Huge Celebrities You Never Realized Were In Video Games

Video games rely on a dedicated pool of voice actors. Play any video game, and odds are at least one character will be voiced by someone like Grey DeLisle, Steve Blum, Troy Baker, or Jennifer Hale. These vocal thespians have a ton of range and have played everything from starring roles to "Random Enemy Soldier #15." But, sometimes familiar faces from Hollywood play these kinds of roles, too.

Live-action celebrities voicing video game characters is nothing new. It's a long-standing tradition, but usually studios (or at least marketing departments) make a big deal about it. Patrick Stewart's role as Uriel Septim VII was a major part of the advertising campaign for "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion," and the same was true for Mark Hamill's roles in "Darksiders," "Batman: Arkham Asylum," and the original release of "Yakuza." However, sometimes celebrities sneak into the voice casts of video games. Maybe you barely recognize them in these roles, or perhaps these voice acting gigs ironically predate the actor's celebrity status. Either way, most audiences probably won't realize famous actors in these video game roles without someone pointing it out.

While many actors fill a wide range of roles, others are typecast. Jason Statham, for instance, is often cast as characters who are as togh as they are British. Michael Fassbender is another example of actors who take on similar roles, since he tends to play villains, even when he isn't live on screen. 

Fassbender has been in a plethora of shows and films. One of his first roles was Burton Christenson in "Band of Brothers," but his most important one was the award-winning role as Steve Jobs in the "Steve Jobs" movie. However, most audiences probably know Fassbender for his villainous characters, such as Magneto in "X-Men: First Class" and David in "Prometheus."

Fassbender has only played two video game characters in his career, one of whom wasn't actually in a video game. In the live adaptation of "Assassin's Creed," Fassbender portrayed Cal Lynch/Aguilar, who was made exclusively for the movie and is otherwise disconnected from the game franchise. Fassbender's sole video game role truly belongs to the "evil" King Logan from "Fable 3." While Fassbender wasn't the only celebrity in the game (Ben Kingsley played Sabine and John Cleese voiced the butler Jasper), Fassbender was barely recognizable in this part.

Not all celebrities are famous for on-screen performances. Many make a name for themselves for working behind the scenes to produce movie magic. In the age of CGI and mocap, few can match Andy Serkis.

Serkis has brought countless CGI characters to life, including King Kong in Peter Jackson's "King Kong" and Caesar in the "Planet of the Apes" reboot trilogy (he won awards for both). But, Serkis is more than just a motion capture suit maestro. He played Ulysses Klaue in "Avengers: Age of Ultron," "Black Panther," and "Marvel's What If...?," and achieved worldwide acclaim for embodying Gollum in the "Lord of the Rings" movies.

While Serkis won't voice Gollum in the upcoming "Lord of the Rings: Gollum" game, he still has quite a bit of video game experience. Of course, he did voice Gollum in older "Lord of the Rings" games, but Serkis also portrayed The Inquisitor in "Risen" and Guy Gisbourne in "Volume." However, Serkis' biggest video game contributions were collaborations with Ninja Theory. He performed motion capture for "Enslaved: Odyssey to the West," and he also co-wrote and co-directed "Heavenly Sword." Serkis also voiced Monkey and Pyramid in the former and King Bohan in the latter. Most recently, Serkis played Grand Master Vardan Kai in "Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters."

Some actors have recognizable voices, and even though they can fill a scene with emotion, one can only hear the actor, not the character, when they speak. Other actors, however, have range and slip into a variety of roles without compromising a character's identity. Alan Tudyk is the latter.

Tudyk is essentially nerd/geek culture royalty. He got his big break as Hoban "Wash" Washburne in "Firefly," which was followed by Steve the Pirate in "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story." Unlike some celebrities, though, Tudyk is at home both playing characters live and voicing them in animated roles. He's voiced numerous award-winning characters, including King Candy in "Wreck-It Ralph" and K-2SO in "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story." Tudyk also has quite a few video game roles, as well.

A good chunk of Tudyk's video game gigs involved reprising movie roles, namely K-2SO. But, Tudyk also stepped out of his past portrayals for several video game voices. For instance, Tudyk played a random marine in "Halo 3" and was promoted to voicing Michael "Mickey" Crespo in "Halo 3: ODST." Two of Tudyk's recurring video game roles include Simon from the "Defense Grid" games and Green Arrow from "Injustice." Tudyk would go on to also voice Green Arrow in the "Young Justice" TV series.

Despite the sheer clout celebrities carry, you usually can count their video game roles on one hand. Even the movie titan Jack Black has only been in five video games. However, a truly talented celebrity always leaves their mark on what few video game roles they own.

Martin Sheen is one of the most recognizable actors out there. He has given life to characters such as Captain Benjamin Willard in "Apocalypse Now" (one of his favorite roles, despite experiencing a heart attack while filming), the award-winning President Josiah Bartlet in "The West Wing," and Robert Hanson in "Grace and Frankie." While Sheen has been in hundreds of TV shows and movies, he only has two notable voice acting roles to his name, one of which is Sly Sludge from "Captain Planet and the Planeteers."

Sheen's other noteworthy voice role was his sole video game gig: The Illusive Man in "Mass Effect 2" and "3." Many gamers agree that The Illusive Man is one of the best realized villains in video games, and while much of that came down to his dialogue and actions, Sheen brought all of those to life with his voice. Without Martin Sheen, the Illusive Man would probably be another footnote in video game villainy instead of a hallmark.

Sometimes, all it takes is a single line to solidify a character and their actor in the minds of audiences. That is especially true for Sean Bean. 

Anyone who has either seen "The Lord of the Rings" or has spent time on the internet should instantly recognize Bean as Boromir. However, there is more to Bean than saying "One does not simply walk into Mordor," even though Bean loved Boromir's death scene. He won several awards for his role as Eddard "Ned" Stark in the first season of "Game of Thrones," and Bean also played Joseph Wilford in "Snowpiercer," and Ulrich in "Black Death."

Unlike other "Lord of the Rings" actors, Bean didn't reprise his role of Boromir in tie-in games, but he still has plenty of video game experience. His first role was Martin Septim in "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion," which was later followed by several guiding gigs. Anyone who has played "Papa Sangre II," "Kholat," or "Civilization VI" should recognize Bean as their respective narrators. "Hitman 2" and "3" fans should also identify Bean as Mark Faba, who no doubt died at their hands countless times. And, while not a video game role per se, Bean also voiced King Regis Lucis Caelum in the "Final Fantasy 15" tie-in movie "Kingsglaive."

Every celebrity needs to start somewhere, and just because someone premiers in one medium, doesn't mean they will stick to it. Johnny Young Bosch, for instance, earned a name for himself as a Power Ranger before he became a full-time voice actor in anime and video games. Cara Delevigne, meanwhile, was the opposite. She was Sergeant Laureline in "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets," June Moone/Enchantress in "Suicide Squad" (one of her award-winning roles), and Vignette Stonemoss in "Carnival Row." While Delevigne has primarily stuck to live action, that wasn't always true.

In an ironic twist, one of Delevigne's first acting roles was in "Grand Theft Auto 5" and "Grand Theft Auto Online." She doesn't voice a character players get to meet (or kill) but is instead the voice of Non-Stop-Pop FM. If players tune in to that in-game radio station, they will eventually hear Delevigne chime in and introduce herself as, well, Cara (and occasionally DJ Cara). Given Delevigne's recent successes, it's shame she hasn't revisited video game voice acting.