Meet the Man Who Played Barney the Dinosaur from 1992 to 2000

Bob West is a voice actor who is best known for being the original voice of Barney the Dinosaur.

Bob West, a native of Texas, auditioned for Barney back in 1987 like any voice actor would (with a written description of the character and maybe a picture). As he recalls, "I didn't get the description until a few minutes before the first audition (and no drawings?), so I had to pretty much create it on the spot, which is common. There was at least one callback audition, I think and the voice was adjusted a bit, as it was before and during early production. At the time, they were also considering using one person for both body and voice, but I was too tall for the costume they'd already started making." ^[1] Since then, Bob's voice for Barney has changed over the years. Bob's voice was not only used in the Barney and the Backyard Gang videos and on the Barney & Friends television show, but also on a 70 market radio show, on Multi-Platinum and Multi-Gold albums, for a feature film, for CBS and NBC primetime specials, as a Daytime Emmy presenter, for toys, for educational games, and for live tours and "personal appearances." In addition, he voiced interviews on The Today Show, Live With Regis & Kathy Lee, Oprah, The Phil Donahue Show, John & Leeza, Marilu, and appearances around the world.^[2] In 2000, (which was also his final year of voicing Barney), Bob retired from doing the purple dino's voice after doing his voice for 2 more Barney videos (Barney's Rhyme Time Rhythm, & Barney's Musical Castle), and the role was handed to Duncan Brannan, Tim Dever, and then Dean Wendt