Animated TV series have “lead character” actors just like any TV series. But what they also have are what sports teams would call “utility players” — like a baseball player that can play any of the positions on the field. Teams learn to depend on them. Some of the voice actors in animated series end up playing a bunch of very different characters. Cal Dodd was our Wolverine. Alison Sealy-Smith was Storm. But we had performers that played five or six different roles, each with its own voice and character. Lawrence Bayne was one (see picture below). He was best known for voicing CABLE, who made appearances in every season and who had the challenge of sounding larger and tougher (?) than Wolverine. Lawrence told me that he did that by underplaying his brutish character — which played nicely against Cal Dodd’s fiercer interpretation of Wolverine. But then Lawrence also played the regretful father of Scott Summers, a man who has to explain to his adult son why he had abandoned him. He was Captain America, an iconic hero in no way like Cable. He even played a sly villain (Fabian Cortez) who had the guts to betray Magneto. So what do we tell X-MEN:TAS fans when they ask: who was Lawrence Bayne? He was Cable, but he was more. He was one of our utility players. We came to depend on him.
