Announcer: This Friday on TNT, the world premiere of Morgan Freeman in 'The Narrator.'
Morgan Freeman: Ever since I was a little boy, people have enjoyed the sound of my voice. And I figured you either get busy talkin' or you get busy dyin'. The work is really quite easy. Why even right now I'm just sitting in a chair, sipping some tea and reading from a script. The wall is covered in something that resembles egg crates except they're soft and spongy, like a twinkie...like a twinkie. You are now reading this entry with my voice, in your head. Well my my, isn't that something.Morgan Freeman
is God note After George Burns stepped down from the role (yes, literally, see image). His distinctive and authoritative voice and his calm, measured tones lend dignity and gravitas to pretty much everything he says. The
comforting qualities of his voice are only equaled by
Stephen Fry. Watching them
have a conversation in a blues club
is exactly as awesome as it sounds.
The quintessential
Magical Negro actor, Freeman is probably best known for his roles in
Driving Miss Daisy,
Glory,
The Shawshank Redemption,
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,
Unforgiven and
Se7en. More recently, he has played Lucius Fox in
The Dark Knight Saga, God in
Bruce Almighty and
Evan Almighty, and was the
narrator of
March of the Penguins and the
The War of the Worlds remake. Considering he spent years trying to live down his roles of "Easy Reader" and "Vincent the Vegetable Vampire" on
The Electric Company, he's not complaining. His latest role is Nelson Mandela in
Invictus. Since early 2010, he has performed the voice over spiel in the open of the
CBS Evening News, replacing a 2006 spiel done by Walter Cronkite, who died a few months prior. He is also voice of Visa in the commercials, most notably those done for the
2008 Summer Olympics, the 2010 Winter Olympics, and the
Super Bowl. He's the host of
Through the Wormhole on The Science Channel, a show which hopes to tackle some of the greater mysteries of life and existence. If anyone can explain it, it's Morgan Freeman.
He is now the "voice" of
Disney's Hall of Presidents attraction, a fact that threatens to actually make that attraction cool.
Also, see
this
xkcd comic,
this
Folly and Innovation strip,
as well as this
parody of
The Man Your Man Could Smell Like. And, according to
Joe Loves Crappy Movies,
even the guys want him
.
Not to be mistaken for a relative of
Gordon Freeman, as awesome and bearded as they both are. (By proxy,
John Freeman is also out.) Neither so with
Robert Freeman, as much as they fit the description of a
Cool Old Guy and a
Badass Grandpa. Nor with
Martin Freeman, although seeing these two actors in same film playing long lost relatives would be
awesome (What? It's not like that sort of thing hasn't been
done before). Nor with
Milton Friedman
, although having Morgan Freeman read some of his works would make them a lot easier to get through.