George Newbern

Having grown up in North Little Rock, Arkansas, Newbern is the son of Betty, a Spanish teacher and David Newbern, a radiologist. George has two brothers (Gordon and John) and one sister (Murry).^[1]

He began his acting career at the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, in the role of the younger brother in Life with Father, based on Clarence S. Day Jr.'s autobiographical novels. This first acting role spurred him on to other acting roles and eventually on to film roles. Newbern's first lead role was in 1987's Double Switch, a retelling of The Prince and the Pauper that aired as a part of the Wonderful World of Disney television series.

From 1986 to 1992, Newbern had a recurring role as Payne McIlroy, the son of designer Julia Sugarbaker (played by Dixie Carter), on the series Designing Women. He has since guest-starred on television in such series as Providence, Chicago Hope, Friends, Bull, CSI, Medium, Ghost Whisperer, Touched by an Angel, Criminal Minds, and Private Practice. He had a recurring role for several seasons as a former CIA operative in Scandal.

He starred as Neal Morris, father of Melissa Morris (Emily Osment), in the 2009 Disney Channel film Dadnapped, and portrayed Apollo 14 astronaut Stu Roosa in the HBO mini-series From The Earth To The Moon. Film credits include Adventures in Babysitting (1987) with Elisabeth Shue; Double Switch (1987); Switching Channels (1988) with Kathleen Turner, Burt Reynolds and Christopher Reeve; and Father of the Bride (1991) and its sequel Father of the Bride Part II. In 2009 he appeared in Locker 13.

 

As a voice actor, Newbern is notable for his role as Clark Kent/Superman on the Cartoon Network series Justice League, Static Shock and Justice League Unlimited (replacing Tim Daly due to his obligations elsewhere). He also reprised his role as Superman in The Batman, the DC Showcase short Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam, and Superman vs. The Elite. On February 26, 2016, the DC Universe Online Facebook page reported that Newbern would be taking over the role of Superman from Adam Baldwin. He also provides the voice of Superman in the game Injustice: Gods Among Us and its sequel. Newbern has portrayed the character longer than any other actor in live-action and animation.

Newbern also lent his voice in the cartoon series The Pirates of Dark Water, and he has also done voiceovers on a number of video games and game-related productions. He has also voiced in the infamous Theodore Rex as the character of the same name. In 2003, Newbern provided the voice of Mevyn Nooj in Final Fantasy X-2. He also voiced Sephiroth in the Final Fantasy series and the Kingdom Hearts series.

His performance as Nooj reportedly impressed the developers at Square Enix enough for them to cast him as Sephiroth in the English version of Kingdom Hearts II (replacing Lance Bass) and he would also go on to reprise the role in the English-language releases of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy and Dissidia Final Fantasy NT. He later appeared in the second season of Jericho as the President of the Allied States of America. Newbern also narrated Toyota's commercials for the 2010 model year of the Prius, one of the car company's younger automotive models, and portrayed Harold in Saw VI.

Newbern is also a prolific narrator of audiobooks, with narration credits on nearly 500 titles.

Newbern met actress Marietta DePrima in the mid-1980s. They graduated together at Northwestern University, where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta.^[2] The couple married in 1990, and have three children.^[1]

• George Newbern at IMDb
• Voice chasers Archived 2020-03-20 at the Wayback Machine
• Interview with George Newbern on Voiceover Role in Superman vs the Elite Archived September 24, 2020, at the Wayback Machine