On 11th November, the Canadian actor Douglas Rain passed away at the age of 90.  “What does that mean to me?” I hear you ask.  Well apart from being primarily a stage actor, Douglas Rain is as important in cinematic history as Majel Barrett as they both share one key importance, they’re both the voice’s behind a space ship’s computer, Majel was the voice on the USS Enterprise in The Next Generation and Douglas was the voice behind HAL9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010:The Year We Make Contact.

Stanley Kubrick decided to cast Rain as the Narrator for 2001 after hearing him narrate a documentary called Universe but then decided to cast him as “The creepy voice of HAL.”

If you’re ever going to be famous for something, make it a pivitol choice, HAL9000 is more famous than anyone else from 2001 and the line “What are you doing Dave?” is a top movie quote that has stood the test of time.