Badass Baritone

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    He is a manly man, and he has a manly voice to prove it.

    A character of this sort must fulfill two criteria:

    1. The character must be a badass.
    2. The character must have a deep voice of baritone register. Bass register is also possible but is rarer and almost always overlaps with being evil.

    Such a character may range from Cool Old Guy to Testosterone Poisoning. Such characters are frequently supporting roles, such as The Lancer.

    See also Evil Sounds Deep, Guttural Growler, Power Makes Your Voice Deep. Contrast Tenor Boy.

    Examples of Badass Baritone include:

    Anime and Manga


    Film

    • Miles Gloriosus from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, especially in the movie.
    • Many incarnations of Batman have him lowering his voice while in costume to sound more menacing.
    • Christopher Lee sometimes plays this when he isn't playing villains.
      • His voice is perfect when he plays the Discworld role of Death, since Terry Pratchett has always described Death's voice being deep and foreboding like the slamming of a coffin lid.
    • Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Darth Vader is the more villainous example, but he's still one of the most badass villains on the screen.
      • As a rule, though, anytime Samuel L. Jackson is in the film's cast, expect his character to be one of these.
    • Optimus Prime.
    • Riddick from the The Chronicles of Riddick series.
    • Any character played by Ron Perlman.
    • Kevin Grevioux has an unnaturally deep voice, which led many people watching his character Raze in Underworld to assume it has been altered in some way. He's also a Genius Bruiser, having degrees in microbiology and genetic engineering and having come up with the idea for the movie in the first place.
    • Mufasa.
    • Severus Snape.


    Literature

    • Aral Vorkosigan of the Vorkosigan Saga has a "scratchy" baritone, as does his Retired Badass father.
    • Earl Thorfinn, aka Macbeth from Dorothy Dunett's King Hereafter has a voice constantly described as "subterranean."
    • Harry Dresden of The Dresden Files.
      • Also, Sanya. Knight of the Cross, and the only person manly enough to make Dresden feel inadequate, being roughly of a height with Dresden and muscle-bound enough to make Michael, who is notably strong, look puny, whereas Harry is all wiry muscle.
    • Bahzell Bahnakson in David Weber's War God series.
    • Every Chaos Marine in Throne of Lies speaks in an unusually low voice, but Xarl, The Squad's resident Blood Knight, is noticeably deeper.
    • Derek Sagan of the Star of the Guardians by Margaret Weis has a deep baritone.
    • DEATH from the Discworld is described as having a voice like a lead coffin lid slamming,even if his voice is more felt than heard.


    Live Action TV

    • Castiel. Also, Jensen Ackles noticeably starts using a deeper voice in any extended conversation with him. It's like they're trying to out-badass each other. Misha Collins has said that he regrets it- he thought he would only be a guest star and was just trying to sound Badass, but when he was brought back to be a major supporting character he was forced to keep it, and finds using the voice so much to be annoying, difficult and mildly painful.

    Misha Collins: So in the first episode that Castiel shows up in, um — he's trying to communicate with Dean, and in so doing, his voice, his angelic voice, is exploding television sets and breaking windows — and so I, consummate guest star that I am, thought - oh, you know, I'm gonna do this [deepens voice], really deep, gravelly, commanding, kickass, kind of window-breaking voice... And I may be running into medical problems now.

    • City Confidential narrator Paul Winfield, and his successor, Keith David.
    • Shepherd Book from Firefly.
    • Mason Makoola from Pair of Kings, although he is a bass.
    • Sherlock Holmes himself. You could mistake Benedict Cumberbatch for Alan Rickman if you had your eyes closed.
    • Skins: Gen 1's Sid, to some extent. His baritone next to Tony's tenor certainly evens the playing field.
    • The Fourth Doctor from Doctor Who.


    Theatre

    • Charlie Anderson from The Musical adaptation of Shenandoah.
    • Count Carl-Magus in A Little Night Music is certainly a manly man, if conceited and stupid, with a distinct baritone voice.
    • Wotan in Richard Wagner's Der Ring Des Nibelungen. He's a bass-baritone, the ruler of the Gods, and he even has an eyepatch.
    • Pick a Verdi baritone role. Any of them. Good guy or villain, all badass.
      • Meta-example: any baritone who can sing Verdi automatically qualifies. Rare though they may be, "Verdi Baritones" make ordinary baritones cower in fear.
      • If basses count, Sparafucile from Rigoletto. Assassin AND a man of honour. He never double-crosses anyone.
    • Don Giovanni. He's THE MAN.
    • Vanderdecken in Der fliegende Holländer—manly, dark, mysterious, bass-baritone.
    • Escamillo from Carmen. You know, the guy who sings that impossibly hammy song about how cool toreros are.
    • Les Misérables: Inspector Javert. Baritone or bass-baritone required, and he's badass enough to have his own trope. (Ask Patron-Minette how he arrested seven armed bandits plus a Mama Bear (who counts herself as two) alone.)
      • Enjolras is also played by a baritone and, as charismatic leader of the Friends of the ABC, qualifies.
    • Sweeney Todd. Also The Judge.
    • Macheath in The Threepenny Opera
    • Depending on the actor, The Phantom of the Opera (the role has been played by both tenors and baritones).
    • The indisputably badass Beast from Beauty and the Beast is a solid baritone role, as is the equally badass (though much more arrogant about it) villain Gaston.


    Video Games


    Western Animation


    Real Life

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