Bodo Wolf was born on August 18, 1944 and initially caused a stir as an actor. In the former GDR he appeared in front of the camera for countless films and series – especially from the DEFA fairytale films “Snow White and Rose Red” and “The Prince Behind the Seven Seas”, many people who grew up with these films will probably know him. After his escape to West Germany, he appeared regularly in “Liebling Kreuzberg” from the second season onwards and played roles in several other West German series. But he celebrated his greatest successes as a speaker in the early 1990s.
Wolf put on radio plays and spoke audio books to music and, above all, became one of the most sought-after German voice actors. Wolf was recently the German voice of, among other things Christopher Walken, Richard Jenkins And Alan Alda. From the mid-2000s he also replaced Peer Augustinski as the German voice of Robin Williams.
The Bodo Wolf figures – from Jigsaw to Joker
Wolf also spoke regularly with Tony Shalhoub, among others – for example in his cult TV role as a quirky researcher in the hit series ‘Monk’. It is not the only character who had a decisive influence on Wolf for a German audience. He also provided the voice of Bryan Cranston’s Hal in “Malcolm in the Middle” and of course Jigsaw.
After voicing Tobin Bell a few times before, Wolf was chosen to voice his diabolically sadistic killer in the surprise horror hit “Saw.” He was also hired for all subsequent films. Although Wolf had recently taken a well-deserved retirement, only appeared in a few productions in 2022 and was replaced as spokesperson by lawyer Clifford Main in the final season of ‘Better Call Saul’, he did not miss the opportunity to do so. to return to this role.
He could already be heard again in the German trailer for the upcoming “Saw X” (theatrical release: November 30, 2023, see also our article image). As German distributor StudioCanal confirmed to us when we asked, they also dubbed the film. So it will be the last time that we will hear Bodo Wolf, who has now passed away at the age of 79, in a new project.
There will also be many old projects that fans can enjoy again and again thanks to his voice. This applies not only to film and series fans, but also to video game fans. Because Wolf regularly voiced the Joker in several ‘Batman’ games – and did so well that he became the world’s best Joker voice actor Mark Hamill created competition.
Besides, to many synchronous casting decision makers, Wolf’s voice seemed like the perfect choice to portray American presidents. Not only did he call William Sadler the US President in Marvel’s “Iron Man 3”, Peter Strauss the US President in “xXx 2”, Perry King the US President in “The Day After Tomorrow” and Cotter Smith the US President. in “X-Men 2”, Alan Dale as US President in “Homeland” or Victor Garber as Vice President in “Big Game”.
No, he narrated the German voices several times when real American presidents were incorporated into archive footage in films – such as George W. Bush in “Green Zone”, “Fair Game” or “Into The Wild”, George Bush Sr. in “ An Inconvenient Truth” or Bill Clinton in “Maybe, Maybe Not”, “Die Hard 4.0” or “The Human Flaw”.