George Newbern
George Newbern (born
December 10,
1964) is an
American television and film actor. He was born in
Little Rock,
Arkansas.
Newbern appeared as the son of designer
Julia Sugarbaker (played by
Dixie Carter) on the 1990s series
Designing Women. He has also guest starred on television in such series as
Providence,
Chicago Hope,
Friends,
Bull, and
.
His movie acting credits include
Adventures in Babysitting (1987) with
Elisabeth Shue;
Switching Channels (1988) with
Kathleen Turner,
Burt Reynolds and
Christopher Reeve; and
Father of the Bride (1991) with
Steve Martin,
Diane Keaton, and
Martin Short.
Currently, Newbern is the voice of
Superman on the
Cartoon Network series
Justice League Unlimited, having replaced actor
Tim Daly, who had contractual obligations elsewhere. Newbern was heavily criticized by fans during the first season of
Justice League, his Superman being derided as too stiff and lacking both the everyman feel and heroic authority that Daly had brought to the role. Producer
Bruce Timm staunchly defended Newbern and stated that any differences for the worse between Daly's and Newbern's performances were the fault of himself and the staff. Many fans later agreed that Newbern improved significantly during the second season and have since ceased to criticize him so harshly; indeed, some have noted that his grunts on the show sound very similar to Daly's.
Newbern, whose voice acting career began in 1991 with the cartoon series
The Pirates of Dark Water, has also done voiceovers on a number of video games and game-related productions. He provided the voice of
Sephiroth in the English-language releases of
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and
Kingdom Hearts II, and also voiced
Mevyn Nooj in
Final Fantasy X-2.
