Tony Todd Dies At 69, Voice Of Venom, Horror Legend

Tony Todd has tragically died at 69, a legendary industry figure whose work has spanned from being a horror icon to most recently, voicing a famed character in one of the biggest games of 2023. No cause of death has been revealed.

Todd is most famous for his role in the Candyman franchise as its central killer, but has also appeared in The Crow, The Rock, Final Destination, Platoon and played Kurn, Worf’s brother, in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Todd also has a long voicework career, playing characters in Masters of the Universe, Half Life: Alex, Justice League Dark but most recently, he was the voice of Venom in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, which focused on the symbiote, and Todd did the voice when the entity fully took over Harry Osborne in the game. In 2023, he spoke about voicing the character and how he approached it:

“They had to be relatable and he had to have an objective and follow that through. I come from the theater. I have a Masters in Theater, so I take every job, whether it’s voiceover, TV, film, as a well-made script and we just went with the flow. For me, Venom was fun to do and I wanted to make sure that there was a joyous quality in his destruction.”

“A joyous quality in his destruction,” what a phrase. There’s one more quote from him about voicing Venom that actually, can bring a tear to your eye, given the context now:

“He’s only here on Earth for a little bit and then he’s going to move on somewhere else, so I wanted to make sure that he left that impact of joy, and tenacity, and deliciousness.”

Todd later said that Insomniac only used about 10% of the dialogue he recorded, which led to speculation that much of it was being saved for a Venom spin-off game. Such a project did leak in a recent Insomniac hack, though the studio has since come out and said Spider-Man 2 would not be getting DLC. But a standalone Venom game in the vein of Miles Morales may not count as that, and at least in theory, it’s possible a Venom game using Todd’s voicework may actually exist at some point. Insomniac would obviously not use this tragic moment to announce that, but it’s a real question and would speak to some of the actor’s last work.

Todd was clearly an amazing man, and he has been mourned by countless actors and outlets, particularly in the world of horror, after his passing. Best of thoughts to his family and friends at this time.

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