Joseph Sirola, an actor known as “The King of Voice-Overs”, has died. He was 89 years-old.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sirola died of complications stemming from respiratory failure at a rehabilitation hospital in New York City on Sunday.
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Sirola had a length career in entertainment, appearing in numerous films such as Strange Bedfellows, The Greatest Story Ever Told both from 1965 as well as Clint Eastwood’s Hang ‘Em High from 1968 and The Super Cops from 1974. On the small screen, Sirola appeared on The Andy Griffith Show and the original Hawaii Five-O, and The A-Team, among others, including a two-episode stint as Harrison Fynch on Wonder Woman. Marvel fans may best remember Sirola from his work as the voice of Doctor Doom on the Fantastic Four cartoon.
Off screen, Sirola also had a successful theater career. He stared in the 1968-69 hit Broadway musical Golden Rainbow as well as served as a producer for many other stage productions, winning a Tony Award in 2014 for the musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.
Sirola also found great success as the voice behind many popular commercials, such as Vicks Formula 44, Boar’s Head meats, and NyQuil. He also did voice over work for Wendy’s Mobil, General Electric, Ford, Hertz, and was the distinctive voice behind the “I Love New York” campaign during the Empire State Building Tour.
“I used the mic as a person,” he told Columbia College Today of his career. “I spoke to the audience rather than at them. I went from $3,200 a year to a million a year for 20 years.”
Born October 7, 1929, Sirola served in the Korean War and worked as a sales promotion manager at Kimberly-Clark before taking an acting class at age 28 that changed the trajectory of his career. Sirola is survived by his longtime companion Claire Gozzo, a daughter, three granddaughters, a goddaughter, a nephew, and two nieces.
