Phil Hartman

Philip Edward "Phil" Hartman was a Canadian-American actor and comedian, who was the original voice of Zapp Brannigan. When Matt Groening was developing the characters for Futurama, he created Zapp specifically for Phil Hartman to voice because of his work on The Simpsons during the 1990s, where he gained an extremely positive reputation among the cast and crew. But, in the commentary for “Love's Labours Lost in Space”, Matt Groening says that Hartman insisted on auditioning for Zapp’s voice anyway and “he came in, and of course he nailed the part”. Tragically, Phil Hartman was murdered on May 28, 1998 by his wife Brynn at age 49, just a few weeks after the audition. No dialogue had been recorded, and so the part was given to Billy West. In tribute, Zapp’s voice was modeled in the same style that Phil Hartman had intended for the character, and Philip J. Fry gained his first name in honor of Hartman.