On Thursday, January 5, 2023, the American actor and voice actor Earl Boen passed away in Hawaii. Boen lent his voice to numerous notable characters in video games and narrated the intro for the races in World of Warcraft.
Who is the narrator? Earl Boen was an American actor who gained prominence with his role as Dr. Peter Silberman in Terminator, Terminator 2, and Terminator 3. However, his journey also led him into the world of video games.
In gaming, his voice is especially recognizable to fans of World of Warcraft when playing in English. There, Boen voiced the “Narrator” for all race cinematics up to and including Legion, as well as the pit lord Magtheridon in The Burning Crusade.
Additionally, Boen was the voice of King Terenas Menethil II (title image), the father of the later Lich King Arthas. As such, he can still be heard in the iconic end cinematic of the Icecrown Citadel, which will be playable in the future in WotLK Classic:
Boen also worked on the famous Monkey Island series. Here, he voiced the zombie pirate LeChuck. Other roles and voice credits of his include:
- Señor Senior Sr. in Kim Possible
- Nemesis in Black & White
- Sergei Gurlukovich in the Metal Gear series
- various roles in Baldur’s Gate and other D&D games
- Red Skull in the Spider-Man animated series
- he also guest starred in various series such as Hawaii Five-O and Seinfeld
You can find all of Earl Boen’s roles on his entry on IMDB.
As Variety reports, Boen was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer at the end of 2022. He passed away on January 5 in Hawaii, with no further details about the circumstances of his death known. Boen was married and had a daughter and two grandchildren.
On reddit, fans remember him with some of his iconic voice lines, recalling that “no king rules forever.” His voice always seemed to match the mood perfectly for the situation.
Boen was 81 years old.
