On Thursday, January 5, 2023, American actor and voice actor Earl Boen died in Hawaii. Boen has voiced numerous notable personalities in video games and did the intro for the races in World of Warcraft.
Who is the speaker? Earl Boen was an American actor best known for his role as Dr. Peter Silberman found fame in Terminator, Terminator 2 and Terminator 3. But his journey also brought him into the world of video games.
In gaming, his voice is likely to be familiar to World of Warcraft fans when playing in English. There Boen spoke as “narrator” the intros of all peoples cinematics up to and including Legion and the pit lord Magtheridon in The Burning Crusade.
Boen was also the voice of King Terenas Menethil II (title picture), father of the future Lich King Arthas. As such, he can still be heard in the iconic Icecrown Citadel ending cinematic, which will be playable in WotLK Classic in the future:
“No King Rules Forever” – The end cinematic of Icecrown Citadel in WoW WotLK
Boen also worked on the famous Monkey Island series. Here he spoke about the zombie pirate LeChuck. Other of his roles and voiceovers include:
You can find all of Earl Boen’s roles on his IMDB entry.
As Variety reports, Boen was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer in late 2022. He died in Hawaii on January 5, the exact circumstances of his death are not known. Boen was married with one daughter and two grandchildren.
On reddit, fans commemorate him with some of his iconic voice lines, reminding them that “no king reigns forever.” His voice always hit the right mood for the situation.
Boen was 81 years old.