Mr. Sirola was a show-business jack-of-all-trades, acting on Broadway, in small theaters, on television soap operas and dramas, in the occasional movie; he even produced on and Off Broadway late in life. When he’d tell stories about, say, his drinking buddy Richard Burton (which he would do often; he was a first-class raconteur), he’d do it with a pretty good Burton impression. That vocal flexibility made him far richer than a journeyman actor could ever hope to be. In the 1960s he began doing voice-over work, and he soon found himself in high demand. “The day is long past when a person who is merely a good announcer can do an effective commercial,” he said in that interview.

Source: New York Times February 10, 2019 19:52 UTC