Joe Siegler as the voice of Duke Nukem

TheMuseumCurator

#1 Posted 14 June 2021 - 07:17 PM

Granted we really only have one performance, in fact, one line to judge the man by? "I'M... BACK!" What made them not just let Joe play the character in Duke 3D, given he had voiced him in the game before? I honestly never even knew it wasn't Jon St. John when I played Duke II as a kid. Maybe the fact Joe wasn't a professional voice artist & spent most of his time on a Black Sabbath fan website anyways? I'd love to hear other's thoughts about Siegler's one take on Duke & why St. John eventually got the gig. It's probably like a Brian Cox versus Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter thing. The first guy to do it wasn't "BAD" per se, but there's a reason his replacement is way more iconic as that character.

Ninety-Six

#2 Posted 15 June 2021 - 09:32 AM

At a guess, it was probably a combination of JSJ being a professional voice actor vs. some guy, and then the infamous George filter. He seemed to have a very specific idea of what Duke should be like, and what JSJ gave them is what he was looking for.

ck3D

#3 Posted 15 June 2021 - 10:02 AM

Jon St. Jon touches on the history behind his role in this interview, although it doesn't necessarily explore the reasoning behind the change but yeah, we can easily imagine they wanted an actual voice actor for Duke 3D. Interesting how he wasn't aware of how popular the game had become up until into the 2000's:

(And then he goes on with a take on how modern Duke should be presented that I think would totally fail under every aspect, although he really isn't wrong about the potential of some modernization of the franchise per se, his specific idea would most likely destroy all the subtlety of the Duke universe - that he might not even be aware of. But that's totally cool since he's just the voice actor whose power over the general direction I'd assume is restricted to how deeply he feels like claiming BALLS OF STEEL that day.)

This post has been edited by ck3D: 15 June 2021 - 12:31 PM

DNSKILL5

Honored Donor

#4 Posted 15 June 2021 - 10:59 AM

For Duke II, all he had to do is say "I'm back", and some screaming and grunting. They wanted a voice that mimicked Arnold Schwarzenegger's tone when delivering a similar line, and Joe Siegler's impression likely sounded the best out of others at the office so they used him to voice Duke, if he wasn't, it would've been someone else in from Apogee because hiring a professional voice actor for such few lines wouldn't have made sense. Joe could've possibly been who voiced Duke in DN3D before JSJ was hired, but it would've likely been very little more than one or two temp lines and some screams and grunts, none that would've been intended for use in the final game. They didn't even add the voice as it is in the final game until very close to release of the shareware from what I've read.

LakiSoft

#5 Posted 22 June 2021 - 09:18 AM

Great Interview! I enjoyed watching it especially when JSJ said he could talk like Duke all day.

Joe3DR

3D Realms Staff

#6 Posted 05 June 2022 - 05:55 PM

TheMuseumCurator, on 14 June 2021 - 07:17 PM, said:

There was some brief discussion of having me do it but once we realized how big a deal Duke’s voice was going to be in the game it requires pro voice talent. As a small time thing or a single sentence here and there I’m fine. But no way would Dike have. Even as successful if they went with me as Duke’s main voice in Duke3D.

I hold no regrets or any negative feelings. JSJ is glorious.