John Berger was a legendary art critic, novelist, painter and… video game voice actor?
Twitter users were flabbergasted to discover that the late British writer supplied the voice of East End gangster Albert Crisp in the 1999 video game Grand Theft Auto: London 1969.
The author of Ways of Seeing can be heard [from 0:47] delivering lines such as “Pretty little thing ain’tcha?”—perhaps a reference to his popularisation of the notion of the “male gaze”—and asking the player to “fix a few ungrateful little gits”.
While subsequent instalments in the best-selling—and ultra-violent—series have featured Hollywood stars like Ray Liotta and Samuel L. Jackson, video game acting was a bit more amateurish in 1999. Apparently, production company Rockstar happened to be recording audio for the game in the same studio as Berger and he agreed to voice the Kray brothers-inspired baddie.
Berger’s lack of acting experience doesn’t appear to have held the series back – the latest Grand Theft Auto is believed to be the highest-grossing entertainment product in history.