10 Male Leaders Who Had Surprisingly High-Pitched Voices

Chances are when you envision what a male lead should sound like, you envision him with a deep, booming, passionate voice. It is true that there is some evidence to suggest that a deep voice is a crucial element in climbing the ladder. leadership ranks or be elected to office. However, you might be surprised to learn that some well-known male leaders sounded less like Mighty Mouse and more like Mickey Mouse. Here are 10 male leaders who had surprisingly high voices.

Related: 10 actors who didn’t get to use their own voice

10 charlemagne

Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great, was a Frankish king sometimes called “The Father of Europe.” He was a fierce warrior and conquered much of Western Europe. He united the Germanic people under the banner of Christianity. In AD 800, he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III.

Charlemagne was a large and imposing man. Einhard, an outspoken scholar and contemporary of Charlemagne, described Charlemagne as “broad and strong in body shape and exceptionally tall” and “his appearance was impressive whether sitting or standing despite having a fat neck and too short, and a big belly.”

Given this description, it is somewhat surprising to learn that Charlemagne had a high-pitched, stuttering voice. Einhard, for his part, described Charlemagne’s voice as “clear, but not as strong as the size of him led one to expect”. Based on these descriptions, Charlemagne appeared to have the body of a wrestler but the voice of a shy preteen.^[1]

9 George Washington

While Charlemagne is known as “The Father of Europe,” Washington is known as “The Father of America.” Like Charlemagne, Washington was a big, stocky guy. A contemporary in the 1750s described him as “standing six feet two inches [188 cm] in her tights and weighing 175 lbs. His frame is padded with well-developed muscles, indicating great strength.” Washington was also a military genius, well educated, personable, and fashionably dressed. These traits helped make him the first President of the United States.

Washington’s accomplishments are even more impressive when you consider that he sounded like a coward. This was due to several factors. When Washington was a child, he suffered from pleurisy (a viral infection that causes inflammation of the lining of the lungs), which caused him to develop a breathy, high-pitched voice.

Besides, Washington’s mouth was a mess, with rotten teeth. This was not only unsightly but also caused horrible bad breath. Because of this, Washington avoided opening his mouth too wide when speaking. This was so as not to offend whoever was speaking with a view of his bad teeth and a breath of his stinky breath.^[2]

8 Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was a leading figure in American history, both figuratively and literally. A true physical specimen, Lincoln stood at 6’4″ (193 cm) with sinewy muscles. His athleticism and toughness are the stuff of legend. He was able to throw grown men like rag dolls, was unbeatable at wrestling, and loved to play sports until he was elected president at the age of 51. Once in office, he faced the United States, which was at war with itself. on the issue of slavery and came perilously close to dissolving as a nation. Lincoln skillfully led the country back from the brink and won the war.

Lincoln was also known for his speaking abilities, and he wrote some of the most notable speeches in American history. However, Lincoln’s voice surprised those who heard it. His voice was described as “a thin tenor, or rather a falsetto…almost as high-pitched as a boatswain’s whistle”. Others described his voice as “shrill” or “high-pitched.” This might have been an advantage, as his voice was also described as having “plenty of transmitting power, which could be heard over a long distance despite the bustle and tumult of a crowd”.^[3]

7 George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver was a leading American agricultural scientist and one of the most prominent black scientists of the 20th century. He introduced revolutionary ideas to replenish depleted soil. He also strongly advocated that farmers in the South grow crops other than cotton, such as sweet potatoes and peanuts. He was one of the first advocates of environmentalism. He traveled the country promoting his causes and became known as “The Peanut Man.” He left a lasting impression, not only because of his incredible ideas, but also because of his surprisingly high-pitched voice.

Carver’s voice was so high-pitched that a rumor began to spread that his master castrated him in his youth. It is highly unlikely that this is true. Instead, Carter’s high-pitched voice likely came from bouts of diphtheria when he was younger. His high-pitched voice was so unique that it is often considered remarkable enough to be mentioned alongside his other achievements.^[4]

6 Joseph Stalin

The history of the brutal Russian dictator Joseph Stalin has been so exaggerated and rewritten that it is sometimes difficult to pin down what is fact and what is propaganda. We know that he was born in the country of Georgia. He came to power after the death of Vladimir Lenin and brutally purged all who opposed him. His policies caused widespread famine, as tens of millions of people were savagely murdered or starved to death under his rule. Stalin also portrayed himself as a wartime leader when he resisted Hitler’s invasion of Russia.

Stalin was very image conscious and worked hard to build a cult of personality around an imagined ideal of himself. He rarely appeared in public. He took great care when being photographed to hide the fact that he was actually very short, standing only 5’4″. Stalin also had a voice actor record most of his speeches to hide the fact that he had a high-pitched voice. In fact, he sang as a tenor. Far from being a Russian bear, he was more like a Russian mouse.^[5]

5 Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco was a fascist dictator of Spain. Franco gained power from him by overthrowing the democratic republic of Spain in the Spanish Civil War. Like Stalin, once he came to power, he brutally cracked down on anyone who opposed his fascist rule. Franco remained the autocratic ruler of his country until his death in 1975. In World War II, Franco maintained Spain’s neutrality at first. He quickly changed his tune and began to humiliate himself before Hitler after the fall of Paris in 1940. Hitler reportedly found Franco very irritating, commenting that he “would rather have three or four teeth knocked out” than negotiate with him again.

As for what Hitler found annoying about Franco, it is possible that Hitler viewed Franco as a weak man as Franco was extremely short (5’3″ or 160 cm) and lightning thin and also had a high pitched voice and squeaky While Hitler may have expected to meet up with a fellow fascist macho leader, Franco likely came across as more of an annoying Spanish-speaking Muppet.^[6]

4 George S. Patton

General George S. Patton was a successful and highly decorated American general in World War II who commanded Allied forces in battles in North Africa and Europe. He was a headstrong and determined man with a no-nonsense approach to war and life. Patton was known for leading from the front, fearlessly leading his 3rd Army across France and into Nazi Germany in the waning days of the war. He died shortly after the war from injuries in a car accident while still in Europe.

Patton was immortalized in the 1970 film that bears his name, with George C. Scott taking on the role of the legendary general. As a result, most people remember Scott’s voice when they imagine what Patton sounded like. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. While Scott had a deep, gravelly voice, the real Patton had a surprisingly high-pitched voice. Patton himself claimed that he made up for his feminine-sounding voice by dropping a large number of F-bombs.^[7]

3 Walter Ulbricht

Walter Ulbricht was the president of communist East Germany. As seems to be the case with autocratic strongmen, Ulbricht mercilessly crushed anyone who opposed him. After Stalin’s death in 1961, Ulbricht was able to weather the wave of de-Stalinization that swept across Europe and kept East Germany firmly aligned with the former Russian dictator’s tenets. Ulbricht held his position of power as East Germany’s supreme leader until his death in 1973.

Ulbricht regularly recorded radio speeches dispensing communist rhetoric to the East German population. He did so in a curiously high-pitched voice. His voice was described as “flute” or “singing”. Despite this, some East Germans became almost nostalgic for Ulbricht’s voice in comparison to the screeching voices of his successor, Erich Honecker.^[8]

2 Augusto Pinochet

Augusto Pinochet rose to power in Chile after carrying out a bloody military coup in 1973. He ruled the country as a military dictator for nearly two decades. Like other dictators on this list, his reign was marked by brutal repressions, executions, and disappearances of those who opposed him. Pinochet was arrested in London in 1998 for “crimes of genocide and terrorism.” He died in 2006 without ever having been tried for his crimes.

Pinochet’s speaking voice was perhaps only slightly higher than normal, but he was also well known for speaking in a very shrill tone. In particular, when he made speeches, his voice often reached higher octaves. This theme of having a much higher voice when delivering speeches applies especially to our final entry. ^[9]

1 Counterpoint: Adolf Hitler

When it comes to “squeaky-voiced speakers,” many people probably think of Adolf Hitler. Hitler’s speeches were characterized by their shrill, angry and manic tone as he sought to irritate the crowds and keep them captivated by his Nazi ideology. He is basically the embodiment of “dictator screamingtrope.

However, Hitler had a secret. He was very careful to make sure no one recorded him speaking in his normal voice. Despite this, there is only one known recording of Hitler speaking in a conversational voice. The recording in question involves Hitler speaking with Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, Finland’s military leader, in 1942. The recording was made in secret by a Finnish broadcast engineer. When Hitler’s guards realized that he was being secretly recorded, they surprisingly did not demand that the tape be destroyed. Instead, they demanded that it be “hidden, never revealed.”

The tape was kept hidden from the public for nearly 15 years, but was finally released in 1957. In contrast to his high-pitched, crazed voice when speaking to a crowd, Hitler’s conversational voice is deep, even, and almost soft. Above, you can hear the rarely heard normal voice of Adolph Hitler.^[10]