Rodger Bumpass

Rodger Bumpass (born November 20, 1951) is an American actor, voice actor and comedian. He is best known for his long-running role as Squidward Tentacles on the American animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants. He voices several other characters on the show as well, including Purple Doctor Fish and various anchovies.

He also voiced The Chief in the animated series Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, and Mr. Besser, the school principal in the animated series The Kids from Room 402. Bumpass has many other credits in animated films, animated television series, and video games.

Early life
Bumpass was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on November 20, 1951. He attended Little Rock Central High School where he received his first training in theater. He attended Arkansas State University where he majored in radio–TV and minored in theater. He worked at the campus radio station and also at Jonesboro's Raycom Media owned ABC-affiliated television station, KAIT-TV, where he had multiple duties as announcer, film processor, cameraman, audio technician, and technical director.[2]

While at KAIT, he also wrote, produced, and performed in a late-night comedy program called Mid-Century Nonsense Festival Featuring Kumquat Theater.[3] He graduated from A-State in 1976, and when encouraged by an A-State professor to consider professional theater, he went to New York in June 1977.[2]

Career
In 1977 he won a role in the National Lampoon's music and comedy road show That's Not Funny, That's Sick and toured with them until 1978. That same year, he appeared in the TV special Disco Beaver from Outer Space for HBO. In 1979, Bumpass was cast as the leading role in a National Lampoon film to be called Jaws 3, People 0 in which he would have a love scene with Bo Derek. However, the film was canceled due to objections by the creators of the movie Jaws.[2] In 1980, Bumpass created the character of 'Fartman' to appear on the National Lampoon LP The White Album, which later inspired the Howard Stern character by the same name.[4]

Bumpass is best known to present-day viewers as the voice of Squidward Tentacles and various incidental characters on the Nickelodeon animated comedy series SpongeBob SquarePants.[5][6] He is also known for voicing The Chief from Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, Hyenas on The Lion King, Dr. Light on Teen Titans, and Professor Membrane on Invader Zim.[2] Though he has been voicing and acting in films since the 60s, and had also appeared on stage through the mid 70s until the late 80s.[2][7][8]Bumpass has over 693 film credits, according to IMDb. In 2012, Bumpass received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for his role as Squidward on SpongeBob SquarePants.[9]

Live-action roles

 * Disco Beaver from Outer Space (1978) (TV)
 * Two Reelers (1981) (TV)[10]
 * Escape from New York (1981) (credited as Roger Bumpass)
 * Wizards and Warriors (1983) (TV)
 * Hot Flashes (1984) (TV)[11]
 * Footlight Frenzy (1984)
 * National Lampoon's Class of '86 (1986)[12]
 * The Running Man (1987) – Phil Hilton
 * What Price Victory (1988) (TV)
 * Silk Stalkings (1992) (TV)
 * Shadow of Obsession (1994) (TV)
 * Hart to Hart: Secrets of the Hart (1995) (TV)
 * Bio-Dome (1996)
 * Baby Huey's Great Easter Adventure (1998) (Direct-to-video)
 * Santa, Jr. (2002) (TV)
 * Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure (2003) (TV)
 * A Boyfriend for Christmas (2004) (TV)
 * Murder Without Conviction (2004) (TV)
 * Just Desserts (2004) (TV)
 * Marco Polo (2007) (TV)