If
authority needs to kick some ass, it needs a proper charismatic voice to do so.
Enter
Travis Willingham.
Travis Willingham is one of the more recent voice actors, originally starting out as Col. Roy Mustang in
the 2003 anime adaptation of
Fullmetal Alchemist. After that, he started getting
pigeonholed into voicing characters that are either
badasses or have a high rank or status, be it military or some other thing (not to mention a few characters
Playing with Fire). He is somewhat
memetically popular thanks to his infamous "tiny miniskirts" decree and the fact that "HE LOVES DOGS!" (and he actually
does like cute things — not hard to believe considering his recent role as
Mori-senpai). Like
Vic Mignogna and
Aaron Dismuke's Risembool Rangers, his loyal Miniskirt Army follows him from con to con. He is among the few voice actors to also get many live-action roles.
In 2005, he become famous for his non-anime activities when he took on
Monica Rial in a tequila shot contest after Anime Weekend Atlanta. Needless to say, the result was hilarious and has come to be known as The Travis Willingham Tequila Story. Multiple versions were told;
one by Vic Mignogna
,
one by Monica Rial,
and one by the man himself.
Recently he has begun doing dubbing for many California-based works, as have many other
FUNimation voice actors such as
Troy Baker and
Laura Bailey. And now, he's even
living there. He's married to
Laura Bailey as of 2011, and thus
he's now officially a family man.
Has a
Twitter account.
Anime Roles
Video Game Roles
Other Roles
- Surprisingly enough, one of the four young punks at the bar in the live action film Secondhand Lions. Surprising because instead of portraying an authority figure, he plays a rebellious youth with a lot of disdain towards authority.
- Also the source of one of his favorite stories to tell at conventions, as the director assumed Travis was a stuntman (given the fact that he's tall and quite buff), which resulted in Robert Duvall actually hitting him during the fight scene. After learning that Travis is a regular actor, Duvall apologized profusely and gave him some money to make up for it.
- King Roland II in Sofia The First
Tropes associated with Travis Willingham
- Ascended Fanboy:
- Authority Equals Asskicking: With Roy Mustang and among others.
- Badass: A lot of character he voices fit into this.
- Badass Baritone: A good factor as to why his vocal performances are so effective for this type of character.
- Friendly Rival: With Vic Mignogna.
- Gentle Giant: Very tall, but can be a big sweetheart. Exhibit A: Playing Mori for a Honey cosplayer at Kawaii-Con.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: As he's 6'4", he is most likely to be this with his wife Laura Bailey.
- Ink Suit Actor: Paul DeMarco in Halo 4 is essentially him with a shaved head.
- Kill It with Fire: The modus operandi of several of the characters he has been cast as in his career, something he himself is happy to point out.
- Large Ham: Oh YEAH!!! There's a reason why he's called Travis WillingHAM! Apparently he auditioned for Armstrong in the 2003 anime adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist, but got Roy's part instead.
- And then there's his performance as Charlotte, which is massively Playing Against Type but still manages to be so absurdly Camp Gay and FABULOUS it borders on ridiculous.
- Going further than that, there is also Relius. Although given that he looks a lot like the The Phantom of the Opera, it was obvious he would be this. And thanks to some leaked footage of the English dub, his performance doesn't disappoint.
- Order Versus Chaos: if Authority Equals Asskicking rings a bell, a lot of his characters he voices will fall into the "order" side.
- Pigeonholed Voice Actor: Normally the high authority/military figure or law-abiding character who shows his authority by kicking some ass. Roy Mustang, Guile, and recently Knuckles. However, he's slowly moving away from his typecasting ever since he moved to California.
- Considering one of his most recent roles was Charlotte...mission accomplished.
- And now he's Relius Clover, practically the furthest character from his pigeonhole, being a Mad Scientist and all. Unless you count that despite his atrocity, Relius is still one of the highest ranking member of NOL and one of the people who could've been stronger than Hazama, thereby adhering to Authority Equals Asskicking.
- Poor Man's Substitute: Vocal example; he sounds very similar to Dan Green. Probably at least part of the reason why he took over Dan Green's roles of Knuckles and Storm in the Sonic series.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: The now famous Travis Willingham tequila story.
0 reviews