If you don’t recognize Michael Dorn by his looks then you should easily recognize him by his voice. He has one of the most recognizable voices in all of TV and film and if you heard it you would likely recognize just where it comes from. By now a few of you might have looked down at the picture and figured it out since it’s true that he was Lt. Worf on the Star Trek Next Generation TV series and in the movies. But Dorn has done a great number of things since as well, and he’s lent his incredible voice talents to a variety of projects that have managed to utilize him in a very expert manner. Believe it or not though his first time as Lt. Worf wasn’t on the TV show, it was as a defense attorney in Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country. He served as the defense for Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy when the two were taken away for the alleged crime of killing the Klingons that they’d welcomed aboard the Enterprise as their guests. From that point on though Worf soon became a household name in the mind of all Trekkies and eventually he was one of the most recognizable voices on TV.
His Acting Career
Obviously you know him best as Worf from the Star Trek series and the films. But he’s done a great many other things as well in his career. He played an uncredited role as Apollo Creed’s bodyguard in Rocky to start with. From 1991 until 2002 however his greatest role in the movie industry had to be Lt. Worf. Regardless of how bad the last movie, Nemesis, was considered to be, everyone still played their parts as expected and continued to wow the fans. In fact there’s one particular moment in First Contact when Picard and Worf go nose to nose that has a special place in the hearts of many fans.
Thankfully the writers had Picard take it back, since Worf could probably snap him in half like a matchstick. But that one scene kind of cemented the bond between the crew members in a way that very little else possibly could. Worf was always loyal to his fellow crew members and did anything he could for them. Even when it came to his loyalty to his race he usually picked the crew of the Enterprise or his own crew above them simply because he was bound by his honor to do so. That’s a big part of why the character of Worf was so great. But he did play another part that was kind of memorable even if people don’t recall it quite as easily. If you remember this however then you probably enjoy it at least once every Christmas.
He didn’t play the biggest role in two out of the three Santa Clause movies but he did play a part that got more involved as the movie wore on. After all he was the one that helped to get Mrs. Clause’s parents to the North Pole, though he didn’t do much else after that. It wasn’t one of his biggest roles but it was one in which he was at least shown a little more. Everything else he’s done to this point has been just as important for his career but when it comes to standing out there are only a few roles for any actor that really do such a thing.
Voice Acting
On top of being a great actor and already having a stellar reputation for his voice, Dorn has been known to take on voice roles that are immediately recognizable since let’s face it, he can’t hide that voice and shouldn’t even try. It’s been heard so often that attempting to change it would be kind of a sin and would lessen him in a way that would seem a bit silly. But while he hasn’t voiced a lot that’s really gotten him the same level of fame as the character of Worf, he’s still managed to do his absolute best when bringing his talent to bear, such as in this clip of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
He plays the part of Captain Mozar, a Triceraton that’s bent on destroying the earth so that the Kraang, the brain-like aliens that the Turtles have dealt within the past, cannot take it over. You know, the burn-it-so-the-enemy-can’t-regroup kind of thing. Thankfully the Turtles band together with their past selves to prevent this from happening as Mozar eventually goes down with his entire race and is annihilated thanks to his rash actions. Dorn played a few other voice roles as well, one that’s actually kind cool to think about since it’s a voice that brought to life another character that people haven’t seen in a long time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2oZe-Ql27Q
Fortress Maximus isn’t a very well-known Transformer since he wasn’t much in the way of being marketable as a toy and he was more peaceful than most of them. But seeing a fortress-sized Transformer come to life onscreen is still pretty cool. But overall people will know Dorn more for his most popular roles, no matter that he’s been great at pretty much anything he does.
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