Earl Hammond, born Erwin Saul Hamburger on June 17, 1921 in Manhattan, New York, had a career in performance that stretched from childhood into the late 1990s. He began working as a professional actor on radio at the age of seven and continued in that medium for over five decades before becoming a prolific voice actor in animated television, particularly in the English dubs of Japanese anime and animated series that were heavily inspired by anime aesthetics.

Hammond is best known to fans of 1980s animation for his dual roles in the iconic series ThunderCats. He provided the voice for the ancient, wise cleric Jaga, as well as the series primary villain, the ancient, mummified sorcerer Mumm-Ra, the ever-living source of evil on Third Earth. His vocal range allowed him to portray a wide array of other characters on the same show, including the villainous Vultureman, the Snowman of Hook Mountain, and the pirate Hammerhand.

Beyond ThunderCats, Hammond was a staple of the Rankin/Bush Animated Entertainment productions. He voiced the primary antagonist Mon Star, a space-faring criminal who transforms into a powerful armored being, in the series SilverHawks. His work on English-language adaptations of Japanese anime included providing voices for the series Star Blazers, which was the English dub of Space Battleship Yamato, as well as the English versions of Ultraman, The Space Giants, and Thunderbirds 2086.

In 1986, he voiced the character Captain Kidd in the American-Japanese co-produced space western series The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers. Captain Kidd was a self-serving, parrot-like alien smuggler and mercenary who commanded a starship called the Iron Falcon, a character described as having the personality of Long John Silver.

Later in his career, Hammond performed voice work in several animated features. He voiced the character Blaminhoe in the 1988 English dub of the French science fiction film Gandahar, which was released in the United States as Light Years. He also provided the voice of Tsar Nicholas II in the 1997 animated film The Secret of Anastasia.

Among his notable achievements outside of television animation, Hammond was selected from hundreds of actors who auditioned to be the voice of Pope John Paul II on the audiobook version of the Random House publication Crossing the Threshold of Hope. The publisher reported that the pope personally selected Hammond for this role. He also voiced the Transformers villain Megatron in a series of children's read along books.

Earl Hammond passed away on May 19, 2002 in Manhattan, New York City at the age of 80, leaving behind a substantial legacy as a foundational voice actor in the golden age of animated fantasy and science fiction.