Post by flame3169118 on Nov 23, 2020 23:16:13 GMT -5
David Hemblen, the actor whose measured, distinguished performance as Magneto on X-Men: The Animated Series endeared him to a generation of fans, passed away on November 16 at the age of 79.
Hemblen was also well regarded for his performance as the Resistance leader Jonathan Doors on the first four seasons of the syndicated science fiction television series, Earth: Final Conflict (which was developed based off of ideas of Star Trek's Gene Roddenberry).
Born in England, Hemblen immigrated to Canada with his family to Canada when he was a teenager. He initially attended college in the pursuit of a classical education. He received an M.A. in English and was trying for a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies when he began acting. He was spotted in a student production by a representative of the Royal Shakespeare Company and soon, Hemblen was part of the inaugural acting company of Theatre Toronto in 1967. Among the other actors in the company were legendary Canadian actors like Barbara Hamilton, Terry Tweed and the late, great John Colicos (who would later voice Apocalypse alongside Hemblen on X-Men: The Animated Series).
Hemblen appeared in a number of theater production and had his first regular TV gig in the short-lived 1975 Canadian TV series, The Adventures of Timothy Pilgrim, where Hemblen played an elixir peddler from the 1870s who has misadventures with a pre-teen from the 1970s who traveled through time via a magical trunk.
In 1987, Hemblen received his more prominent television role yet, as the villainous Lord Dread on the syndicated kids adventure series, Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future (one of J. Michael Straczynski's early successes in live action television screenwriting).
Since Hemblen was heavily covered by prosthetics as Dread, his voice had to sell the character and he successfully brought a great deal of gravitas to the villain. This likely led to his first major animated voice acting role, that of the villainous Shere Khan on The Jungle Book: The Adventures of Mowgli in 1989. Hemblen lent his voice to a number of animated series over the years.
However, he will forever be remembered for his brilliant performance as Magneto on X-Men: The Animated Series. As CBR's Gene Kendall once remarked in a review, "He isn’t a ranting lunatic or a mustache-twirling Hanna-Barbara villain; Hemblen brings integrity to the role and knows just how 'dramatic' these lines should sound. It’s very easy to imagine Hemblen’s voice when reading the dialogue Chris Claremont gave the character."
Hemblen was so good in the role that Bryan Singer at least considered casting Hemblen in the 2000 live action X-Men film, but Hemblen was filming Earth: Final Conflict at the time