You don’t see him first. You hear him first. While it’s possible, given my age, that I saw him first as Keith the Handyman in Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood—an image I have to share with you because of course I do—I first noticed him as Goliath in Gargoyles. And of course he was Spawn. And he was the only possible choice for Dr. Facilier. (Apparently those are his own three favourite voice roles!) He’s voiced a lot more PBS shows than IMDb credits him with, given it’s one of their consistent blind spots. And that’s even given that most of his “self” TV appearances are as “narrator.”

Picture two-year-old baby Keith David, already wanting to be an actor. Picture him playing the Cowardly Lion as a child and determining that this is what he wants to do with his life. If that’s not the most adorable image you’ve had today, well, you need to share what’s cuter. He went to Julliard, even. This is a man who’s known what he wanted to do simply forever. And I admire him for it. Good on him, genuinely, for loving what he does and for making it in his field.

I can’t always get my kids to recognize who I’m writing about. Some of the people we cover, even I barely know, especially when we’re getting into specialty months. But while my kids don’t know his name, they definitely know his voice. I’m honestly a little disappointed that they never got him for Trollhunters; he would’ve been beautiful on it. As he is beautiful on everything, of course. My son is even pretty sure he knows David’s face, thought that’s in part because my son is my son and gets basically taught Voice Actor 101.

Now, I’m sure at least part of why he’s more famous as a voice actor is that he has a seriously amazing voice. IMDb compares it to Orson Welles; you could also throw James Earl Jones in there. That kind of deep, rich tone that you instinctively want to believe when it tells you things. He’s done a lot of on-screen acting, but even there, you think of his voice at least as much as you think of his face. He’s talented at voice acting, which is a separate skill from on-screen acting, but his voice is so rich and warm that we’d probably love him at it regardless.

All that said, I’m intrigued by his ability as a stage actor. Living in Olympia, you’ll be unsurprised to know that I don’t get to see a lot of actors of his level of fame on the stage. But early in his career, he toured in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and now, I’m thinking of him as Oberon. He’s of an age to play Lear, too, come to that, and he’d be a really good Lear. He’s played Paul Robeson, which is pretty much perfect casting. I could see him as heroes and villains and simply the tragically flawed; he’s a great actor. Who is still really happy that you think of him as Goliath.

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