Every Actor Who Has Voiced Garfield

Summary The upcoming Garfield Movie features an ensemble cast led by Chris Pratt, with Samuel L. Jackson and other talented actors.

Despite past lackluster Garfield films, this new installment has already shown promise with strong international box office numbers.

Chris Pratt's track record in blockbuster films suggests he could potentially elevate Garfield into a lucrative franchise.

There have been several notable voice actors who voiced the iconic animated cat Garfield before Chris Pratt took the role in The Garfield Movie. The Garfield Movie will be the first feature film about the lasagna-loving and Monday-hating feline protagonist since 2006's Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (directed by Tim Hill), which was a sequel to 2004's Garfield: The Movie (directed by Peter Hewitt). Despite the decade-spanning popularity of the Garfield character, both films received poor reviews from critics, with the 2004 movie earning an abysmal 14% on Rotten Tomatoes and the sequel getting a score of just 12%.

Chris Pratt leads an ensemble cast in The Garfield Movie that includes Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddingham, Ving Rhames, Nicolas Hoult, Cecily Strong, Brett Goldstein, Bowen Yang, and Snoop Dogg. Mark Dindal (Chicken Little, The Emperor's New Groove) directed the latest Garfield installment based on a screenplay written by Paul A. Kaplan, Mark Torgove, and David Reynolds. Jim Davis, the prolific cartoonist and creator of the Garfield comic strip series, first established the concept of Garfield in 1976. Garfield has since become one of the most popular cartoon characters ever made.

The Garfield Movie was interestingly released in certain international markets before its United States release date of May 24, 2024. As a result of its impressive performance in global markets throughout May 2024 which generated a total of $49 million, The Garfield Movie has nearly earned back its reported $60 million budget. Following its U.S. opening weekend, The Garfield Movie should earn back the entirety of its budget over the course of the next week and will compete to knock off John Krasinski's recently released IF, another family-friendly film, from the number one spot. IF grossed $55 million globally in its opening weekend.

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9 Scott Beach

1980

Scott Beach was the voice of Garfield's first television appearance in 1980. Garfield first appeared in a segment of The Fantastic Funnies, a CBS special and television movie that first aired May 15, 1980, just two years after the Garfield comic strip became syndicated nationwide. Beach was an American actor, writer, and radio DJ who became well-known on the San Francisco stations KSFO and KKHI. Beach appeared in several of George Lucas's most legendary films, including his first feature THX 1138, as well as American Graffiti and the original Star Wars. In addition to being the first voice of Garfield, he was also the original announcer for The Newlywed Game, a very popular classic TV game show.

8 Lorenzo Music

1982–2001

After Scott Beach, Lorenzo Music took over as the official voice of Garfield for nearly two decades. From 1982 until 2001, Music appeared in a number of Garfield television specials that were broadcast on CBS between 1982 and 1991, the majority of which were produced and directed by Phil Roman. All twelve of Music's Garfield television specials were nominated for Emmy Awards, with Garfield on the Town (1983), Garfield in the Rough (1984), Garfield's Halloween Adventure (1985), and Garfield's Babes and Bullets (1989) all winners. Music was also the voice of Garfield in the celebrated animated series Garfield and Friends, which aired from 1988 until 1994, the year he retired from cartoon voice acting. Music died of cancer in 2001.

7 Lou Rawls

1992–2001

Lou Rawls was a prominent American baritone singer, record producer, composer, and actor. He provided the occasional singing voice in Garfield's CBS television specials between the years of 1992 and 2001. Rawls became much better known for his success as a singer and record producer, releasing an astonishing 61 albums and selling over 40 million records throughout his career. His most popular song was arguably 1976's "You'll Never Find A Love Like Mine" which turned out to be Rawls' breakthrough hit after earning the number two spot on the Billboard Top 100. Rawls is also a three-time Grammy winner, taking home the award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance in 1968 for "Dead End Street", 1972 for "A Natural Man", and 1978 for "Unmistakably Lou." Rawls received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1982 and died in 2006 at the age of 72.

6 Tom Smothers

1991

Tom Smothers was the only other person to voice Garfield during the Lorenzo Music era. Smothers specifically voiced Garfield in 1991 for television commercials from the dog food brand Alpo, which is marketed and manufactured by Nestlé Purina PetCare. Smothers was best known for being one half of the musical comedy duo called the Smothers Brothers along with his younger brother Dick Smothers. The duo has a variety show called The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour that launched in 1967 at CBS but was eventually shut down for pushing the boundaries of its content, which often included unpopular opinions on the Vietnam War, religion, drugs, and other subjects considered "taboo". Smothers appeared in several films, such as Brian De Palma's Get to Know Your Rabbit (1972). Smothers was planning to go on tour in 2023 but sadly died of cancer in December at age 86.

5 Bill Murray

2004–2006

Legendary leading man Bill Murray was the voice of Garfield for the first two feature films of the franchise, 2004's Garfield: The Movie and 2006's Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties. Unfortunately, the two Garfield movies ended up being some of the worst movies in Murray's filmography based on critic reviews and audience ratings. Despite its awful reception, 2004's Garfield still took home roughly $208 million at the worldwide box office, which was enough to prompt its 2006 sequel. Murray is one of the most recognizable actors on the planet, having starred in classic movies such as Ghostbusters, Caddyshack, Groundhog Day, Stripes, Rushmore, and Scrooged. His Garfield films were two of the few voice actor roles he has had throughout his career, which also include 2016's The Jungle Book and 2018's Isle of Dogs.

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4 Jeff Bergman

2004

Jeff Bergman is a widely accomplished voice and cartoon actor best known for his work on the Looney Tunes. Bergman took on the role of Garfield in 2004 for a brief television commercial that aired specifically in the UK. Bergman replaced Mel Blanc, the original voice of Bugs Bunny, in 1989 following his death. Bergman has been the primary voice actor for a variety of Warner Bros. classic cartoon characters since 1990, including Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, and Yosemite Sam. He recently voiced Bugs Bunny, Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, Yogi Bear, and Fred Flintstone in 2021's Space Jam: A New Legacy. His television voice acting credits include Rick and Morty, Phineas and Ferb, The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, and American Dad. Although he only played Garfield for a glimpse of his career, his body of work makes him one of the most prolific working voice actors today.

3 Jon Barnard

2004–2016

Jon Barnard was the voice of Garfield in multiple video games, including Garfield's Nightmare, Garfield, Garfield: Saving Arlene, Garfield: Lasagna Tour, The Garfield Show: Threat of the Space Lasagna, and Garfield Pinball. He also voiced Garfield in a cat litter commercial during the years of 2004 to 2016. Barnard also worked in the music department on Garfield and Friends (1988–1990). Outside of his vocal work on the slate of Garfield video games that were released between 2004 and 2016 specifically for Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, and Nintendo Wii, Barnard has no other acting credits to his name. The most recent Garfield video game was Garfield Lasagna Party which was released in 2022 for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

2 Frank Welker

2007–Present Day

Frank Weller has been another official voice of Garfield since 2007. Outside of Christ Pratt, he is the only official voice of Garfield working today. Weller's works as Garfield include Garfield Gets Real, Garfield's Fun Fest, Garfield's Pet Force, The Garfield Show, Mad, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, Nickelodeon Extreme Tennis, Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway, and Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2. Despite his extensive list of credits as Garfield, Wleker is best known as the original voice of Fred Jones of the Scooby-Doo franchise. Welker voiced Scooby-Doo in 2022's Scoob! and received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award in 2016. He was also the voice of Megatron in Transformers: The Last Knight (2017).

1 Chris Pratt

2024

After taking on the role of Mario in 2023's The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Chris Pratt returns to voice Garfield in 2024's The Garfield Movie. As the first Garfield feature film in nearly two decades, expectations are high for The Garfield Movie, especially considering the enormous $1.36 billion box office total of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. While it would be shocking if The Garfield Movie could achieve that level of box office performance, Pratt has starred in six of the top 51 highest-grossing movies of all time, including Jurassic World Dominion ($1.004 billion), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ($1.31 billion), The Super Mario Bros. Movie. ($1.36 billion), Jurassic World ($1.67 billion), Avengers: Infinity War ($2.05 billion), and Avengers: Endgame ($2.79 billion). If anyone can make Garfield a billion-dollar franchise, it's Chris Pratt, although The Garfield Movie appears to be suffering the same fate as Murray's movies with early negative reviews.

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