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Terry McGovern (actor)

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Terry McGovern
Born
Terence McGovern

(1942-05-11) May 11, 1942 (age 82)
Occupations
  • Actor
  • television broadcaster
  • radio personality
  • acting instructor
Years active1965–present
Spouse
Molly McGovern
(m. 1967)
Children2
Websitewww.terrymcgovern.com

Terence McGovern (born May 11, 1942)[1] is an American actor, television broadcaster, radio personality and acting instructor. He is best known as the original voice of Disney character Launchpad McQuack from DuckTales and spin-off Darkwing Duck. He was also elected into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame as a member of its Class of 2008.[2]

Career

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McGovern was schooled at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh with a double major in journalism and English, and later studied acting with Stella Adler and Milton Katselas. McGovern worked at KDKA radio and KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh from 1965 to 1969, leaving for KSFO in San Francisco during the summer of 1969. At age 30, McGovern traveled to Los Angeles, California, to further pursue his entry into acting. He started his career in films with George Lucas, in Lucas' inaugural film, THX 1138. It was on this film that Terry created the word Wookiee. According to Lucas in a 1977 Rolling Stone interview, he stated: " We were riding along in the car one day and he (Terry) said: 'I think I ran over a Wookiee back there,' and this really cracked me up and I said, 'What is a Wookiee?' and he said, 'I don’t know, I just made it up.'"[3][4][5]

Lucas and McGovern continued their work together in the 1970s classics American Graffiti and Star Wars. McGovern played the role of the young high school teacher Mr. Bill Wolfe in American Graffiti, and in Star Wars he provided voice-overs for various personalities of the Empire. In 1993, he appeared in Mrs. Doubtfire, playing a voiceover director who argues with Daniel Hillard during the opening scene. McGovern also appeared in Back to the Future in a deleted scene as the McFlys' neighbor, who pressures George into buying an entire case of peanut brittle to help fund his daughter's Little League team.[citation needed]

McGovern played Jim Coyle in the CBS series Charlie & Co. and has helped to create hundreds of television and radio commercials. McGovern starred in Walt Disney’s animated series DuckTales and Darkwing Duck as the characters Launchpad McQuack and Babyface Beagle (only as Launchpad in Darkwing Duck). On theatrical stages, McGovern has had roles ranging from musical comedies to Shakespeare.

Since 1999, McGovern has voiced "Dan Stevens", fictional play-by-play announcer, for the NFL 2K series of sports video games, alongside voice actor Jay Styne (as "Peter O' Keefe"). Both have provided their voices for all seven games in the series, the last being the unlicensed All-Pro Football 2K8. Critics have praised McGovern and Styne's commentary as a great alternative to sports video games featuring real commentary teams.[6]

McGovern is an instructor of commercial and character voice and scene and monologue acting, and he contributes to the College of Marin with his expertise. He taught script writing and the history of broadcast announcing for the University of San Francisco. He is also the artistic director of The Marin Actors' Workshop, which he founded. He published a poetry booklet entitled Rod McCroon's Look at the Loud, which is a parody of Listen to the Warm by Rod McKuen. The poetry was presented to his KSFO audience.

Since 2012, he has hosted the weekend morning show on Boss Boss Radio. The internet radio station plays the Top 40 hits of the Boss Radio era, 1964 thru 1980.[7]

Personal life

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McGovern and his wife Molly have two sons, Brendan and Anthony,[8][9] and they live in Marin County, California.

Selected filmography

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Film

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Television

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Video games

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Year Title Role Notes
1990 DuckTales: The Quest for Gold Launchpad McQuack
1997 Lego Island Bill Ding, Studs Linkin, Radio Guy
Curse of Monkey Island, The Capt. Blondebeard, Gruff
1998 Star Wars Trilogy Arcade Admiral Ackbar, Controller, Rebel B
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron Crix Madine, Wes Janson
1999 Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance Admiral Ackbar, Rebel Pilot 2
Star Wars Episode I: Racer Bozzie Baranta, Ratts Tyerell
Rising Zan: The Samurai Gunman Narrator, Gunman [11]
2000 Star Wars Math: Jabba's Game Galaxy Ratts Tyerell
X-Squad Soldiers
Star Wars: Jar Jar's Journey Adventure Book Graga, Clam
2002 Ty the Tasmanian Tiger Lenny the Lyre Bird
2004 ESPN NFL 2K5 Dan Stevens
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2 Lenny, Trader Bob
2005 Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 3: Night of the Quinkan Lenny the Lyre Bird
2006 The Godfather Al Neri
2007 Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space Santa Claus, the Spirits of Christmas
2010 Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse Elf Snowcone, Nicholas Saint Kringle
2011 Law & Order: Legacies Giles Bedford
2012 The Walking Dead Larry, Save-Lots Bandits, Gary
2013 DuckTales: Remastered Launchpad McQuack
The Wolf Among Us Johann the Butcher
2017 2064: Read Only Memories Keith

Broadcast history

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References

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  1. ^ "McGovern, Terence 1942–". Encyclopedia.com. Cengage. Retrieved May 10, 2022.
  2. ^ "Bay Area Radio Hall Of Fame - Class of 2008". bayarearadio.org. Archived from the original on May 18, 2018. Retrieved December 21, 2016.
  3. ^ Heilemann, Michael. "George Lucas Stole Chewbacca, But It's Okay". Binary Bonsai. Retrieved 2012-02-16.
  4. ^ "Star Wars: Origin of the Wookie - Mat Jarvis". microscopics.co.uk. Archived from the original on October 20, 2018. Retrieved December 21, 2016.
  5. ^ Folk, Bill. "Star Wars". terrymcgovern.com. Retrieved December 21, 2016.
  6. ^ GameSpot: The History of Football Games: The evolution of 2K, gamespot.com. Accessed 15 November 2022.
  7. ^ "Home - Boss Boss Radio". bossbossradio.com. Retrieved December 21, 2016.
  8. ^ "Terry McGovern Home Page".
  9. ^ Hjortsberg, William (2012). Jubilee Hitchhiker: The Life and Times of Richard Brautigan. Hjortsberg. ISBN 9780786486946.[permanent dead link]
  10. ^ "Star Wars". www.terrymcgovern.com. Retrieved 2024-05-05.
  11. ^ "Terry McGovern (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved 16 December 2021. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  12. ^ "Shadow of Memories (2001 Video Game)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  13. ^ "Shinobi (2002 Video Game)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved 9 September 2021. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
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