So, after just watching the movie "Solomon Kane" I finally put two and two together and realized that the great Max Von Sydow did the VO for Esbren...

Von Sydow is beyond great. I first became a fan of Max for his phenomenal work as King Osric in my favorite movie of all time "Conan the Barbarian" (the 1982 original NOT the 2011 reboot...which was utter garbage). He is also great in a supporting role in the 1986 Woddy Allen film "Hannah and Her Sisters". He has a huge body of acclamied work going back a VERY long time, but most of it is WAY before my time.

It shames me greatly that it only took me about 1000 hours of play to recognize his contribution to this great game which I love; bugs, glitches, and ash piles not withstanding...

So here's to you Max! I for one greatly appreciate the fact that you would contribute your talent to my favorite form of media, video games. We are privileged to have had you be a part of this game.

Kudos also to Bethesda for getting him on board. Here's to hoping we can get him, or an equaly great talent to be a part of the next game in TES series.

As much as I love Sydow (I'm a Bergman fan from way back) I would rather Bethesda skip expensive star actors next time and spend the money hiring a greater number of actors with a wider range of voices.

I don't understand why it is so difficult or expensive to hire voice actors. I bet a company could just solicit for actors from college drama schools and they could voice act for free as long as they were credited somewhere. What's the big deal about this?

I have to agree with Wyrd, I prefer talent over big name people.

That's how you get voices like Farengar. Over-acted, lifeless, or unconvincing voices.

Hack, some of the (free, uncompensated) voice acting in some of the user mods for this game are better than the majority of Skyrim's native voices.

Speaking of voice actors, can someone tell me what accent that is that some NPC's (like Gerdur in Riverwood) have? I love that accent.

He certainly is brilliant.

Skyrim has some incredible voice actors. http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Voice_Cast_%28Skyrim%29

Vladimir Kulich delivers as awesome performance as Ulfric, complete with awesome accent. In the picture at the link above he looks just as brooding as Ulfric. lol

Tullius' voice actor (Michael Hogan) blew me away many times. Me manages to convey so much of the character in just a few words. He is all stiff general and then suddenly a few completely mundane words reveals a whole new depth to the character. At least this was my interpretation of it.

But my favorite....always favorite can only be ....Stephen Russell, better known as Garrett in the Thief series. I am just ashamed because I did not realise that he was in Skyrim, never mind as o many characters. Then Belethor says 'elevated prices' in pure Garrett voice. Best unintentional easter egg EVER!!!!

As much as I like specific actors like all those above I have to completely agree. I would far rather have a game voiced by many completely unknown voice actors with serious talent, then have a small cast of big buck actors who, while playing their main characters brilliantly, sometimes can seem rather forced and fake when trying to play so many other characters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcswQGRLMdc

Sounds Scandinavian to me lol.

Shame on you indeed. Another character he voices that you might not be aware of is Vigo the Carpathian from Ghostbusters 2. If you're curious here's a link of film that shows the actors http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_-I_kiIa6g...it's no wonder why they wanted Max to overdub him

exactly, there's many fans who would gladly do VA out of love, I know I would and I could do a damned good Khajiit, as well as a wide range of different voice types...I can even do a decent Ulfric

Whilst I agree that there is no need for big names, as voice actors and Skyrim would be improved with a greater variety of voices from lesser known actors, marketing will want the big names as they help to generate publicity and sales.

It is what We as the Consumers lose in the Game because of the Big Names that exist for Marketing

I recognised his voice in the trailer before the game was released.

You will probably recognize Arngier's voice if you have ever watched the movie sound of music, that said a lot of voice actors in this game are well known.

(sigh)

She could read the http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Voice_Cast_(Skyrim)?file=Martina_Lotun.jpg on adjusting the drip capacity of refrigerators.

As a bedtime story. Full jim-jams Sir. No naughtiness.

At least until Chapter 6.

Looking up a few. Checked Laura Bailey at IMDB, in addition to Serana she also did Julie Farkas / Lieutenant Carrie Boyd / Doctor Usanagi FONV. Wow. That is interesting.

edit: quite a few others I have seen/heard before too. Joan Allen aka Delphine, was Pamela Landy in the Bourne movies. Crazy how little I am able to recognize voices. Max was recognizable to me, so was Chris Christopherson in FONV as Chief Hanlon. It is amazing how many others I should have recognized, but just didn't.