Tony Todd dies aged 69, Voice Of Venom, horror legend

Tony Todd has tragically died at the age of 69, a legendary figure in the industry whose work ranged from horror icon to voicing a famous character in one of the biggest games of 2023. A cause of death was not announced.

Todd is best known for his role as the central killer in the Candyman series, but has also appeared in The Crow, The Rock, Final Destination and Platoon, and played Kurn, Worf’s brother, in Star “Trek: The Next Generation”.

Todd also has had a long career as a voice actor, playing characters in “Masters of the Universe,” “Half Life: Alex,” and “Justice League Dark.” Most recently, however, he was the voice of Venom in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, which featured the symbiote, and Todd was also the voice when the creature completely took over for Harry Osborne in the game. In 2023, he spoke about the character’s voice and how he handled it:

“They had to be understandable and he had to have a goal and see it through. I come from the theater. I have a master’s degree in theater, so I take any job, whether it’s voice acting, TV, film, as a well-crafted script and we just went with the flow. For me, Venom was fun and I wanted to make sure there was a joyful quality to its destruction.”

“A joyful quality in its destruction,” what a sentence. There’s another quote of his about the voice of Venom that, given the current context, can actually bring tears to your eyes:

“He’s only here on Earth for a short time and then will move on somewhere else, so I wanted to make sure he left that impression of joy, tenacity and deliciousness.”

Todd later said that Insomniac only used about 10% of the dialogue he recorded, leading to speculation that much of it was saved for a Venom spin-off game. One such project was recently leaked in an Insomniac hack, although the studio has since discovered that Spider-Man 2 would not be receiving DLC. But a standalone Miles Morales-style Venom game might not count as one of them, and at least in theory, it’s possible that a Venom game with Todd’s voice actually exists at some point. Insomniac obviously wouldn’t use this tragic moment to announce this, but it’s a real question and would touch on some of the actor’s recent work.

Todd was clearly an amazing man, and countless actors and media outlets, particularly in the world of horror, mourned him following his death. Best thoughts to his family and friends at this time.

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