We’d like to welcome the venerable Michael Bell to Retro Con 2015!

 With nearly 60 years of professional acting experience (over 40 of them as a voice actor), Michael is a true legend in the industry! Though widely known for his voice work, you may also have seen Michael in character parts in such classic TV shows as Get Smart, The Monkees, CHiPs, Three’s Company, Charlie’s Angels, and Star Trek. Michael also ran his own voice acting workshop, which he used to train well-known voice actors such as Cam Clarke and Corey Burton, and he also currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Screen Actors Guild. He is married to actress Victoria Carroll, and you may also know of their daughter, actress Ashley Bell!

Michael’s most notable role for retro fans is probably that of First Sergeant Conrad “Duke” Hauser in the Sunbow GI Joe: A Real American Hero cartoon series! He voiced the confident field leader of the Joe team in the two original miniseries, both seasons of the syndicated tv show, and in the GI Joe animated movie (1987). Though originally written to be killed off in the movie, a severe backlash over the death of Optimus Prime in the Transformers movie spurred producers to spare the character of Duke. So in lieu of dying in a battle with Serpentor, Duke would slip into a coma and later reawaken.
 

Michael gave voice and personality to several other Joe and Cobra characters on the show too: Major Bludd, Scrap-Iron, Xamot, Blowtorch, and many more!

Mr. Bell is also popular for his work on G1 Transformers, with his most prominent role arguably being military strategist Prowl! A highly capable Autobot, Prowl was known for his straight-laced and logical personality. He also stood out with his unique police-themed robot and car design. Unfortunately, Prowl met his demise in the 1986 Transformers movie at the hands of a Decepticon raiding party while co-piloting an Autobot shuttle on its way to Earth. ☠

And just like GI Joe, Michael also provided voices for many other characters on Transformers as well! Among them were Dinobot Swoop, warrior Sideswipe, Insecticon Bombshell, and Constructicon leader Scrapper.

Other highlights in Mr. Bell’s voice acting career include: Zan of the Wonder Twins (along with space monkey Gleek), Lance and Sven on Voltron, Chas Finster on Rugrats, Handy, Grouchy, and Lazy Smurf, and Plastic Man! 

Michael will be on hand all weekend to sign autographs for retro fanatics, so bring along your cartoon memorabilia! Michael is also a huge animal rights activist, so we will be donating part of the totals of the Retro Con 2015 charity auction to an animal foundation of his choice!