Top Gun: Maverick has been lauded for introducing an all-star cast of actors and making them into household names. However, none of those actors were brand new to the industry. Perhaps the best example was Rear Admiral Solomon “Warlock” Bates, played by Charles Parnell. If Parnell’s voice seemed familiar to you, you’ve probably heard him perform in a cartoon or video game before.
Parnell is a prolific actor across multiple genres and mediums, though Maverick undoubtedly introduced him to some new fans. Many may not have realized that they were already existing fans of his. Parnell has a traditional theater background, having starred in a production of the ancient Greek play Iphigenieia at Aulis by Euripides at the Yale Repertory Theater early in his career. From there, Parnell found his way into mainstream work in TV, with some film appearances as well.
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Some of Parnell’s first credits include one-episode appearances on CBS’ Hack in 2003 and NBC’s Law & Order in 2004. He continued to work in live action over the years, but most fans probably know him best for voice-over roles he took in 2004 on Adult Swim’s The Venture Bros. He played Jefferson Twilight, Mister 1 and Mandalay.
If you’re not much of an animation fan, you probably recognize Parnell from a role he took the following year, playing Derek Frye on All My Children. He appeared in a total of 79 episodes of the soap opera from 2005 to 2008. Other one-off TV appearances during this time included Without a Trace, CSI: Miami, Crash, Bones, 90210, Lie to Me, NCIS, The Forgotten and Fringe.
Parnell has continuing success on TV. He was the narrator of the reality show North Woods Law from 2012 to 2015 and had a starring role on The Last Ship from 2014 to 2018. Most recently, he played Cyrus on the USA Network’s Briarpatch. In the meantime, he also found huge success in video games. Parnell was the voice of Nick Fury in the 2020 Avengers video game. His other credits have included Grand Theft Auto IV and V, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Mass Effect: Andromeda.
In the movies, Parnell played the director of the CIA in Transformers: Age of Extinction and he played Knowles in the Netflix original film Spiderhead earlier this year. That goes to show how tight-knit the cast of Maverick became, since he shared the screen with Miles Teller once again. He will soon be back on screen with Tom Cruise as well in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.
In the meantime, Top Gun: Maverick is still playing in select theaters. It will eventually be available to stream at home on Paramount+, but the studio has not decided on when just yet.
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