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He is a manly man, and he has a manly voice to prove it.
A character of this sort must fulfill two criteria:
- Obviously, the character must be a badass.
- The character must have a deep voice of baritone register. Bass register is also possible but is rarer and almost always overlaps with being evil.
Such a character may range from Cool Old Guy to Testosterone Poisoning. Such characters are frequently supporting roles, such as The Lancer.
See also Evil Sounds Deep, Guttural Growler, Power Makes Your Voice Deep. Contrast Tenor Boy.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Scar from Fullmetal Alchemist.
- One Piece: Roronoa Zoro has the deepest voice in the crew, and is undeniably Badass.
- Dutch from Black Lagoon.
- Alucard from Hellsing.
- Any character portrayed by Norio Wakamoto.
- Several characters from Bleach: Kenpachi, Byakuya, Ukitake, Shunsui, Aizen, Ulquiorra, Grimmjow, Starrk... and there are most likely more of them.
- Gaara as dubbed by Liam O'Brien. Also his Japanese seiyuu.
- Shino, Zabuza, Kakuzu, Neji, Kyuubi, A and Guy and a few others.
- Kakashi, Itachi, Pain, Madara.
- Souther from Fist of the North Star has a voice that might well be deeper than is actually naturally possible. Oddly enough, Toki the Kung-Fu Jesus has his own Badass Baritone going on. The main character, Kenshiro, prefers high-pitched "A-TA-TA" sounds.
- Whenever English dub Version of Goku goes Super Saiyan 3, he invokes this trope to show he means business. And let's not get started on the badassery that is Super Saiyan 4...
- The Brazilian dub turned Frieza into one of this.
- Hidekatsu Shibata: Voiced The Third Hokage, King Bradley and Igneel.
- Jamieson Price: Voiced Lord Genome, First Hokage, The Count in The Count of Monte Cristo, and a few others.
- Joji Nakata: Soichiro Takagi, Alucard, Chaser John Doe, Kotomine Kirei, and a few others.
- Shizuo Heiwajima from Durarara, particularly in the dub where he's voiced by Crispin Freeman.
- Joe the Condor from Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, considering his VA is real life Badass Baritone singer Isao Sasaki
- Katekyo Hitman Reborn!:
- Reborn in adult form, Xanxus, Squalo, Mukuro (especially in his 25 year old form),25 year old Lambo and Alaude.
- Also, HDW!Tsuna, TYL!Tsuna. Vongola Primo may count as well; both him and TYL!Tsuna are voiced by Daisuke Namikawa.
- Shinigami-sama in Soul Eater actually invokes this trope.
- The English dub of Pokémon gave Mewtwo this type of voice.
- Gray Fullbuster, Gajeel Redfox, Panther Lily, Elfman Strauss, Laxus Dreyar, and Fried Justine of Fairy Tail.
- Sebastian Michaelis in any incarnation of Black Butler.
Film
- Miles Gloriosus from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, especially in the movie.
- Many incarnations of Batman have him lowering his voice while in costume to sound more menacing.
- Nolan's incarnation of Bane has an extremely peculiar contrast between the trope (in vocal range) and jovial, eloquent word choice and mode of speech.
"You think darkness is your ally, but you merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t see the light until I was already a man. By then, it was nothing to me but blinding!"
- Christopher Lee sometimes plays this when he isn't playing villains.
- His voice is perfect when he plays the Discworld role of Death, since Terry Pratchett has always described Death's voice being deep and foreboding like the slamming of a coffin lid.
- Also, whenever Death speaks in the novels, his lines are rendered completely in upper-case. And who elso, but Christopher Lee knows HOW TO SPEAK IN CAPITAL LETTERS?
- Thorin, as played by Richard Armitage, in The Hobbit. He even gets to sing a song perfectly suited for his voice.
- Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Darth Vader is the more villainous example, but he's still one of the most badass villains on the screen.
- Optimus Prime.
- Riddick from the The Chronicles of Riddick series.
- Any character played by Ron Perlman.
- Kevin Grevioux has an unnaturally deep voice, which led many people watching his character Raze in Underworld to assume it has been altered in some way. He's also a Genius Bruiser, having degrees in microbiology and genetic engineering and having come up with the idea for the movie in the first place.
- Mufasa.
- Severus Snape.
- James Bond, particularly when played by Sean Connery or Daniel Craig.
- Atticus Finch, as played by Gregory Peck.
- Roadblock from G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
- Star Trek Into Darkness: Benedict Cumberbatch's John Harrison delivers Badass Boasts in a deep, bass voice.
- Heimdall from the film version of Thor has one, courtesy of Idris Elba. It gives him a very fitting air of gravitas.
Literature
- Aral Vorkosigan of the Vorkosigan Saga has a "scratchy" baritone, as does his Retired Badass father.
- Earl Thorfinn, aka Macbeth from Dorothy Dunnett's King Hereafter has a voice constantly described as "subterranean."
- Harry Dresden of The Dresden Files.
- Also, Sanya. Knight of the Cross, and the only person manly enough to make Dresden feel inadequate, being roughly of a height with Dresden and muscle-bound enough to make Michael, who is notably strong, look puny, whereas Harry is all wiry muscle.
- Bahzell Bahnakson in David Weber's The War Gods series.
- Every Chaos Marine in Throne of Lies speaks in an unusually low voice, but Xarl, The Squad's resident Blood Knight, is noticeably deeper.
- Derek Sagan of The Star Of The Guardians by Margaret Weis has a deep baritone.
- DEATH from the Discworld is described as having a voice like a lead coffin lid slamming,even if his voice is more felt than heard.
- Private Kolya Vlasov from David Benioff's City of Thieves. Quick-fisted fighter of cannibals sings in a "strong, confident baritone"
Live Action TV
- Castiel. Also, Jensen Ackles noticeably starts using a deeper voice in any extended conversation with him. It's like they're trying to out-badass each other. Misha Collins has said that he regrets it- he thought he would only be a guest star and was just trying to sound Bad Ass, but when he was brought back to be a major supporting character he was forced to keep it, and finds using the voice so much to be annoying, difficult and mildly painful.
Misha Collins: So in the first episode that Castiel shows up in, um — he's trying to communicate with Dean, and in so doing, his voice, his angelic voice, is exploding television sets and breaking windows — and so I, consummate guest star that I am, thought - oh, you know, I'm gonna do this [ deepens voice], really deep, gravelly, commanding, kickass, kind of window-breaking voice... And I may be running into medical problems now. It has been brutal on my throat.
- City Confidential narrator Paul Winfield, and his successor, Keith David.
- Shepherd Book from Firefly.
- Mason Makoola from Pair of Kings, although he is a bass.
- Sherlock Holmes himself. You could mistake Benedict Cumberbatch for Alan Rickman if you had your eyes closed.
- Which is funny considering that in one short story his voice is described as strident.
- Skins: Gen 1's Sid, to some extent. His baritone next to Tony's tenor certainly evens the playing field.
- The Fourth Doctor from Doctor Who.
- Tywin Lannister from Game of Thrones.
Music
- The Swedish singer Roger Pontare is notable for his very deep voice both when talking and singing.
Theatre
- Charlie Anderson from The Musical adaptation of Shenandoah.
- Count Carl-Magus in A Little Night Music is certainly a manly man, if conceited and stupid, with a distinct baritone voice.
- Wotan in Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. He's a bass-baritone, the ruler of the Gods, and he even has an eyepatch.
- Pick a Verdi baritone role. Any of them. Good guy or villain, all badass.
- Meta-example: any baritone who can sing Verdi automatically qualifies. Rare though they may be, "Verdi Baritones" make ordinary baritones cower in fear.
- If basses count, Sparafucile from Rigoletto. Assassin AND a man of honour. He never double-crosses anyone.
- Don Giovanni. He's THE MAN.
- Vanderdecken in Der fliegende Holländer — manly, dark, mysterious, bass-baritone.
- Escamillo from Carmen. You know, the guy who sings that
 impossibly hammy song about how cool toreros are.
- Les Misérables: Inspector Javert. Baritone or bass-baritone required, and he's badass enough to have his own trope. (Ask Patron-Minette how he arrested seven armed bandits plus a Mama Bear (who counts herself as two) alone.)
- Enjolras is also played by a baritone and, as charismatic leader of the Friends of the ABC, qualifies.
- Sweeney Todd usually, though the Burton interpretation sent this to hell in a handcart. Also The Judge.
- Macheath in The Threepenny Opera
- Depending on the actor, The Phantom of the Opera (the role has been played by both tenors and baritones).
- The indisputably badass Beast from Beauty And The Beast is a solid baritone role, as is the equally badass (though much more arrogant about it) villain Gaston.
- Listen to Brian Stokes Mitchell sing "Impossible Dream," and you'll realize Don Quixote de La Mancha qualifies.
Video Games
- Garrus Vakarian, David Anderson, Zaeed Massani, Thane Krios and especially the Reapers from Mass Effect all have deep, distinctive voices.
- Angeal from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII fits the trope nicely.
- Kratos Aurion from Tales Of Symphonia, who has the same seiyu as Kenpachi.
- Alucard from Castlevania Symphony Of The Night. A bit of a contrast with his appearance.
- The Grand Oak of Dragon Age: Origins definitely fits this trope. Bonus points since he Rhymes on a Dime.
- The Arishok of Dragon Age II.
- Malcom Hawke, father of the player character, as well. He has the same voice as male! Hawke, only pitched much lower.
- Auron from Final Fantasy X has a voice bordering on Guttural Growler.
- Golbez, in both the DS remake of FFIV and Dissidia: Final Fantasy.
- Most incarnations of Kingdom Hearts Big Bad Xehanort have kickass voices, but one in particular stands out. Hint: it's the one voiced by Norio Wakamoto.
- The Heavy from Team Fortress 2 stands out as having perhaps the deepest voice of the cast.
- Although the Sniper comes in at a close second.
- Any character voiced by Keith David is almost guaranteed to be this. Vhailor from Planescape Torment, The Arbiter from Halo (notable for being the least hammy Elite), and Captain Anderson from Mass Effect come to mind.
- Jorge-052 from Halo: Reach, all the way.
- Meta Knight in Super Smash Bros Brawl speaks in a deep, gravelly voice. He's also the only character in the game who administrators are considering banning from tournament play because he's "too powerful".
- Tychus Findlay of Starcraft II has a voice that makes Barry White sound like a boy soprano.
- Ezio Auditore da Firenze from Assassins Creed II and Assassins Creed Brotherhood. His voice gradually deepens as he gets older, in addition to growing a Badass Beard.
- Shinjiro Aragaki from Persona 3 in the original Japanese version.
- Although Grant George's English voice is hardly high pitched itself.
- Harman Smith, voiced by Dwight Schultz, in Killer7
- Shao Kahn and Quan Chi in Mortal Kombat
- In Fallout New Vegas, Legate Lanius from the base game and Joshua Graham from the Honest Hearts DLC are both badass and have very deep voices. Doubly notable for both being extremely cool, competent, and collected and neither of them using profanity in a game where it is plentiful.
- Even more impressive than the above-mentioned Vhailor is The Transcendent One from Planescape Torment, voiced by Tony Jay. He's also a Physical God.
- Lee Everett of The Walking Dead.
- Jazz from Eternal Sonata. Here, have an example.
- A few Asuras Wrath characters have this, like Deus, Asura and the Rasho Mooks.
- Guile's voice has become deeper as the series advances. His latest VA's are Hiroki Yasumoto and Travis Willingham, and that says a lot.
- Logan Cunningham, the voice of the Narrator in the game Bastion. As Yahtzee said in his review, it sounds like his voice has been replaced with a "chocolate profiterole."
- In Skyrim, Ulfric Stormcloak is a manly man and he most definitely has a manly voice to prove it (naturally, since he's voiced by Vladimir Kulich). May overlap with Evil Sounds Deep depending on your stance on the Skyrim Civil War.
- Adam Jensen, the One-Man Army Player Character of Deus Ex Human Revolution, has a very low voice with extra huskiness from the smoking habit.
Western Animation
Real Life
- Christopher Lee. Played many of the most iconic villains in film history, aided much due to his magnificent baritone voice. He's also a trained operatic singer, a metalhead, speaks at least five languages fluently, is a Master Swordsman, and was a member of the Special Operations Executive during World War II (whose exploits inspired the character of James Bond).
- Tim Curry.
- Liam Neeson
- Alan Rickman
- Vladimir Kulich.
- Musician First Class Courtney R. Williams, Concert Moderator for the United States Navy Concert Band.
- Till Lindeman of Rammstein.
- Despite common depictions, this trope is subverted in the two most legitimately badass American presidents: Abraham Lincoln is said to have had a shrill, nasally voice and Theodore Roosevelt had a mid-range voice - his voice was the first president's to ever be receorded and a sample can be found here
- Steve Blum.
- Johnny Cash, ladies.
- Michael Mc Connohie, one of the closest we have to an English-speaking Norio Wakamoto.
- The late Peter Steele of Type O Negative.
- Harry "The Tyrant" Conklin of Jag Panzer. He can (and does) go higher, but his natural register is baritone and he's the living embodiment of badass in metal. I'M A MAN WHO SHOWS NO MERCY FOR THE WEAK!
- Metallica's James Hetfield. Accidentally stepped into a pyrotechnic, and lived.
- The Undertaker. Walking, talking embodiment of Badass. Once got set on fire by his pyro and never broke character.
- Japanese singers Takayuki Miyauchi (known for singing the awesome Opening song to Kamen Rider Black RX) and Isao Sasaki aka "The Japanese Elvis Presley".
- Among Mexican dubbers, the big prize for the deep and badass voice-overs goes to Gerardo Reyero (who's actually a bass). Though it's not to say that guys like Mario Castańeda, Gabriel Basurto and Marcos Patińo are slouches either.
- Norio Wakamoto.
- James Earl Jones is made of this.
- BRIAN BLESSED, complete with giant pieces of ham.
- The late Tony Jay, so much that he was usually typecast as villains.
- The late Don LaFontaine.
- Benedict Cumberbatch.
- Richard Armitage.
- Travis Willingham.
- Ettore Bastianini, a famous Italian operatic baritone in the 1950-60s.
- Patrick Seitz.
- Jamieson Price.
- Liam O'Brien.
- DC Douglas
- Ryuzaburo Ohtomo.
- Daisuke Ishiwatari, as the voice of Sol Badguy and Freed Velez.
- Fred Tatasciore tends to play these roles, with good reason whenever he's not playing monster roles and the Incredible Hulk.
- The late, great Daisuke Gouri.
- George Takei
- Lance Henriksen.
- Crispin Freeman.
- Akio Ohtsuka
- Kevin Michael Richardson.
- The late Mark Dailey of CityTV in Toronto, Canada. Originally a crime reporter and good friend of the Toronto police, he frequently did live voice-overs between programs and, by the time of his passing in 2010, he was a regular anchor on the evening news and was considered "the voice" of the channel.
- Yul Brynner, to an extent.
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