Early life
LaMarche was born March 30, 1958, in Toronto, Ontario, to Guy LaMarche and Linda Bourdon. The family moved to Timmins, Ontario, shortly after his birth and returned to Toronto when he was around four. He grew up immersed in what he has described as his own world of cartoons and 1960s television. A childhood neighbor was comedian Mike Myers. LaMarche first realized his talent for mimicry could draw a crowd during a high school variety show.1
Stand-up comedy
LaMarche began performing stand-up comedy in his late teens, doing an open-mic set in New York City at nineteen before basing his career in Toronto from 1977. He appeared on The Merv Griffin Show and An Evening at the Improv, and on HBO's 1985 special Rodney Dangerfield Hosts the 9th Annual Young Comedians Special, where his impression work drew wider notice. He opened for headliners including Rodney Dangerfield, George Carlin, and Howie Mandel in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. In 1987 he appeared on an episode of the sitcom The Facts of Life.1
His comedy years were marked by tragedy. In March 1987 his father was killed in Toronto, an event LaMarche has said triggered a period of depression and drinking that stalled his career; he became sober in January 1989. After the death of his younger sister in a 1990 car accident, he stepped away from stand-up to concentrate fully on voice work.1
Voice acting career
LaMarche entered voiceover in 1980 with the Nelvana animated specials Easter Fever and Take Me Up to the Ball Game, and was a regular on Toronto's The All-Night Show, where he was eventually succeeded by Jim Carrey. He moved to Los Angeles around 1980 to pursue entertainment work.1
His American television breakthrough came in the mid-1980s. He voiced Chief Quimby on Inspector Gadget (and later the title character himself in the 2002 spin-off Gadget & the Gadgetinis), characters on Dennis the Menace, and Popeye on Popeye and Son, before joining The Real Ghostbusters as Egon Spengler. Through the 1990s he became a mainstay of the industry, working on Tiny Toon Adventures (Dizzy Devil), Captain Planet and the Planeteers (Verminous Skumm and Duke Nukem), Taz-Mania, Batman: The Animated Series, and Bonkers.1
In 1993 he landed the role most associated with him outside Ghostbusters: The Brain, the megalomaniacal lab mouse of Animaniacs and its spin-off Pinky and the Brain. LaMarche has said the character's design instantly suggested Orson Welles to him, though he has also pointed to Vincent Price as an influence. The Pinky and the Brain episode "Yes, Always" grew out of a stand-up bit LaMarche performed spoofing a real, exasperated Orson Welles recording session for frozen-foods commercials, a routine he also performs in Comic Book: The Movie. His Welles impression has reappeared across The Critic, The Simpsons, Ed Wood (dubbing Welles over Vincent D'Onofrio), and Futurama.1
From 1999 he became a core cast member of Futurama, voicing Kif Kroker, Calculon, Morbo, Lrrr, Hedonismbot, and many others, work that would earn him his Emmy wins. His long list of other credits includes Big Bob Pataki on Hey Arnold!, Father on Codename: Kids Next Door, Hovis the butler on Catscratch, Pepe Le Pew in Space Jam, Mr. Big in Zootopia, King Agnarr in Frozen, and Odval and other roles on Matt Groening's Disenchantment. In video games he has voiced Mr. Freeze and Calendar Man in Batman: Arkham City and characters in the Baldur's Gate and Crash Bandicoot series, among many others.1
Ghostbusters
The Real Ghostbusters
LaMarche voiced Dr. Egon Spengler throughout The Real Ghostbusters (1986 to 1991) and the Slimer! segments, the role for which he is best loved among Ghostbusters fans.2 Beyond Egon he was one of the show's busiest utility voices, supplying dozens of incidental and one-off characters across the run, from radio announcers and cab drivers to ghosts, demons, and named guests, and stepping in to cover Winston Zeddemore and even Peter Venkman in rare instances. He recorded alongside fellow voice cast members Frank Welker and Lorenzo Music. LaMarche later took part in commentary for The Real Ghostbusters DVD box set.
Extreme Ghostbusters
LaMarche returned to voice an older Egon Spengler in Extreme Ghostbusters (1997), the sequel series in which the character mentors a new team of college-age Ghostbusters. It remains his most recent on-screen turn in the role.3
Awards
LaMarche has won two Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for Futurama: in 2011 for "Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences" and in 2012 for "The Silence of the Clamps." He received a Daytime Emmy nomination in 1998 for Pinky and the Brain and a further Daytime Emmy nomination in 2020. He has also won Annie Awards, including a 1998 award for his voice work in animated television and a 2023 award for Zootopia+.1
Personal life
LaMarche married Robin Eisenman in 1991, and the couple have a son.1
LaMarche's portrayal of Egon Spengler is one of the defining performances of the animated Ghostbusters era, and his name turns up as an in-jokes for fans inside the comics. In Ghostbusters: Get Real issue #3, a list of names beside Peter includes LaMarche,4 and in Ghostbusters 35th Anniversary: The Real Ghostbusters, Egon references the "LaMarche Boards," a nod to his voice actor.5 He remains a popular guest among Real Ghostbusters fans and a frequent subject of voice-cast discussion in the GBFans.com community.
References
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
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"Maurice LaMarche," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_LaMarche. Supports the birth date and place, parents (Guy LaMarche and Linda Bourdon), childhood in Timmins and Toronto, Mike Myers as a neighbor, the stand-up career, the 1987 death of his father and 1989 sobriety, the 1990 loss of his sister, the voice-acting timeline and filmography, the Orson Welles impression, the Annie and Emmy awards, and his 1991 marriage to Robin Eisenman.
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The Real Ghostbusters (1986 to 1991), DIC Enterprises / Columbia Pictures Television, and the Slimer! segments. On-screen voice credits; Maurice LaMarche voiced Dr. Egon Spengler throughout the run.
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Extreme Ghostbusters (1997), Adelaide Productions / Columbia TriStar Television. On-screen voice credits; Maurice LaMarche returned as an older Egon Spengler. See also Spook Central, "Have At It Eduardo, Extreme Ghostbusters Is Legal" (September 2, 2017), http://www.spookcentral.tk/2017/09/02/extreme-ghostbusters-20th-anniversary.html, which notes the new team is "mentored by original ghostbuster Egon Spengler (voiced by a returning Maurice LaMarche)."
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Ghostbusters: Get Real #3 (IDW Publishing, 2015), p. 12, panel 4. The list of names beside Peter Venkman includes "LaMarche" as an in-joke referencing the voice actor.
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Ghostbusters 35th Anniversary: The Real Ghostbusters (IDW Publishing, 2019), p. 2. Egon mentions the "LaMarche Boards," named for his voice actor, Maurice LaMarche.
