Frank Simms

Frank Adams Simms (born 1947) is an American singer, actor and voice-over artist who is known for providing the voices behind such iconic characters as the Kool-Aid Man, The Craver (the bug-eyed, fuzzy mascot of Honeycomb Cereal, the GEICO ringtone, and more. He is one of the founding members and songwriters of The Simms Brothers Band. He recorded the weekly theme song for TV Funhouse on Saturday Night Live. He's recorded with dozens of artists beginning in the seventies.

Singing

Simms provides background vocals on David Bowie's "Let's Dance", "Modern Love", and "China Girl"; Billy Joel's River of Dreams album, and Madonna's Material Girl. He has also recorded with INXS, Chaka Khan, Al Green, Elvis Costello, Brian Wilson, Carly Simon, Cyndi Lauper, Jeff Beck, Philip Bailey, The Fab Faux, Laurie Anderson, Chic, William S. Burroughs, Ace Frehley, The Psychedelic Furs, Dionne Warwick, Roberta Flack, and Harry Chapin among others.

He can be heard on Dragontales and Between the Lions, and won a 2007 Emmy award for best vocal performance for a song for a children's animated series, "Q Without U" for PBS' Between The Lions. He's sung on the films Working Girl, Anastasia, Moonlight Kingdom, David Bowie's Serious Moonlight Tour DVD, and Mickey Blue Eyes.

In 1983, Frank and George Simms toured the world with David Bowie's Serious Moonlight Tour as his vocalists. Frank has also toured with Billy Joel and Carly Simon, and sung live with Elvis Costello, Brian Wilson, Al Green, Dan Hartman, Phil Collins, and others.

In the mid eighties, fellow Connecticut musician and leader of the Saturday Night Live band, G.E. Smith, invited Frank onto the show. Since then, Frank's performed with hundreds of guests as background singer, on-stage performer, and voice over artist for recordings, skits, and parody commercials.

In 2012, Frank performed with Roger Waters and Eddie Vedder and Roger's band in the 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief, also featuring Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, The Who, and more. The concert, broadcast world-wide, was listened to by over one billion people.

Voice acting

After much album/CD work, he began a career in voice-overs and character acting for commercials, films and TV, including spots for parody commercials for Saturday Night Live and Spongebob Squarepants promos for Nickelodeon. For several years Frank was the voice of Kool-Aid Man. Frank also voiced the wild beast, The Craver, for Honeycomb Cereal. His voice may be heard in video games Saints Row 2, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, Saints Row 2, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Neverwinter Nights 2. He is the voice behind Impotent Rage, a popular Liberal Superhero in Grand Theft Auto V.

He is a member of SAG-AFTRA.

Filmography

TV series

• Saturday Night Live - Singer
• Team Umizoomi - Additional voices

Shorts

• Feeding Time - Additional voices
• Slap Back Jack: High Five Master - Slap Back Jack
• Treasury Men in Action - Langley Logterman

Movies

• Anastasia - Ensemble and Character Vocals
• Counter Clockwise - Roman
• Medal of Victory - Crump Ad Narrator
• Odd Jobs - Mark Cunningham
• Tarzan - Additional voices
• The Twelve Days of Christmas - Additional voices

Video games

• Grand Theft Auto V - The Local Population, Impotent Rage
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - Pedestrian
• Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne - Mobster, Russian, Businessman
• Neverwinter Nights 2 - Male Player Character #1, Male Player Character #2, Male Player Character #3
• Saints Row 2 - Radio Commercial Voice

Documentary

• David Bowie: Serious Moonlight - Himself - Musician
• Ricochet - Himself

Video documentary

• Best of Bowie - Himself (Archive audio)

References

"Frank Simms voiceography". Voice Chasers. Retrieved December 21, 2015. 

External links

• Official website
• Frank Simms discography at Discogs
• Frank Simms at the Internet Movie Database