For longtime fans of survival horror video games, the original Silent Hill will always remain one of the best of all time. Although each game introduces its own protagonist, Harry Mason from the 1999 classic is still perhaps the most memorable. He’d be briefly shown in Silent Hill 3 and reimagined in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, but only in the original PlayStation game was he portrayed by voice actor “Michael G.”
In the credits for Silent Hill, Michael G. is the only voice actor credited with an initial in place of a last name. Because of this, nobody really knew who he was or if he had even done voice work in other games. This would set the wheels in motion for a search for the man who played Harry Mason, with curious gamers trying to solve the mystery for almost two decades.
Video game voice actor Michael Gough, who’s perhaps best known for voicing Deckard Cain in the Diablo games, has been falsely credited by imdb for the role in the past. Once Gough himself said it was definitely not him, this left fans back at square one. It wouldn’t be until the summer of 2018 when the mysterious Michael G. of Silent Hill fame was finally identified by the website RelyOnHorror.com, who scored an exclusive interview!
As it turns out, Michael G. is actually voice actor Michael Guinn. His distinct voice can also be heard in games like Ridge Racer and Time Crisis, but his biggest role besides Harry Mason is certainly as Dracula in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. In the interview, Guinn admits he hadn’t realized the scope of how big Silent Hill had become, but started to get an idea when game programmers he’d meet would always gasp when he told them about his involvement.
So, we finally know who the unknown voice actor really is, but that leaves one question. Why was he credited as Michael G. in the first place? Fortunately, Guinn solves this mystery as well, which basically all comes down to it being easier for the people in Japan to pronounce.
“They wanted it to be catchy and easy. You think that a lot of thought goes into these things, but I was literally in that meeting with my management and Sony, and I said, ‘When we were kids, we just used to use our initial for our last name,'” Guinn explains. “And everybody just lit up. They were like, ‘Oh, it’s GREAT! Michael G. It’s PERFECT!'”
Nearly two decades later, it has to be surreal for Guinn to find out he’s been the subject of a video game mystery spanning such a long time. Much in the same way his character Harry Mason was tirelessly searching for his little girl, fans of the game were doing the same with Michael G. The full interview is very interesting and provides a good look at how Silent Hill was made, so head on over to RelyOnHorror.com to read more!
