Jim Dale: The Man of 146 Voices
Long before Hugh Jackman played the role of Phineas Taylor “P.T.” Barnum in the hit movie-musical The Greatest Showman (2017), and before Daniel Radcliffe landed the role of Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001), and before Karl Urban played the greedy Gavin Magary in Disney’s remake of Pete’s Dragon (2016), there was Jim Dale. Dale played the role of P.T. Barnum in the Broadway musical Barnum (produced in 1980), provided the voice of Harry Potter—as well as all the other “Potter” characters for each of the USA audiobook versions of J.K. Rowling’s novels,—and played Elliot the Dragon’s other arch nemesis, the devious Dr. Terminus, in Disney’s original version of Pete’s Dragon (released in 1977). Jim Dale is the originator behind many popular acting roles, but in addition to that, he is a talented musician, stage actor, and television actor, and voice talent. You actually might find his work surprising.
Jim Dale was born James Smith on August 15th, 1935, in Rothwell, Northamptonshire England. He developed an interest in show business while in school, and by age 10 was training in ballet, tap dancing, and tumbling. He made his debut as a stage comic at the age of 16 in 1951, performing in camp shows. While serving in the Royal Air Force, his comic skills improved, and when he was discharged after two years of service, he took his comedy on tour, becoming one of the youngest British stand-up comedians ever. Ultimately, he got a job as a warm-up comic for a UK musical variety show called “Six-Five Special.” His performing skills on the show were so well-received that the producers promoted him to be a singer on the show. Soon, Dale teamed with George Martin to write the song “Be My Girl,” which reached No. 2 on the UK charts. Dale and Martin also wrote the songs “Just Born (To Be Your Baby),” “Crazy Dream,” and “Sugartime.” He made his film debut in a spin-off of “Six-Five Special” show the following year.
Jim Dale next appeared in the UK-produced film Roommates in 1961 starring opposite James Robertson Justice and Leslie Philips. He then took another bit role in another UK-produced film called Carry On Cabby (1963), which was one in a series of films of the same name which were produced in the UK from 1958-1992. His role in “Cabby” was well-received and he was made an official member of the cast of the film series (which also included Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims, and Charles Hawtrey). During the “Carry On,” films he was hired to write the lyrics for the song “Georgy Girl,” for the film of the same name, released in 1966. He collaborated with Tom Springfield, who wrote the music, and the effort earned the song an Oscar Nomination for Best Original Song.
While doing his own stunts for “Carry On,” he injured an arm, and as a result had to leave the group until 1992. In 1970, at the invitation of Sir Laurence Olivier, he was invited to join the National Theatre Company in London, and it was here that he played the roles of Scapino in Scapino and Petruchio in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. After creating some other roles in the theatre and in more UK-produced films, Dale finally made his first appearance in an American-produced film in Disney’s original “Pete’s Dragon.” He was hired by the Disney studios again the following year to star in Hot Lead and Cold Feet (1978) opposite Don Knotts and Darren McGavin. In this film, Dale portrays three different roles: Jasper Bloodshy and his identical twin sons Eli and Wild Billy. He made a third film for Disney the very next year: Unidentified Flying Oddball, starring opposite Ron Moody and Dennis Dugan.
In 1980, Jim Dale made his Broadway debut in Barnum, and won the Tony for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. In the show, he starred opposite Glenn Close, who played Barnum’s wife, Charity. 26 years after the original show, Dale reunited with Close in the one-night only concert version of a musical called Busker Alley, based on a British film called St. Martin’s Lane (1938) which featured the music and lyrics of legendary Disney film songwriters, Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. In 2007, he received his third Guinness World Record for creating 146 different voices for the audiobook J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. His first two records were for occupying the first six places in the Top Ten Audiobooks in America and Canada and for creating 134 different voices in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Most recently, he narrated SPIN: The Rumpelstiltskin Musical which was written by Harvel Edelman and Neil Fishman.
Jim Dale is a man of many talents, but the most remarkable of all his talents would undoubtedly be his voice. His vocal range can extend to sounding evil and nasty, as it can to sounding good and tender-hearted and not many other actors can achieve that with their voice.
