The actor best known for his role in Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi classic was a leading Shakespearean in his native Canada and also played on Broadway
Douglas Rain, the Canadian actor best known as the voice of ship’s Hal 9000 computer in the Stanley Kubrick sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey, has died aged 90. Rain died from natural causes in hospital in Ontario.
Rain was not the first actor cast in the part. Kubrick had originally asked Martin Balsam to provide the computer’s voice, but changed his mind at the last minute, explaining in a 1969 interview that “Marty just sounded a little bit too colloquially American, whereas Rain had the kind of bland mid-Atlantic accent we felt was right for the part”.
Douglas Rain, the Canadian actor best known as the voice of ship’s Hal 9000 computer in the Stanley Kubrick sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey, has died aged 90. Rain died from natural causes in hospital in Ontario.
Rain was not the first actor cast in the part. Kubrick had originally asked Martin Balsam to provide the computer’s voice, but changed his mind at the last minute, explaining in a 1969 interview that “Marty just sounded a little bit too colloquially American, whereas Rain had the kind of bland mid-Atlantic accent we felt was right for the part”.
- 11/12/2018
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
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