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Sad News: Roy Dotrice Passed Away


Stryder the Blackheart

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So I turn on my PC, go to Yahoo to check my e-mail (*don't judge me lol), and I see a picture of Roy Dotrice as  Hallyne the Pyromancer. The subtitle reads Game of Thrones and Guinness Record Holder. So I click on it hoping to  hear that he will begin or had finished dubbing the audio-book for Winds of Winter, instead I read sadly he had passed away.  Needless to say I was crushed, being as though the only way I made it through ASOIAF books 1-5; The Companion books  The World of Ice and Fire, The Princess and the Queen, and The Rouge Prince, all thanks to Roy Dotrice. I think most  people will gladly admit that reading each and every book in this series is a daunting task, and yet the audio-books  made it so much easier, and (if I do say so myself) much more enjoyable. He did an amazing job narrating a doing all  the voice to really make the characters come alive. Most of the voice he did for certain characters was uncannily  similar to that of those eventually cast in the TV Series. Such as Tyrion, Tywin, Stannis, Grand Maester Pycelle,  Baelish, and last but not less Hodor*.

  • Tyrion: He made sound like a brash, sarcastic, womanizer, clever, unwilling, strategist.
  • Tywin: He made sound like a stern, authoritarian, harden, and ruthless figure, which precisely how Charles Dance  eventually Portrayed him on screen.
  • Stannis: He made sound like a strict, militant, humorless, determined, unbending, with a rigid sense of justice.
  • Pycelle: Just the old, meek, frailty he made him sound was definitely funny to hear.
  • Baelish: From the first time I heard the voice without even someone saying his I knew it was Petyr Baelish. That  sly, conniving, strategic sound is how Aidan Gillien played him.
  • Hodor: What else can I say but "Hodor!" lol

I saddens me that I watched mostly all major TV News networks and no mention of Roy Dotrice passing on any of them,  not evening on the News ticker bar. For someone who's career span more than 5 decades, stared in the role of Mozart  in one of the most highly awarded films of all times, barely any mention of him passing. Maybe it's just happen  because it was overshadow by another story. With all that's been going on in the world, its hard to say. Or do News  organizations like to pick and choose what they deem more important based on what will draw more ratings, maybe.  Usually when kind of thing happens, someone else of notoriety or more famous died just before and take precedent in  the new coverage, like when Groucho Marx died 3 days after Elvis Presley (thank you creepy film critic from The  Devils Rejects),  or like when John Hurt died the same day as Mary Tyler Moore. Everyone talked about how much of a  trailblazer Mary Tyler Moore was for women and what her show did for women right in the work place. Okay I get that  but that was news for about 2 weeks, with almost zero coverage on John Hurt passing and when they did it was almost  a afterthought with a quick film montage and farewell. I'm sorry for going off the rails the point is I'm pissed  about Roy Dotrice passing. Not to mention who's gonna finished dubbing the audio books of ASOIAF. Nobody on this earth can fill his shoes. There are very few people that I won't mind hearing in his place, and that is maybe Ian Glenn, and Tim Roth. Both of whom done previous work in the series, but neither has been able to capture that magic or do the voices quite like Roy Dotrice. Give me your thoughts on your favorite voice, moments or battle sequence, by Roy Dotrice.

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RIP Roy Dotrice - very sad news.  I enjoyed (and was frankly impressed by the achievement) his reading of ASOIF.  Yes, some pronunciations and accents were quirky, but overall very impressive and I enjoyed my listen to the books that I had read a couple of times at that point.  As someone from the UK, I found it interesting seeing which accents he picked for which characters.

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That is too bad. I am a big fan of the audiobooks. His ability to create so many distinctive voices was amazing. From his bio, it appears that he worked on the Beauty and the Beast tv show, for which GRRM was a writer, I believe. I wonder if that connection resulted in his being hired for the narration job? A sad loss for us all, but his work will live on.

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Very sad, he really did a great job with the series. To this day whenever I read a Tyrion chapter his voice is always in my head. I believe he even set some world record when it came to words read for an audio series or something. He'll be missed for Winds and whatever book(s) come after that. I fully agree he is an irreplaceable member to this franchise.

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18 hours ago, Foot_Of_The_King said:

I've read articles where people were bashing his reading of the series. I was floored by that. What more could you want?

I have a few quibbles with how he pronounces some of the names, but I think that happens with most any book series.  We all pronounce things differently in our heads, and particularly if someone read the series before listening then of course there are going to be some differences.  Especially with a series with the scope and amount of characters as this one.  

I don't think many people could have done as good a job with this series as he did.  Someone has some mighty big shoes to fill.  No offense to John Lee, I like his voice, but he doesn't get the cadence of GRRM's writing....It just feels all wrong.  I hope it's not him.

Cheers to a great life/and myriad accomplishments Roy!  R.I.P.

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So sad. I've actually listened only to the audiobooks without ever physically reading the written books, and I still do regularly. When I looked up Roy Dotrice's age a while ago I already thought he might not be alive for the end of the series, and how weird it would be to have someone else read the next books. Also crushed that I didn't read about it anywhere but here...

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