Harvey Atkin

Harvey Atkin (born December 18, 1942 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian voice actor who has worked in feature films andtelevision. He has also done voice-overs, and has voiced animations.

Early life

From an early age he was exposed to many things that would shape his view of life. His grandfather, an immigrant from Russia, steeped his young grandson in the old country's ways, which included the Yiddish language. Atkin claims that to this day, his late grandfather is still a major influence on him. He and his parents lived with him for several years before finally getting their own house – around the corner from his grandfather's.

Atkin's father, for his part, played an equally important role in his son's upbringing. It was he who taught Atkin about the business world. However, at this time, it seemed that Atkin's "job description" was "class clown".

Owing to Atkin's continual clowning in school, he was encouraged to join the school's drama club. This, and his winning a best actor award at a local drama festival, drove him into a career in acting. A stint at a summer camp for the performing arts also helped in his choice of career.

Career

Harvey was best known for playing Sam in The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police, and also played Mario's and Luigi's arch enemyBowser Koopa on DiC Entertainment's cartoon version of Super Mario Bros. (notably, he is the first English voice actor for the character). Playing Bowser in all three Mario animated series, he is the only voice actor to appear in all three series as the same character. Harvey also did the voice of Mr. Mushnik on Little Shop, loosely based on the movie Little Shop of Horrors.

Harvey Atkin has appeared in more than 75 films, and has appeared hundreds of times in episodic television shows. He has done voice-over work in literally thousands of television and radio commercials, for which he has won three Clio awards.

He is perhaps best known as the desk sergeant in the television series Cagney & Lacey, and as the hapless, heavily sleeping camp director and practical joke victim Morty in the 1979 film Meatballs (in the film, the characters call him "Mickey" to annoy him), for which performance he earned a Genie nomination.

Harvey Atkin is currently a regular on the television drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and is the voice-over in Leon's and "Buy Israel Bonds" commercials in Canada. He also made a cameo playing a bus driver in the classic film Atlantic City starring Burt Lancaster, and is the voice for Morty in the TV series Jacob Two-Two

He made a guest appearance in 2010 as a rabbi on the CBC TV series 18 to Life.

Posted in: Canadian actors