“This Ming’s a psycho.”
Truer words have never been spoken, and they’re some of the few lines from Flash Gordon that feature Sam J. Jones’s original speaking voice.
Jones (aka, King of the Impossible) departed the film before post-production began due to disagreements with producer Dino De Laurentiis. Unfortunately, the ADR process hadn’t started yet. As Jones said in an interview with Maxim:
“…producer Dino De Laurentiis and I bumped heads a few times – there were a few misunderstandings. In my naivety [sic] at the age of 25 I just let the attorneys handle everything – I just let my representation handle it and they did not do a very good job at all….I didn’t go back for looping and dubbing so they ended up using another actor to loop – I think about half the film was actually not my voice.“
To loop Jones’s dialogue, director Mike Hodges brought in actor Peter Marinker.
Marinker, a British actor, polished up his American accent and delivered a performance that was so close to Sam J. Jones’s voice, Hodges recalled that “You would never know it wasn’t him.”
As if that didn’t make him worthy enough for the geek hall of fame, Marinker has since racked up other credits, including as a goblin in Labyrinth, the unlucky captain of the Event Horizon, and the narrator from The Witcher (2007).
Check out Marinker talk about the role of Flash Gordon in the video below.
While Jones was being dubbed, another actor’s voice didn’t make the cut either.
George Harris (who went on to played Kingsley Shacklebolt in the Harry Potter films and Captain Katanga in Raiders of the Lost Ark) played the blue-blooded Prince Thun, who has his life cut short because Ming couldn’t go one day without being an ass.
As if that wasn’t enough, Harris also had his voice looped by another actor during ADR. His real voice can still be heard on the track “Ming’s Theme” from the Flash Gordon soundtrack (0:49 mark).
If we all wish hard enough, Sam J. Jones and George Harris will return for a sequel. If we wish even harder, so will Peter Marinker.
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