Pick the actor

I went to see Iron Man at the movies this week.

It was much better than I expected it to be - mainly due to the fantastic lead performance from Robert Downey Jr. He's awesome!

Usually I know quite a lot about movies before I see them - who's in the cast, the director, etc. Although there was a lot of hype for Iron Man, I somehow missed it - all I knew was that it was based on a Marvel comic book, and it starred Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark and Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts. I didn't even know that Jon Favreau directed it, and I love him!

Anyway, during the movie I got very distracted because I was trying to work out who played Obadiah Stane (Iron Monger), and who voiced Jarvis (Tony Stark's computer).

Here's a photo of Obadiah Stane:



This is a very famous actor, and he was very good in Iron Man, but I just couldn't pick it. Can you? Scroll down a bit...
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I was embarrassed to discover that it's The Dude!



Yes, that's right - Jeff Bridges. Very very famous. It was the bald pate that got me.

And now to the voice of Jarvis. Unfortunately I can't find a decent clip of it, but basically Jarvis the computer has a lovely English accent - very droll. I convinced myself that it was Jude Law at first, but by the end of the movie I was sure it was someone else who I really like - but I couldn't work it out.

I couldn't be bothered waiting for the credits to show me the answer (and apparently he's uncredited anyway), so I checked on IMDB when I got home...

And found that Jarvis was voiced by Paul Bettany:



He talked about the voice role in a recent interview. I adored him in Master and Commander, and even quite liked him in the silly rom-com Wimbledon. He was freaky as Silas in The Da Vinci Code.



As Dr Stephen Maturin in Master and Commander

As Peter Colt in Wimbledon

As Silas in The Da Vinci Code

Aaah, I love solving mysteries like this. It's very satisfying. I really should be studying though...