Friday 16 November 2018

Obituary: Douglas Rain (HAL 9000)

DouglasRainStratford.jpg
Photo: By Source Fair use

One of the most distinctive voices of cinema over the years was Douglas Rain who provided the vocals for HAL 9000 in the epic science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey, one of the greatest films ever made. Certainly one of my all time favourites.

Marvel Comics published an oversized, Treasury adaptation of the film which spawned a short lived series and led to the creation of yet another computer with feelings that remains part of the Marvel Universe today. Machine Man.

 

The Daily Telegraph reported that:

According to the sound engineers present Rain did the recordings with his bare feet resting on a pillow, in order to maintain the required tone - the "unctuous, patronising, neuter quality" Kubrick was looking for.

It seems fitting that his on screen performance of the "deactivating role" he played in the film which was described by critics " as one of the most harrowing on screen death scenes is shown below as a tribute to someone who in his native Canada was actually a Shakespearean actor.


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