Big question of the day: Leonard Nimoy or not
It seems that in the course of researching a film Clear Skies, Clean Air (from 1971) research request, the blogger Audrey Amidon thought the narrator of the film sounded familiar – that of Nimoy who most of the world knew as Star Trek's Mr. Spock.
Nimoy, who passed away earlier this year, amongst his myriad talents was a well-known voice-over actor.
But the film and subsequent research turned up no record of the film’s narrator.
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From the blog post: “When I first listened, while prepping the film, I thought it sounded like “Standard 1970s Narrator Guy.” You may know him—he narrated educational films that were in use for decades. Upon a second listen, during the quality control process, I thought that, more specifically, the voiceover sounded like the narrator from In Search of…, that fantastic 1970s television program about mysteries like the possible existence of Big Foot and the lost Roanoke colony. Only while I was scanning the film did I remember that In Search of… was narrated by Leonard Nimoy. I admit I became a little obsessed with proving that Clear Skies, Clean Air was narrated by an uncredited Leonard Nimoy, asking colleagues and friends to chime in. I made the case to a few folks, but no one guessed Leonard Nimoy without my prompting….Do you think Clear Skies, Clean Air is Leonard Nimoy For comparison, I’m including a clip from a Union Carbide training film Nimoy narrated in the late 1970s detailing events of a “future” day when carelessness in chemical handling led to multiple disasters. (The disasters were hypothetical, but the date became so ingrained in the minds of viewers that, when an actual chemical accident occurred in New Jersey on May 19, 1981, it appeared the film had prophesied it.)”
So the narrator remains a mystery. Personally I think it sounds like Nimoy but who knows. Take a listen:
You can vote on the Archives site here.
For other examples of Nimoy’s Narrative powers, check out the overraught Y2K video: