![]() The voice of HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Douglas shared many of the same qualities as Kubrick’s iconic creation - precision, strength of steel, enigma and infinite intelligence, as well as a wicked sense of humor. “Douglas Rain was that rare artist - an actor deeply admired by other actors. “Canadian theater has lost one of its greatest talents and a guiding light in its development,” festival artistic director Antoni Cimolino said Sunday. His long association with Stratford included star turns as another “Hal” - King Henry V - in Henry V, which was made into a TV production in 1966 as Macbeth opposite Maggie Smith in 1978 as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice in 1996 and as Sir Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons in 1998. Gone But Not Forgotten: Musicians We Lost in 2018 An inspired Kubrick reportedly had seen that film nearly a hundred times and certainly was aware of Rain’s abilities. Producer Ivor Powell (Alien, Blade Runner), who also worked on 2001, noted a few years ago that Rain had narrated a 1960 National Film Board of Canada short film called Universe. He made his Broadway bow in 1956 in Tamburlaine the Great at the Winter Garden Theatre, and a year later worked with fellow Canadian William Shatner in the movie Oedipus Rex, directed by Stratford co-founder Tyrone Guthrie. Rain came home in 1953 to become a co-founding member of Stratford Shakespearean Festival. In 1950, he left for a two-year apprenticeship at the Old Vic. “He was an artist, and he didn’t stoop to doing commercials.”īorn in 1928, Douglas Rain attended the University of Manitoba, worked in radio dramas and studied acting at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Alberta. “Rain was unmovable,” Segall wrote on his website in February 2017. Ken Segall, then Apple’s creative director at TBWA/Chiat/Day, wasn’t as lucky when the actor declined to participate in a Super Bowl commercial about the Y2K bug. Woody Allen convinced Rain to voice another evil computer in his futuristic comedy Sleeper (1973), and in 1984, Peter Hyams talked him into returning as HAL for the sequel 2010. 12, 1992, in Urbana, Illinois, also is a chess master and “enjoys working with people.” ![]() We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error.” No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. So to celebrate the 50th anniversary of 2001: A Space Odyssey (and the fact that we’re all probably going to be replaced by robots in the near future), here’s a look at how HAL laid out the blueprint for AI in cinema.For the scenes on the set with Dullea - like when HAL famously says, “I am sorry, Dave, I am afraid I cannot do that” - the computer was voiced by assistant director Derek Cracknell, a Brit for scenes with Gary Lockwood, who played the astronaut Frank Poole, it was Kubrick who often supplied the lines.Īs Rain’s HAL tells a BBC reporter in the film: “The 9000 series is the most reliable computer ever made. Kubrick not only predicted the rise of our obsession with artificial intelligence, he facilitated the generation of movie after movie exploring the subject. So HAL is a user-friendly service that constantly asks what’s on your mind, offers a chess app to kill time, and then secretly eavesdrops on conversations in order to subsequently ruin lives – it’s the 20th century equivalent of Facebook. But when Dave and Frank chat shit behind HAL’s hypothetical back, the computer lip-reads the exchange, and proceeds to wreak revenge. Voiced in a monotone by Douglas Rain, HAL performs duties such as monitoring the crew during hibernation, checking the vessel for potential faults, and outsmarting passengers at chess. Goodbye.”Īs a reminder, HAL 9000 is the sentient software and “central nervous system” of Discovery One, a spaceship hurtling towards Jupiter. What’s more, if it’s lodged in your memory that one of the astronauts is called Dave, it’s because you hear it in HAL’s voice: “Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. The thing with 2001: A Space Odyssey, a landmark of the genre, is that everyone’s seen it, probably countless times – and yet, who can remember offhand the names of the actors involved? HAL 9000, though, immediately springs to mind. “But you can call me HAL”, the machine might say. ![]() ![]() Today marks half a century since Stanley Kubrick unveiled one of sci-fi cinema’s most celebrated characters: Heuristically Programmed Algorithmic Computer. ![]()
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