During the times I interviewed comedian and entertainer Rich Little, I always marveled at his vocal talents.

Hailed as one of the great celebrity voice impersonators, Little, 86, had a range for recreating a stable of star vocals from Jimmy Stewart and George Burns to Kermit the Frog, John Wayne and history’s most noted U.S. presidents of recent decades.

Little always said, sometimes he discovered he was too good at his uncanny impressions of others.

For example, the late king of Late Night Johnny Carson was not a fan of hearing Little’s spot-on vocal version of the host of “The Tonight Show.”

It was so good, it earned Little the chance to be cast as Carson in the 1996 made-for-cable movie “The Late Shift” about the power struggle between Jay Leno and David Letterman to succeed Carson as the next host of NBC’s “The Tonight Show.”

Besides his headliner stage show career in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Lake Tahoe and numerous TV appearances, Little’s talent was also a natural fit for voice-over work.

Tracie Martin, of Munster, a mother of two, wrote to me recently asking for advice for her oldest child’s interest in voice-over work.

“Hi Phil — I’m really searching for training resources for voice acting for my kiddo,” Martin wrote.

“Where would I even start looking? I’m not in this community at all! I’m mostly looking for advice about classes, college paths and training. Thank you for any guidance.”

During my decades of interviewing actors and notables, it’s not uncommon for active television and movie actors to transition to voice-over work. Of course, some stars like Morgan Freeman find a perfect career balance of both.

While in Los Angeles in 2005, I interviewed actor Alan Young, familiar to many nostalgic TV viewers as the human foil of the talking horse title character on the CBS sitcom “Mr. Ed.” When needed, Young, who died at 96 in 2016, was able to tap into the English/Scottish brogue of his youth in North Shields, England. In his later years, Young found a lucrative second career providing voice-overs for TV cartoon characters, most notably, wealthy but stingy Uncle Scrooge McDuck of Disney fame.

His distinct yet differing voice tones allowed him to slip into the identity of many other noted cartoon favorites, including Farmer Smurf of “The Smurfs” and supporting characters on “The Ren and Stimpy Show,” “Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends” and “The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show.” He also found lucrative work providing voice-overs for video games.

The most celebrated of local claim-to-fame voice-over artists for our Midwest roots extending to international attention is a fellow alum of Valparaiso University, JoBe Cerny, who operates his own voice-over talent studio in downtown Chicago.

The 1970 VU grad is still known to millions as “the Cheer detergent man,” the poker-faced soul who faithfully pushed laundry soap without ever saying a word. Wearing his trademark wire-rimmed glasses and sporting his “cookie duster” mustache, Cerny starred in a series of commercials in the 1990s, usually shown gripping a soiled shirt in each hand and plunging them into sudsy water to reveal the results based on each detergent brand.

But his true “rise” to fame comes from the decades Cerny has served as the voice of the Pillsbury Doughboy. It’s his pipes behind that famous giggle, which he’s been providing since 1987.

Cerny, who originally hails from Cicero, now lives in Highland Park, Illinois, where his neighbor David Rudman is the talent providing the voice and puppetry for “Sesame Street” icon Cookie Monster, a cookie-crumbling career he has had since 2002.

While today’s ever-changing challenge from the advent of artificial intelligence has many fearing the fall of human talent needed for voice-over duties, Cerny is confident human talent will always prevail and “talent remains ageless.”

Cerny was quoted in the Chicago Tribune published obituary for voiceover actress Fern Persons, who died at 101. He had directed Persons in one of her last performances for a commercial voice-over.

“The last time Fern came to my studio, she was 99 years old,” Cerny said.

“We helped her up the stairs, and she was as feisty as ever. Once we got going, she lit up the room. She still had it.”

“It’s pretty funny to think that the voice of the Pillsbury Doughboy is next-door neighbors with the voice of Cookie Monster,” said Cerny, who returned to the VU campus during the holidays to greet students and autograph copies of a new biblical stories boxed CD set featuring dozens of famous voices.

Cerny’s last visit to Valparaiso University was in 2012 to promote a set of audio Bible recordings featuring a who’s who of famed names lending their vocals to bring to life greats of the scripture.

“Word of Promise New Testament Audio Bible” stars actor Michael York as the narrator while Jim Caviezel, who starred in “The Passion of the Christ,” reprises the vocals of Jesus. Academy Award winner Richard Dreyfuss is Moses with fellow Academy Award winner Marisa Tomei as Mary Magdalene and Golden Globe winner Stacy Keach as Paul, Academy Award and Golden Globe winner Lou Gossett Jr. as John, Lou Diamond Phillips as Mark, the late Luke Perry as Judas and John Schneider of TV’s “Dukes of Hazzard” as James.

A starting point for learning more about a career in voice-over acting is to read “How Actors Make Money and Create Careers,” a 208-page paperback guide written by Cerny in 2014 and available online.

PhilPotempa@gmail.com