The showbusiness world has not been quite so amazed since Miriam Margoyles was revealed to be the voice behind the sultry babe in the 1970s Manikin cigar TV ads. Hollywood has published its league-table of the top 100 credited actors at the box office since 1980. So who are they? Well, No 3 is Tom Hanks, whose 44 movies grossed $4.4bn (£2.7bn). No 2 is Samuel L Jackson, whose 85 movies earned $5.2bn (£3.2bn). And No 1 is Frank Welker with over $6bn (£3.7bn) for 95 feature film credits.

Huh? Who? Frank Welker is a voice artist, perhaps the king of voices. He's the cat Azrael in the new Smurfs adventure, and all six penguins in Mr Popper's Penguins. He's been the voices of Soundwave and Megatron on the Transformers films. He's been both Fred and Scooby in Scooby-Doo. He's been . . . just about everyone in everything in his time. Unlike the pouting divas of the acting world, he doesn't insist on his own interpretative greatness: he can deliver exactly the effect the director wants in the recording studio – in not too many takes.

Such people are highly prized. An ability to create voices, which with cartoon clarity put across certain types of characterisation – that is a very important resource. And voice artists tend to have the cost-effective ability to create dozens of different personae. They often can get a great deal of lucrative credited work. And that doesn't count the uncredited work in overdubbing. Cinema is a tissue of effects, all brought together: the look, the sound, the feel. Body doubles can provide an actor's abs in closeup, and in long-shot, stunt doubles can leap out of burning buildings on his behalf. And, in certain cases, voice artists can replace a squeaky accent. In Singin' In The Rain, struggling movie extra Kathy (Debbie Reynolds) has to lend her lovely tones to the screechy-voiced star Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), who doesn't measure up vocally when the talkie era begins.

The voice is very important in movies – as important, perhaps, as the face. So the voice artist is important, too. At only 65 years old, Welker has a long career ahead of him.