Hmmmm... how about Christopher Plummer?

(Full disclosure: Plummer was my fantasy casting for Denethor- Peter Cushing and Basil Rathbone being permanently unavailable).

Yes, Sean Astin in ... The Lord of the Rings movies!

Here's my suggestion for Smaug and it's waaaaaay out of left field: Paul Darrow. He played "Avon" in Blake's Seven. He is still alive - anyone who remembers Blake's Seven should recall his sneering, supercilious, "born to rule" voice.

Hmmm... personally, I'd love to hear Tim Curry as Smaug. To quote Bêthberry's description from the Dragons thread:
Doesn't that sound familiar?

Come down to my lair
and see what's heaped up there
I see you shiver with anticip-p-pation...

Pointless coincidences time! Setting aside Cushing's long association with Christopher Lee, his best friend, at Hammer Pictures, check this out:

Tolkien was born in 1892 to English parents in the independent (Boer) Orange Free State. Rathbone was born in 1892 to English parents in the independent (Boer) Transvaal Republic. Tolkien and Rathbone both removed to England at the age of three, in 1895. Tolkien and Rathbone both enlisted in 1916, both in Lancashire regiments (the Lancashire Fusiliers and the King's Liverpool Regiment, respectively).

Otherwise, though- Rathbone never attended University. He enlisted as a private but rose to captain, serving at the front until war's end (and winning the MC). In 1934 Rathbone moved permanently to the USA, which Tolkien never visited.

Personally I would quite like Alan Rickman as Smaug.

He is a very fine, versatile actor both on stage & film; and has a very remarkable voice depending on the character he is playing.

geek-time-

For Elder Scrolls fans. The voice of Lucien from Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

or Tim Curry.
morgan Freeman

Too bad he died but Tony Jay would have rocked!

William hootkins

or geoffrey rush

or...

Me that's right I want to send in an audition tape something wrong with thaT?

Yeah, I could see that. The voice actor would have to put a little more brawn into the voice of Smaug than he did with his Lucien half-whisper, but it could work.

Now who exactly was Lucien again? It's been a while since I played...

Lucien Lachance. Dark Brotherhood quest-line. Comes to you while you're sleeping after your first murder. Is killed by the other assassins at the end of the quest-line. That guy.

wow fellow geeks, I'm impressed.

Did you like Shivering Isles?

Ah - the vampire, right? Thanks, Gwath. Unfortunately, I don't think I've ever heard his voice in the English original. Time for a rerun, perhaps...
Loved it - the coolest part of all Oblivion! Sheogorath rocks!

No no, not the vampire. THIS GUY. :)

I see. It's been too long...

Anybody feel inspired to move this thread back on topic?

I was about to request the same thing before we gets into troubles.:p

quickly though.... Sheogorath was OK in shivering Isles... his voice was cooler at his shrine "now go away before I kill you"....

any voic of smaug yes very tricky to do...

Martin Shaw's narration of The Silmarillion is good enough for my vote, if you haven't heard it you're missing out.

What do you think about Keith Allen? He is the Sheriff of Nottingham in BBC's Robin Hood and plays a priveleged little git, but also a sneaky (yet clever) liar. Although, I should say "was the sheriff," as he announced in April he would not return for a 4th season, wanting to move onto other projects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aosG18gjCpI

That's kind of depressing, one of the reasons I watch the show is because his performance as the Sheriff is always enjoyable.

It depends. He does sound quite cunning and mocking, but his voice doesn't seem powerful enough to be a dragon's, but maybe that's just in his role as a sheriff.

Okay, that made me chuckle!

Smaug needs to have a raspy voice! Raspy, and NOT American!

I wonder if an American accent could work, though...Smaug is essentially an Yankee businessman: individualistic, pragmatic, and ruthless. With the right actor, it could work.

I Take Exception with that description of Americans, really that's EVERY business man so really using that logic ANY accent would work.

Sorry, just found that comment offensive.

An American accent could indeed work. What about Dustin Hoffman?

(Smaug describing his aeronautical abilities)

As an American myself, I can say things like that about my countryfolk if I want to.
:p

Or Al Pacino? Not subtle enough, maybe?

I liked Hoffman as Captain Hook...hmm wonder if that would qualify him as a good voice for a dragon. :D

I don't know... I see (er... hear?) Smaug as having a very deep, rumbling, yet articulate, mellifluous voice.

Or... wait a minute! What about Sean Connery? He's already done a dragon and I think he did a fairly good job of it, regardless of how the movie turned out.

Okay Sean Connery Has yet to make a movie I like League of extradinary Gentlmen was good in Spite of him!

If he does Smaug I'll turn into Dauby and smack my head into a wall

You didn't like "The Molly Maguires"? And he was the best James Bond there ever was.
But I digress...
How about Brian Blessed? If he's still vertical.

Or Time Bandits?

The more I think about it, the more I like the suggestion of Connery as Smaug. At first I thought his voice is a little too distinctively Scottish, whereas I had always heard Smaug's as more of an upper class English accent. But Connery's voice does have a certain mellifluence and the, for lack of a better word, gravitas that I think Smaug needs.

Brian Blessed is a good voice actor but he strikes me as a little too big and booming for Smaug.

Okay, Connery it is. I'll have my people call his people.
We'll do lunch.

Watch it there. I the New Yorker of the forum.

Anyway here is a suggestion. John Noble. He played Denethor in Return of the King. The actor is from New Zealand but he usually uses an American accent for his roles.

Well,recycling is really effective when it comes to nature,but imagine what is going to happen if his voice is iddentified

"oh,here comes the psyco-dude again!"

lance henricksn admiral hackett from mass effect is AWESOME

And NO! bad peoples Woody Allen was the best Bond followed by Pierce Brosnin

OK, I'll give you Woody Allen, but... Brosnin?
Too much of the dandy to my way of thinking.

Henricksen certainly has the voice for Smaug... but I almost think the voice should convey some sense of nobility and I'm not 100% sure he could pull it off.

and Connery would? Fine what about and this is a stretch but I think the theatrics would make it so freakin' Sweet! Gene Wilder! I think that would be cool

see the thing, main thing, with connery is he's to well known you see or hear him you see or hear connery not the character he plays himself these actors make themselves the character

I don't want to watch Bilbo speaking riddles then say "oh yeah that's connery" he doesn't absorb me into movies if you see my meaning, there are a few who can't do that like Tim curry, but he does now anyway mostly comedies so I get past it. Dramas and actions I NEED to be absorbed. Know what I mean?

I think Gene Wilder is too much of a stretch. I'd expect him to break into "Puttin' on the Ritz"

(And I'll bet that just me saying that has got it running through your head right now... eh? Am I right???).

Orson Welles could have done it, but unfortunately, he's no longer vertical.

preferred Alice in wonderland got him singing the lobster dance song... as well as pure imagination, that part of Young Frankenstien Kind Of bugged me I block it out, much better in Blazing saddles.

If he were vertical, as you put it, Richard Boone, the original Smaug,

how about harland willians... for really no reason other than he's not Sean Connery:cool:

For that matter, Danny Devito isn't Sean Connery either.

(Yet somehow... I'm now imagining Devito as doing Smaug. This may bear consideration. Either that or I need to start cutting the meds in half...)

Interesting. The Danny DeVito Taxi character (Louie) seemed
to have a Smaug mindset toward dominating his little world,
and even seemed to keep Elaine around as much as anything
for eye candy (like Smaug his gold and other treasures).
But I still like Rowan Atkinson's Black Adder, especially the series
with Hugh Laurie in Regency England.

Bilbo taunts Smaug, so Smaug says:
"Oh really! And after I dispose of you who will your dwarves
send next. Bilbo the Younger, Bilbo the baby, Bilbo the embryo,
Bilbo the gleam in his parents eyes?."

If Rowan does it I pledge to see it 10 times in theatres