Homer Simpson’s Voice Tackles Another Cartoon Character, This Time on the Stage

Maybe you know the voice--or the face. Chances are, however, that Dan Castellaneta has been in your living room a lot over the past 3 1/2 years and you didn’t even know he was there.

As a quick-change artist on the now-defunct “Tracey Ullman Show,” Castellaneta is often asked, “Who were you on that?”

“I say, ‘Well, I was this guy and that guy and that guy.’ ”

More recently, the actor has attained invisible celebrity as the voice of Homer Simpson on Fox-TV’s hit animated series “The Simpsons.”

Now he’s playing another comic-book figure in “American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar,” which is at Theatre/Theater in Hollywood. The show is Vince Waldron’s adaptation of the autobiographical comic-book writings of Iowa file clerk Harvey Pekar.

“Harvey is one of only a few artists who work in the comic-book medium that actually writes to an adult audience,” said Waldron, a Second City alumnus who also directed the piece. “Harvey’s work celebrates everyday, normal people--who may not be gangsters or cowboys or astronauts or high-priced defense attorneys.”

The show itself moves in strip form, piecing together Pekar’s wise--and often whiny--social observations in a string of low-key, quirky vignettes. The characterizations are funny, memorable and wildly self-conscious.

“We tried not to introduce traditional structure,” said Waldron, whose co-written autobiography of ‘60s singer Ronnie Spector, “Be My Baby,” was just released. “Harvey doesn’t lay on any false sentiment or epiphanies. That’s his badge of honor.”

Sometimes the honor is a lonely one. Though Pekar has had his share of the limelight--he’s made six appearances on “Late Night With David Letterman”--his 15-year output is relatively slim: one issue a year. “A lot of people haven’t heard of him,” said Castellaneta, who learned about Pekar’s work from Waldron a few years ago. “You can get American Splendor at comic-book stores, but they sort of shove it against the wall with the underground comic books like the Freak Brothers and the pornographic comic books.”

Onstage, Castellaneta, 33, fits easily into the Harvey character.

“He sort of looks like an older version of me,” he said. “Short and dark, kind of ethnic-looking, thinning on top. I grew my sideburns down like his.”

From the outside, there’s not much to suggest more than a mild-mannered file clerk at a VA hospital. “He really looks like an average Joe,” the actor said, “but then you find out he wrote an article about African history, he’s a huge jazz enthusiast, knows a lot about theater, and is very well read.”

Castellaneta comes to the role via “mostly comedy” roles in Los Angeles and Chicago--his last dramatic role was a college production of “Uncle Vanya”--plus a lot of off-camera voice work. “When I was in Chicago, my wife and I were sort of a voice team,” said the actor, who distinguishes between his voice work and career voice-over performers like Mel Blanc. “My wife has a very low voice--lower than mine--and I have this sort of twitty-guy voice. So there was a nice play between us.”

Castellaneta regards his behind-the-scenes role on “The Simpsons” as a definite advantage. “Doing it allows me to be free to go out and read for other things,” he said. “It doesn’t necessarily seem to be a vehicle from which I could do movies. But on the other hand, it’s really nice to be a part of something that’s so successful and looks to continue for a long period--something stable. It’s also great for breaking the ice at auditions, getting conversations going. And yeah, my voice is out there.

The actor registers “extreme” surprise at the Simpson mania.

“I thought it’d be a solid show for Fox,” he said. “I didn’t think it’d compete with the other networks. On top of that, I didn’t think it’d actually be a craze. There are people who are crazy about it. At colleges, it’s like the thing to watch. So being in it is sort of the best of both worlds: I can walk around and not be bothered, like Roseanne Barr or Bill Cosby. One day I saw this guy in a Homer T-shirt--you don’t see many with just Homer--and I thought, ‘He doesn’t know that Homer Simpson is walking right by him.’ ”

“American Splendor” plays at 8 and 10:30 p.m. Saturdays at Theatre/Theater, 1713 Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood, to Dec. 15. Admission is $10. (213) 466-1767.