Unveiling the Brilliance: Exploring the Enigmatic Career of Arthur Burghardt
Story By Mitchell Smith
Hello everyone. Today we take a look at legendary voice actor Arthur Burghardt, born in 1947 in New York City. Burghardt is a humble man who lives a private life. Burghardt has had many rolls over the years including original GI Joe’s Destro, Stalker, and Iceberg. He brought a powerful voice to Destro and really developed the character into one of the most popular characters in the Joe lineup.
Along with GI Joe, Burghardt voiced Devastator for the Transformers, Venom in Ultimate Spider-Man and various other voices over the years for cartoons like Scooby Doo, Ghostbusters, and Tom & Jerry kids. Burghardt also was a main character on the day time soap opera One Life to Live, along with minor rolls in shows such as Diff’rent Strokes, Knots Landing, Santa Barbara, Hill Street Blues, The Jeffersons, and many others. Burghardt did have rolls in films like Network, A Rage in Harlem, and Killjoy his last movie in 2000. Burghardt also was the voice on many video games like The World of Warcraft and Monsters Inc.
When asked in an interview in 2022 while appearing at the Retro-Toy Con Burghardt said his favorite character to play was Destro. He said it was fun playing a villain and I think I speak for all Joe fans his voice is forever Destro. He was such a powerful character alongside the original voice of Cobra Commander Christopher Collins and The Baroness Morgan Lofting. It is no wonder why the original show was so successful and maybe the reason there have not been any recent animated shows. Honestly who would want to compete with such great talent and take the flack of not living up to such legends as Arthur Burghardt. Have a great week everyone.
