The trouble with being Malkovich
John Malkovich refuses to feel sorry for himself, said Simon Hattenstone in The Guardian (U.K.). Growing up in Benton, Ill., Malkovich received regular beatings from his father, an environmental journalist, and his older brother. “You crossed the line and you got a beating,” the actor says. “So what?” John would chase his abusive brother with a butcher’s knife. “My brother didn’t get anything he didn’t deserve,” Malkovich says. “People get sick of being tortured.” During a five-year period beginning in 2009, three of his four siblings and his mother died. “What can you do?” says Malkovich, 66. “I try not to worry about things you can’t control.” He suffered another loss in 2008. “Our business manager had invested pretty much everything we’d ever made with somebody called Bernie Madoff,” he says. When he saw a picture of Madoff in handcuffs, he told his wife, “I’m going to go to the corner to get a packet of cigarettes. I think we have a little problem.” He won’t say how many millions he lost. “I don’t think it mattered much,” he says. His indifference can sound terribly downbeat, but Malkovich insists he’s not. “I’ve been luckier than anybody I know,” he says. “So when things have happened that have been sad and difficult, I don’t feel the need to complain.”
The man of a thousand growls
If a movie character roars, barks, or chirps, you’re likely hearing Frank Welker, said Tim Greiving in The Washington Post. For 50 years, Welker has cornered the market in animal roles, with
850 film credits to his name. He played gremlins in Gremlins, Max the dog in The Little Mermaid, and Spike the dinosaur in The
Land Before Time. In Aladdin alone, he voiced Abu the monkey, Rajah the tiger, and the growling Cave of Wonders. The screeches and squawks can be painful, says Welker, 74. Fortunately, “I had a military-grade voice—a leather throat.” As a boy, he discovered his “strange, innate ability” to mimic animals and would get attention by impersonating chirping sparrows. His showbiz career started in stand-up, with Welker doing impressions that included a chorus of dogs, cats, and ducks singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” His big break, however, came in 1969, when he landed a dog food commercial, which led to an audition for a new show about a foodcrazed dog, Scooby-Doo. Welker was cast, but as the teenager Fred Jones. In 1997, Welker took over as Scooby. The son of a brilliant electromechanical engineer, Welker says he has no idea why his own genius lies in imitating animals. “I don’t know what happened to me,” he says. “I think I was dropped on the floor.”