Mike McShane

Michael "Mike" McShane (born June 25, 1955 in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Roeland Park, Kansas) is an American actor, singer, and improvisational comedian who first became known through his appearances in the early 1990s on the British version of the television show Whose Line Is It Anyway?.

Biography
McShane had performed on stage, on television, and in film, and was an alumnus of Los Angeles Theatresports. One of his larger TV roles was as Kramer's nemesis Franklin Delano Romanowski (FDR) on Seinfeld. He also had a cameo role as a doomed hypnotherapist in the film Office Space and played as the friendly scientist, Professor Keenbean, in the 1994 movie Ri¢hie Ri¢h.

In 1995, McShane starred as Harley in the BBC Screen Two TV Movie Crazy For A Kiss, about a young boy who is sent to a mental institution for teenagers in Kansas. Touted as being somewhat biographical of McShane's childhood, the film has never been released on video or DVD. McShane appeared in Tom and Huck as Muff Potter and on Brotherly Love as the experienced but wisecracking mechanic, Lloyd.

He provided the voice for Cid in the video games Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2, and played Friar Tuck in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. He appeared in Tower of Terror, a TV movie based on the Disney attraction as "Q" along with Steve Guttenberg and Kirsten Dunst. He had also appeared with Tony Slattery in the comedy sketch show S&M, starred in the sitcom The Big One, and provided voice work in the anime Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, as D's sarcastic possessed left hand. He also provided the voice of Detective Twitch in the HBO animated series Spawn. Other voice work by McShane includes the characters of Tuck and Roll, the twin pill bugs in A Bug's Life and the video game of the same name in 1998,he also provided the voice of Shalulu in Disney's redub of Castle in the Sky.He also voiced the character of Baron Rakan Harkonnen in the 2002 strategy game Emperor: Battle for Dune.

He also voiced Marlon, Caracticus P. Doom and various other characters in Cosgrove Hall's Avenger Penguins, Rabbit's dastardly neighbour Wolf in Granada's Don't Eat the Neighbours, Thunderpig, several characters in Clerks: The Animated Series, Hands in the Disney film Treasure Planet, a Mountain Man in King of the Hill, Quozmir in Dave the Barbarian and Rumpelstiltskin in Happily N'Ever After.

He also narrated several episodes of Animated Tales of the World. In 2003 McShane underwent gastric bypass surgery, losing a significant amount of weight. In 2005 he made an appearance as Dr.Phelps in Malcolm in the Middle. In 2006 he was in a production of Talk Radio directed by Stewart Lee, with Stephen K. Amos, Phil Nichol. It was the first dramatic production in the Udderbelly, a performing space housed in a giant, inverted purple cow.

Mike appeared as the voice of Audrey II (as well as playing a number of peripheral characters) in the London revival of Little Shop of Horrors at the Menier Chocolate Factory in Southwark between December 2006 and February 2007. The show was a critical success and was sold out for the duration of its run, and Mike had been contracted to continue in the role following the show's transfer to the West End at the Duke of York theatre. In September 2007 he took part in the British Library's celebration of Jack Kerouac, reading excerpts from On The Road on the 50th Anniversary of its publication.

In 2008, he appeared as a guest performer in Paul Merton's Impro Chums, a live improv show, and as Dr. Vaabit in episode 5 of BBC's Sitcom Lab Rats, and appeared on the BBC radio programme Just a Minute.