text: Actor Who Voiced HAL In '2001: A Space Odyssey' Dies | WCBS Newsradio 880
  Actor Who Voiced HAL In '2001: A Space Odyssey' Dies
  November 12, 2018 - 12:27 pm
  STRATFORD, Ontario (WCBS 880) -- The actor behind the eerie HAL 9000 computer in the science fiction classic "2001: A Space Odyssey" has died at the age of 90.
  Douglas Rain, who was also an acclaimed Shakespearean actor, died Sunday, a theater company he helped found said on Twitter.
  "Today we lost Douglas Rain, a member of our founding company and a hugely esteemed presence on our stages for 32 seasons. He will be greatly missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family," The Stratford Festival wrote on Twitter.
  The murderous HAL computer was the central villain in Stanley Kubrick's groundbreaking 1968 film about a spacecraft on a voyage to Jupiter to investigate a shadowy obelisk.
  HAL controls the ship's systems but ultimately develops a mind of its own, killing off members of the crew and leaving the film's protagonist in open space to die as it seeks to fulfill the voyage's primary mission.
  Rain's emotionless delivery of HAL stuck with generations of viewers, and HAL was ultimately ranked number 13 in the American Film Institute's list of the greatest villains in movie history.