you, death knight.
Arthas: Shut up you damned ghost.
He's finally here.. ^^
Bubsa Dec 5th 2009 11:18PM
It's not that actor. Which is a shame (IMO)
As Scott stated below, that was Justin Gross
lawaryeneth Dec 5th 2009 9:06PM
We're back to PST, daylight savings ended a few weeks ago.
poggg Dec 5th 2009 9:23PM
Damn, that's a lot of voices. Either they're modifying his voice to hell and back or he has some pretty amazing range.
Or both, I suppose.
Dajobe Dec 5th 2009 9:31PM
That doesn't look like Arthas, that's General Shepard!
Kanap Dec 6th 2009 12:18PM
the American guy from CoD?
Arbitor Dec 6th 2009 7:16PM
Thats so weird, I just this day rented MW2 from blockbuster, and there is a rather striking resemblance.
Scott Dec 5th 2009 9:37PM
Let's not forget that Justin Gross provided the original voice for Arthas, and I personally believe he did it better than Michael McConnohie.
Everybody's tastes are different, mine just prefers the subtle undertones of evil from Mr. Gross more than the standard-issue evil that WoW has now.
Karth Dec 5th 2009 11:25PM
I wholeheartedly agree. This does not apply to only McConnohie. The voices Blizzard employs in the Warcraft universe have rapidly degraded as of late. The new Sylvanas, Anub'arak, and yes, Kel'thuzad and the Lich King, are not just questionable as being chosen over the originals, they are simply inferior. This assessment does not come from any "attachment" to the originals, it comes from years of listening to and critiquing voice acting. I have no idea what is going on in Blizzard's Casting Process for Warcraft, but their choices lately have me baffled. There is one thing to note, however, and that is that Blizzard recently started using Union voice actors. Chris Metzen said in an interview recently that he can no longer do the character voices because they now abide by Union regulations and have formalized their casting process. I don't know the union status of the old voice actors, but I would imagine that blizzard changed some of the voices, because their original voice actors weren't part of the union. Just my speculation of course.
Tolkfan Dec 5th 2009 11:45PM
Chris Metzen can no longer do character voices? He is the voice of Thrall and Varian... they won't change that.
Gnosh Dec 7th 2009 4:40PM
And Nefarion, Rag, and Algalon, and...
wawo Dec 5th 2009 10:04PM
Changed to 8:00pm PDT =/
Mike Dec 5th 2009 11:00PM
Just a question, but why is it 7pm Pacific but the area code on the phone# is east coast? 914= westchester
Hollow Leviathan Dec 5th 2009 11:27PM
I still have an area code on my cell from the Midwest, despite living on the west coast now. He's probably just keeping his old number as he moves.
Michael Dec 5th 2009 11:45PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqwjuxr2fao
Imagination and Memory are but one thing. Which for diverse considerations have diverse names.
Simon Dec 6th 2009 12:38AM
@Scott:
Michael McConnohie does the voice for the Lich King, not for Arthas. Two different voices
Also, Michael has been doing voice work for Blizzard for a long time, and was the original Kel'thuzad (in WC3) and was replaced as Kel'thuzad in WoW, but retained his role as Uther the Lightbringer which has only ever been played by him.
@poggg
He has a very big range.
@Karth:
Non-union actors can work on union projects - that's a common misperception which unions don't bother to correct unless specifically asked, so he could still do voices.
Karth Dec 7th 2009 12:13AM
Metzen's words not mine. If I could find that interview I'd link it. I'm 100% sure of his statement though because I referenced it once already in the forums. It was originally on http://www.starcraft2news.rageofwar.net but I can no longer find that news story.
It was an audio interview and I transcribed the dialogue in my original post about it on the WoW forums.
Metzen stated as follows: "...Back in the day, uh, it was just a little looser and we've since joined the union, you know, so we've had to really kinda formalized our VO process and our casting process. Uh, Since I'm not union, you know uh, I don't get to work on the big games anymore..."
Zeplar Dec 6th 2009 12:47AM
My mother is an avid follower of General Hospital, and I couldn't find a mention of Michael McConnohie ever being on the show. ???
Jon B Dec 6th 2009 2:06AM
I'd say "Get him on WoW Insider"! But he probably doesn't have much to say about hunter/shaman nerfs or how the game is unbalanced for "XXXX" class.
Also, he probably doesn't have the time to waste on how awful the WoW Insider podcast has become.
Lord knows I don't.