David Hayter

David Bryan Hayter (born February 6, 1969) is an American voice actor, actor, and screenwriter. He is best known for providing the English voices of Solid Snake and Naked Snake in the Metal Gear series, and for writing the screenplay for X-Men and co-writing the screenplay for X2. Earlier in his acting career, he played the lead role in the live-action Guyver: Dark Hero. Hayter makes a cameo in a specially-filmed live action sequence in the beginning of the game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Biography
Though born in California, Hayter's parents were Canadian. He started acting at the age of 9. He also did some live acting in the early 1990s, but became interested in voice acting after making a cameo appearance in an episode of the sitcom Major Dad, and later landed the role of Captain America in the popular 1994 Spider-Man animated series. He also provided the voice of Arsène Lupin III in the English version of the anime film The Castle of Cagliostro.

In 1998, Hayter voiced Solid Snake in the highly successful PlayStation video game Metal Gear Solid. He provided Snake's voice in later Metal Gear Solid games such as Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, and provided the voice of a youthful Big Boss in the prequels Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. He reprised the role of Solid Snake, now prematurely aged and given the new codename Old Snake, in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Hayter also provided the voice of Solid Snake for the character's guest appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Metal Gear-related works

 * Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (2010) – Big Boss
 * Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008) – Old Snake
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008) – Solid Snake
 * Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (2006) – Naked Snake/Big Boss
 * Metal Gear Acid 2 (2005) – Solid Snake
 * Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (2005) – Naked Snake/Big Boss
 * Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004) – Naked Snake/Big Boss
 * Metal Gear Acid (2004) – Solid Snake
 * Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (2004) – Solid Snake
 * Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (2002) – Solid Snake
 * Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001) – Solid Snake
 * Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions (1999) – Solid Snake
 * Metal Gear Solid: Integral (1999) – Solid Snake
 * Metal Gear Solid (1998) – Solid Snake

Trivia

 * In the original manual of Metal Gear Solid, the voice of Solid Snake is credited to Sean Barker, which was the name of the character Hayter played in Guyver: Dark Hero.


 * According to GameFAQs user Chris Ho's interview with Paul Eiding, Hayter gave up half of his own paycheck in order to bring back the cast of Metal Gear Solid for The Twin Snakes. This is the reason why the voice acting in The Twin Snakes was almost completely redone with the same voice actors, one of the few differences being that while Greg Eagles played both the Cyborg Ninja and Donald Anderson (who was really Decoy Octopus) in the original, Eagles only provided the voice for Anderson/Decoy Octopus in the remake, while Rob Paulsen replaced him as the Ninja.


 * An interview with Hayter by Game Informer in 2001 showed that Hayter wished for the then-unconfirmed Metal Gear Solid movie to be animated or made in CGI so he could provide the voice of Solid Snake. He also wished to be the screenwriter under the possible supervision of Hideo Kojima.


 * Hayter is one of the few Metal Gear Solid actors to date to have actually played and beaten the Metal Gear games he's voiced in, while co-star Christopher Randolph (Otacon) has only beaten Metal Gear Solid.


 * Hayter had written a 324-page screenplay adaptation to the graphic novel Watchmen by Alan Moore and David Gibbons. Known for being a harsh critic of translations of his works to film (perhaps most notably the film version of V for Vendetta), Moore said of the script "David Hayter's screenplay was as close as I could imagine anyone getting to Watchmen." Unfortunately, his script was ultimately rejected, although unspecified elements of his script were integrated into the final draft, and he is given a screen credit for his writing.