Voice actors you look up to

Wow, there so many I look up to that it would take a very long time to read them all as I believe there is something admirable about everyone who pursues voice acting.
If I had to narrow it down, it would be (in no particular order):

Males:
Crispin Freeman
Steve Blum
Todd Haberkorn
Vic Mignogna
Bryce Papenbrook
Justin Briner
J. Michael Tatum

Females:
Jodi Benson
Kira Buckland
Laura Bailey
Colleen Clinkenbeard
Cherami Leigh
Jeannie Tirado
Caitlin Glass

Too many to list off the top of my head. The ones in cartoons from my childhood, the ones in the anime and video games from both my adolescence, early adulthood, and now. The many I've met here over the last 9 months.

My inspirations over my life are many, but the motivator, the one who got me to finally take this seriously and the reason I'm here, in this community, right now, actively pursuing voice acting is sonicmega .
If I didn't find out about him: who he is, who he's voiced, and if I didn't come into contact with him when I did, I don't think I would've had the thought to pick myself up and pursue this line of work at all again. At least not in the volume of effort I put out this past year, which has far surpassed any of the other years I "tried" (a term I'm using extremely loosely).

I earnestly feel that I owe it to him become a good voice actor, so I don't waste the sheer amount of inspiration and motivation he granted me (in addition to my own reasons for pursuing it).

Garrison Keillor was one of the reasons I got into voice acting, but either I've grown past him or he's not as good as he once was.

When I was a kid, I would listen to his show every week with my mom, and we would laugh and bond over the stories and skits, and I used to imagine one day having a show like his, or even being in the right place to take over his show when he retired. For years I continued to listen whenever I could, but one day I realized that I wasn't enjoying it anymore. The show wasn't funny, and Keillor was not as talented as I thought. Listening to the show had become an obligation rather than a thing to enjoy. I came to that realization about ten years ago (after listening to the show for at least twenty years--sheesh, I'm getting old), and I don't really know when it stopped entertaining me, maybe it was a gradual thing, but I stopped listening then.

And now, after all these years, he's gotten caught up in this firestorm of men in media who have abused their power to sexually intimidate or abuse the women around him, and... It's hard to look up to any men in the industry right now, knowing how rampant and seemingly universal these types of problems have been. I'm afraid to look up to anyone, for fear that I'm looking up to another monster in disguise.

When I listen to my own narrations, I can still hear Keillor's influence on the way I tell stories, and especially the way I read poetry, and I'm okay with that. It's part of my style now, but I don't actively emulate him anymore, and I have no desire to have a show like his. I would be terrible at that anyhow.

Garrison Keillor is one of those voices that's easy for me to imitate, and fun, and soothing. We all grow beyond the emulation stage of looking up to people, and realize what we can learn from them without being a direct copy, picking and choosing what we like and what we don't, and can be more discerning.

As to the modern abuse crisis, I figure it this way: (AND I MUST STRESS THAT WE ALL MUST ALWAYS CONDEMN THE ABUSERS!) if a monster shows you something good that you can use, then you can learn the lesson from the good thing, and not raise the monster up on a pedestal.

Hitler (I know, I know, he is SO overused as an example, but he was, indeed a true monster) espoused kindness to animals.  That is a lesson that is good, regardless of the messenger carrying it. You can also advocate kindness to animals without adopting or advocating anything else he did.

Learning to paint beautifully from a man who turns out to be an axe murderer does not make YOUR paintings any less beautiful, nor the skill you learned invalid just because of the source.

Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Jeffrey Dahmer, Bill Cosby - they all probably taught people good skills, good things, good lessons. And they might feel tainted by the discovery of who the person was.

But I think that separating a skill you have learned from the person who taught it to you is acceptable, and logical. Respect for the skill you have learned does not mean you must respect the person who you learned it from.

Just be careful not to excuse ANY person's abusive behavior based on their accomplishments. That is the trap.

Cosby is an interesting example of this because I find it rather impossible to enjoy his comedy now, but the fact is, it was GOOD comedy. It is him that we find distasteful, due to his actions. But comedians who based their delivery off his, or learned from it should feel no shame.  They were unaware of what he was doing, and they were emulating a good skill.

It's a rather fine distinction and I know people who could/would argue the other way. I'm just presenting what I feel is a logical (albeit subjective) viewpoint.

EDIT: For frame of reference, I'm a small person. As a man who has long hair and is 5'6" and weighs 128lb, I get mistaken occasionally for a woman. I've been grabbed/accosted, and I don't really look anything like a woman on close examination (at least I don't THINK I do...) so, as creepy, alarming, and scary as it was for me, I can't imagine what women and girls have to put up with every day.  We MUST stop this and we must NOT tolerate it. Let me be clear: I am strong. I fought in tournaments a few years ago. I'm not in that kind of shape anymore but I can still outfight most normal people. I WAS SCARED AND SHOCKED, as a grown man. This isn't something you can expect a young girl to just "accept" or "laugh off." People need to quit being creeps.

Honestly anyone more successful than I am lol. I think striving to build up your Resume and compete to be the "best" is one of the biggest things that makes voice acting so fun!

There are several who I look up to. Sean Schemmel, Chris Sabat, Paul Dobson, Jim Cummings, Stephanie Nadolny, Kara Edwards, June Foray, Rob Paulsen, Cam Clarke, Scott McNeil, I can go on...

But there was one man who inspired me like no one else. That man is Peter Cullen.

As corny and cliche as this may sound, his work helped get through a few dark times when I was a kid, especially Optimus Prime (and yes, the 80's movie screwed me up big time... I'm just glad season 3 of the original G1 Transformers had a happier ending). Then after getting into voice acting and analyzing other VA's and their styles, Cullen just really stood out to me... I don't get why he's not doing more stuff outside of Transformers honestly. Don't get me wrong, him being the main choice, at time sonly choice, for Optimus Prime is fine by me... I don't get why Disney doesn't bring him back to do more stuff or why other companies like CN, Blizzard, Square-Enix, Naughty Dog and many others aren't trying to get his talents for their projects.

End of the day, Peter Cullen was my biggest inspiration to become a voice actor. Not only do I want to express myself as an artist, but I hope to help one, just ONE person with my art the same way Cullen did with thousands.

Scott Burns!  (www.bookscottburns.com) - my coach and friend.  I'm so very grateful for him, for his help and experience, for his generosity, and for what he has sown into my life!  Also Tim Tippets, Marc Scott, Tracy Lindlay, J Michael Collins, Paul Strikwerda, and more.