Phil Hartman
| Phil Hartman | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Profession | Actor Comedian |
| Born | 24 September 1948 |
| IMDB profile | nm0367005 |
| Wikipedia has information unrelated to Futurama | |
Philip Edward "Phil" Hartman was a Canadian-American actor and comedian, who was the original voice of Zapp Brannigan. During the 1990s, Phil Hartman was a semi-regular performer on The Simpsons and gained an extremely positive reputation among the cast and crew; so when Matt Groening was developing the characters for Futurama, Zapp was created as a character specifically for him to voice. But, in the commentary for “Love's Labours Lost in Space”, Matt Groening says that Hartman insisted on auditioning for Zapp’s voice anyway and “he came in, and of course he nailed the part”. Tragically, Phil Hartman was murdered on May 28, 1998 by his wife Brynn at age 49, just a few weeks after the audition. No dialogue had been recorded, and so the part was given to Billy West. In tribute, Zapp’s voice was modeled in the same style that Phil Hartman had intended for the character, and Philip J. Fry gained his first name in honor of Hartman.
External links
- Phil Hartman at Wikisimpsons