Corey Gregg Weinberg, better known as Corey Burton, is an American voice actor. He is best known for various roles such as Captain Hook, Dale, Ludwig Von Drake, Yen Sid, and Zipper for The Walt Disney Company. His other roles include Shockwave and Megatron in the Transformers franchise, Brainiac in various media, Count Dooku and Cad Bane in the Star Wars franchise, V.V. Argost on The Secret Saturdays, Jaga on the 2011 reboot of ThunderCats and Dracula on Avengers Assemble.

In video games, he voices Zeus in the God of War series, Hugo Strange in Batman: Arkham City and Nitros Oxide in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.

Career

Early career

Burton's grandparents immigrated from Transylvania. Burton was initially hesitant to pursue voice acting due to his shy demeanor and Asperger syndrome, but credits the design and storytelling of Disney's The Haunted Mansion attraction as his inspiration to move forward. He also cited The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends (which he watched during his childhood) as an inspiration. Burton started his career at age 17 under the stage name Corey Weinman, with an imitation performance of Hans Conried for a filmstrip by Disney, titled Chef Ahmalette's Health Diet. He studied radio acting with Daws Butler for four years and went on to work with nearly all of the original Hollywood radio actors in classic-style radio dramas.

Disney

Burton has done extensive voice-work for Disney, including animated features and theme park attractions at the Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World, and Tokyo Disney Resort. He provided the narration for many of the behind-the-scenes programs of Disney movies on many of their VHS issues from the 1990s. He provided the voice of Captain Hook since 1977

  • Doc Hudson in various Cars media and Radiator Springs Racers (replacing Paul Newman).
  • General Knowledge from the former Cranium Command attraction at Epcot.
  • Dale, Bruno Biggs, and Moe Whiplash from Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour.

Paul Frees

Burton, for many years, served as a protégé to voice actor Paul Frees. Following Frees' death and his son Fred's temporary takeover, Burton stepped in and imitated Frees' voice as the Ghost Host in Disneyland's Haunted Mansion Holiday attraction. and several voices in Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

Burton also performed Frees imitations for comedian Stan Freberg's album Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America, Volume Two, Consequently, the part was given to Frank Welker, the voice of Megatron/Galvatron.

Star Wars

For Star Wars, Burton voiced Luke Skywalker in Disney-produced read-along records in 1979-1983, and dubbed one of Hobbie Klivian's lines in The Empire Strikes Back. and The Book of Boba Fett. He has also voiced several characters in video games.

Kingdom Hearts

For the Kingdom Hearts series, Burton voiced Ansem the Wise in Chain of Memories, Birth by Sleep, and Dream Drop Distance due to Christopher Lee's health problems. For the cinematic version of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Burton re-dubbed Lee's lines that he had previously recorded for the Nintendo DS version. He reprised his role as Ansem for Kingdom Hearts III.

Brainiac

Burton has portrayed the supervillain Brainiac in the DC Animated Universe. He appeared as the character in Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League, Static Shock, and Justice League Unlimited, as well as the non-DCAU media Legion of Super Heroes, DC Universe Online, and Lego DC Super-Villains.

Highlights

  • Narrated the 1992 Discovery Channel documentary Great White!.
  • Scarecrow, Ronald Marshall and Yuri Dimitrov in Batman: Gotham Knight.
  • V.V. Argost and Leonidas Van Rook in The Secret Saturdays.
  • The titular character in James Bond Jr..
  • Invisibo in Freakazoid!.
  • Old Queeks in Mike, Lu & Og.
  • Captain Marvel and Solomon Grundy in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.
  • Red Tornado, Silver Cyclone, Doctor Mid-Nite, Will Magnus, Joker (Scooby-Doo version), Mercury, and Thomas Wayne in Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
  • Count Dooku, Cad Bane, and Ziro the Hutt in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
  • Tomax in G.I. Joe.
  • Goon, Kanawk, and Tauron in Robotix.
  • Law in G.I. Joe: Renegades.
  • Brain, Dudley H. Dudley, Hamilton Hill, James Gordon, and Wizard in Young Justice.
  • Dash Whippet for Pound Puppies.
  • Brainstorm, Malware, and Mr. Baumann in Ben 10: Omniverse.
  • Dracula in Avengers Assemble and 'Ultimate Spider-Man'.
  • Ranger Smith in Boo Boo Runs Wild, and A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith, both standalone projects produced by Spümcø based on the character Yogi Bear.

Other work

  • Played Jerry Lyden in the radio series Alien Worlds.
  • Has done work for the Universal Studios theme parks, the Fish and Safety/Emergency Announcer in The Cat in the Hat, Tick-Tack-Joe in If I Ran the Zoo, and the Grinch in Sneech Beach Area and the Seuss Landing Street Show.
  • Does voice-overs for Old Navy commercials and a promo for Final Fantasy XII.
  • Provided voice-overs for WWE's WrestleMania XXV recap segments.
  • Various characters in the 1980 cult classic Closet Cases of the Nerd Kind.
  • The titular creatures in the Critters film series.
  • Narrator for the video game Brütal Legend.
  • Volteer the Electric Guardian Dragon, Exhumor, and Mason in The Legend of Spyro trilogy.
  • Zeus in the God of War series.
  • Numerous supporting roles on Focus on the Family's radio drama Adventures in Odyssey.
  • Doctor N. Gin, Doctor N. Tropy and Nitros Oxide in the Crash Bandicoot series.
  • Jack in the theme park attraction The House at Haunted Hill.
  • Narrator of the film The A-Team.
  • Hugo Strange in Batman: Arkham City and Lego DC Super-Villains.
  • John Grey (Jean Grey's father) for Wolverine and the X-Men.
  • Provided voice samples for the song "Machete" by DJ Hazard (reused from Grindhouse) and the album Universus by ShockOne.
  • Announcer for the Bounty Law promo in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

|-

| Closet Cases of the Nerd Kind

| Narrator

| Short film

|-

| rowspan="2" | 1981

| Wolfen

| ESS Voice

|

|-

| Galaxy Express 999

| The Conductor

| New World Pictures dub

|-

| rowspan="2" | 1982

| The Sword and the Sorcerer

| Additional voices

|

|-

| The Adventures of Curious George

| Curious George, The Man with the Yellow Hat, additional voices

| Short film series

|-

| 1983

| Good-bye, Cruel World

| Additional voices

|

|-

| rowspan="4" | 1986

| Critters

| Critters

|

|-

| The Transformers: The Movie

| Brawn, Shockwave, Spike Witwicky

|

|-

| Disney Sing-Along Songs: Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah

| rowspan="2" | Professor Owl

| rowspan="2" | Direct-to-video

|-

| rowspan="5" | 1987

| Disney Sing-Along Songs: Heigh-Ho

|-

| G.I. Joe: The Movie

| Tomax

|

|-

| rowspan="4" | 2014

| JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time

| Captain Cold, Time Trapper

| rowspan="3" | Direct-to-video<!-- url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XSnZILVBPc -->

|-

| rowspan="2" | 2006

| Kingdom Hearts II

| Dale, Yen Sid, Shan Yu, Flotsam, Jetsam, Santa Claus, Peddler, Sark, Master Control Program

|

|-

|Rowspan="2"|2025

|Disney Speedstorm

|Dale, Mad Hatter

|

|-

|Disney Villains Cursed Café

|Captain Hook, Magic Mirror

|

|}

Radio

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|- style="background:#b0c4de; text-align:center;"

! Year

! Title

! Role

! class= "unsortable" | Notes

|-

| 1979–80 || Alien Worlds || Starlab Controller Jerry Lyden, Research Assistant Tim || 26 episodes

|-

| 1991–2008 || Adventures in Odyssey || Bryan Dern, Walter Shakespeare, various voices || 124 episodes

|}

Theme parks

  • Alice in Wonderland – White Rabbit, Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum, Playing Cards
  • Cranium Command – General Knowledge, Chicken, Male Recruit, Drill Sergeant
  • Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls – Snidely Whiplash, Narrator
  • Mickey and Friends Parking Tram – Spiel
  • Mr. Toad's Wild Ride – Cop, Judge, Farmer
  • Pirates of the Caribbean – Stuffed Pirate, Safety Spiel
  • Radiator Springs Racers – Doc Hudson
  • Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – Grumpy
  • Wonders of Life – Narrator

Awards and nominations

{|class="wikitable sortable"

|-

! Year

! Award

! Category

! Title

! Result

|-

| 2003

| rowspan="3" | Annie Award

| Outstanding Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production

| Return to Neverland

|

|-

| 2003

| Outstanding Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production

| House of Mouse

|

|-

| 2011

| Best Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production

| Star Wars: The Clone Wars

|

|}

References

  • Official website