Badass Baritone

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    He is a manly man, and he has a manly voice to prove it.

    A character of this sort must fulfill two criteria:

    1. The character must be a badass.
    2. The character must have a deep voice of baritone register. Bass register is also possible but is rarer and almost always overlaps with being evil.

    Such a character may range from Cool Old Guy to Testosterone Poisoning. Such characters are frequently supporting roles, such as The Lancer.

    A necessary part of Soprano and Gravel.

    See also Evil Sounds Deep, Guttural Growler, Power Makes Your Voice Deep. Contrast Tenor Boy.

    Examples of Badass Baritone include:

    Anime and Manga


    Film

    • Miles Gloriosus from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, especially in the movie.
    • Many incarnations of Batman have him lowering his voice while in costume to sound more menacing.
    • Christopher Lee sometimes plays this when he isn't playing villains.
      • His voice is perfect when he plays the Discworld role of Death, since Terry Pratchett has always described Death's voice being deep and foreboding like the slamming of a coffin lid.
    • Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Darth Vader is the more villainous example, but he's still one of the most badass villains on the screen.
      • As a rule, though, anytime Samuel L. Jackson is in the film's cast, expect his character to be one of these.
    • Optimus Prime.
    • Riddick from the The Chronicles of Riddick series.
    • Any character played by Ron Perlman.
    • Kevin Grevioux has an unnaturally deep voice, which led many people watching his character Raze in Underworld to assume it has been altered in some way. He's also a Genius Bruiser, having degrees in microbiology and genetic engineering and having come up with the idea for the movie in the first place.
    • Mufasa.
    • Severus Snape.


    Literature

    • Aral Vorkosigan of the Vorkosigan Saga has a "scratchy" baritone, as does his Retired Badass father.
    • Earl Thorfinn, aka Macbeth from Dorothy Dunett's King Hereafter has a voice constantly described as "subterranean."
    • Harry Dresden of The Dresden Files.
      • Also, Sanya. Knight of the Cross, and the only person manly enough to make Dresden feel inadequate, being roughly of a height with Dresden and muscle-bound enough to make Michael, who is notably strong, look puny, whereas Harry is all wiry muscle.
    • Bahzell Bahnakson in David Weber's War God series.
    • Every Chaos Marine in Throne of Lies speaks in an unusually low voice, but Xarl, The Squad's resident Blood Knight, is noticeably deeper.
    • Derek Sagan of the Star of the Guardians by Margaret Weis has a deep baritone.
    • DEATH from the Discworld is described as having a voice like a lead coffin lid slamming,even if his voice is more felt than heard.


    Live Action TV

    • Castiel. Also, Jensen Ackles noticeably starts using a deeper voice in any extended conversation with him. It's like they're trying to out-badass each other. Misha Collins has said that he regrets it- he thought he would only be a guest star and was just trying to sound Badass, but when he was brought back to be a major supporting character he was forced to keep it, and finds using the voice so much to be annoying, difficult and mildly painful.

    Misha Collins: So in the first episode that Castiel shows up in, um — he's trying to communicate with Dean, and in so doing, his voice, his angelic voice, is exploding television sets and breaking windows — and so I, consummate guest star that I am, thought - oh, you know, I'm gonna do this [deepens voice], really deep, gravelly, commanding, kickass, kind of window-breaking voice... And I may be running into medical problems now.

    • City Confidential narrator Paul Winfield, and his successor, Keith David.
    • Shepherd Book from Firefly.
    • Mason Makoola from Pair of Kings, although he is a bass.
    • Sherlock Holmes himself. You could mistake Benedict Cumberbatch for Alan Rickman if you had your eyes closed.
    • Skins: Gen 1's Sid, to some extent. His baritone next to Tony's tenor certainly evens the playing field.
    • The Fourth Doctor from Doctor Who.


    Theatre

    • Charlie Anderson from The Musical adaptation of Shenandoah.
    • Count Carl-Magus in A Little Night Music is certainly a manly man, if conceited and stupid, with a distinct baritone voice.
    • Wotan in Richard Wagner's Der Ring Des Nibelungen. He's a bass-baritone, the ruler of the Gods, and he even has an eyepatch.
    • Pick a Verdi baritone role. Any of them. Good guy or villain, all badass.
      • Meta-example: any baritone who can sing Verdi automatically qualifies. Rare though they may be, "Verdi Baritones" make ordinary baritones cower in fear.
      • If basses count, Sparafucile from Rigoletto. Assassin AND a man of honour. He never double-crosses anyone.
    • Don Giovanni. He's THE MAN.
    • Vanderdecken in Der fliegende Holländer—manly, dark, mysterious, bass-baritone.
    • Escamillo from Carmen. You know, the guy who sings that impossibly hammy song about how cool toreros are.
    • Les Misérables: Inspector Javert. Baritone or bass-baritone required, and he's badass enough to have his own trope. (Ask Patron-Minette how he arrested seven armed bandits plus a Mama Bear (who counts herself as two) alone.)
      • Enjolras is also played by a baritone and, as charismatic leader of the Friends of the ABC, qualifies.
    • Sweeney Todd. Also The Judge.
    • Macheath in The Threepenny Opera
    • Depending on the actor, The Phantom of the Opera (the role has been played by both tenors and baritones).
    • The indisputably badass Beast from Beauty and the Beast is a solid baritone role, as is the equally badass (though much more arrogant about it) villain Gaston.


    Video Games

    Western Animation

    Real Life

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