Voice of Smaug?

[William Cloud Hicklin]

- Peter Cushing and Basil Rathbone being permanently unavailable).

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.