I’m a sucker for distinctive character actors who carve themselves a nice niche doing weird and dark roles.  Today is the birthday of another such actor: Clancy Brown!

If you haven’t seen Clancy (you have), you’ve certainly heard him: he’s done a seemingly endless collection of voice-overs for animated films, including the voice of Mr. Krabs in Spongebob Squarepants, the voice of Lex Luthor in the 1990’s Superman series, Mr. Freeze in the 2004 The Batman series, and Long Feng in my beloved Avatar: The Last Airbender, among others.

Most people would recognize him as the evil immortal Kurgan in the movie Highlander, as well as the corrupt prison guard Captain Hadley in The Shawshank Redemption.  He’s appeared on Lost, ER, and the short-lived Earth 2.

Finally, I’m looking forward to his turn in the upcoming animated Conan movie, Red Nails.  Happy birthday to Clancy Brown, and best wishes for future endeavors!