Stop me if you've heard this one: "I love Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas!" It’s a classic line. But honestly, if you want to get technical—and since you're reading about the cast of The Nightmare Before Christmas, you probably do—Tim Burton didn't even direct it. Henry Selick did. Burton was busy with Batman Returns. But while the visual style is all Burton, the heartbeat of the movie comes from a group of actors who had to breathe life into literal puppets.
It’s a weird challenge. You aren't just reading lines in a booth; you’re trying to match the jerky, frame-by-frame soul of a stop-motion figure. The result was a lightning-in-a-bottle moment for Disney and Touchstone. This wasn't the usual "hire a massive A-list movie star for marketing" strategy we see in every animated flick today. Instead, they hired character actors. They hired singers. They hired people who sounded like they belonged in a graveyard.
The Man with Two Voices: Jack Skellington
When we talk about the cast of The Nightmare Before Christmas, everything starts and ends with Jack. Here is the thing most people forget: Jack Skellington is actually two different people.
Chris Sarandon provided the speaking voice. You know him as Prince Humperdinck from The Princess Bride. He brings this elegant, theatrical melancholy to Jack. He sounds like a Shakespearean actor who just happens to be a skeleton. But when Jack starts singing about his "empty place inside," that’s Danny Elfman.
Elfman, the composer, wasn't originally supposed to sing the part. But as he wrote the songs, he realized he was Jack. He felt that same mid-life crisis Jack was feeling—this sense of being the best at something but feeling totally hollowed out by it. If you listen closely, the transition between Sarandon’s speaking and Elfman’s singing is surprisingly seamless, mostly because they both lean into that "theatrical longing" vibe.
Catherine O’Hara and the Quiet Power of Sally
Sally is the moral compass of the whole movie. She’s literally stitched together, a ragdoll held together by thread and sheer willpower. Catherine O’Hara, long before she was Moira Rose on Schitt's Creek, gave Sally this fragile, airy quality.
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It’s a masterclass in subtlety. Sally spends half the movie being poisoned, locked up, or jumping out of windows to escape Dr. Finkelstein. O’Hara’s voice has this slight tremble that makes you think she might fall apart at any second, but there’s a steel underneath it. When she sings "Sally’s Song," it’s not a powerhouse Broadway belt. It’s a folk-tinged lament. It’s interesting to note that O’Hara also voiced Shock (one of the trick-or-treaters), showing off a range that most people totally miss on their first dozen viewings.
The Villain Nobody Saw Coming: Oogie Boogie
Ken Page. That’s the name you need to know.
Oogie Boogie is the only character who feels truly "dangerous" in a movie filled with monsters. While everyone else in Halloween Town is basically a misunderstood artist, Oogie is a gambler and a sadist. Page, a veteran of Broadway (he was Old Deuteronomy in the original Cats), brought a Cab Calloway-inspired jazz energy to the role.
The cast of The Nightmare Before Christmas needed a heavy hitter for the music, and Page delivered. His "Oogie Boogie’s Song" is the only track in the film that feels like a Vegas lounge act from hell. Page has mentioned in interviews that he initially played the character much more menacingly, but the crew encouraged him to lean into the "showman" aspect. It worked. He’s the most charismatic pile of bugs in cinematic history.
The Supporting Players: William Hickey and Glenn Shadix
You can’t overlook the secondary characters who fill out the edges of the frame. William Hickey, who played the cranky Dr. Finkelstein, had one of the most distinct voices in Hollywood. He sounds like sandpaper rubbing against a tombstone. He brings a weird, possessive energy to the doctor that makes his relationship with Sally genuinely creepy.
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Then there’s the Mayor. Glenn Shadix, who worked with Burton in Beetlejuice as Otho, voiced the two-faced politician. It’s such a literal piece of character design—he has a happy face and a sad face—but Shadix makes it feel human. His frantic, high-pitched "Jack, I’m only an elected official here, I can’t make decisions by myself!" is a perfect satire of bureaucracy. Shadix sadly passed away in 2010, but his performance remains the comedic backbone of the film.
The Trick-or-Treaters and the Paul Reubens Connection
Lock, Shock, and Barrel are the "little henchmen" archetype, but the casting is brilliant.
- Paul Reubens (Pee-wee Herman) played Lock.
- Catherine O’Hara played Shock.
- Danny Elfman played Barrel.
Yes, Elfman was pulling triple duty as the composer, the singing voice of Jack, and a cackling little trick-or-treater. Reubens, who was a close friend of Burton’s, brings that signature nasal energy that makes Lock feel like the annoying leader of the trio. It’s a tiny detail, but having these veteran performers voice the kids keeps the energy high even when the plot slows down for the "Kidnap the Sandy Claws" sequence.
Why This Specific Cast Worked
Most animated movies today sound like a collection of "cool people." Nightmare sounds like a collection of characters.
There is a gritty, theatrical texture to the voices. Ed Ivory, who played Santa Claus (or "Sandy Claws"), doesn't sound like a Coca-Cola commercial Santa. He sounds like a tired, confused old man who has no idea why he’s being shoved into a burlap sack. That groundedness is what makes the fantasy elements work. If the voices were too cartoony, the stakes would disappear.
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The cast of The Nightmare Before Christmas also benefited from the sheer length of production. Because stop-motion takes years, the actors had time to sit with these characters. They weren't just in for a four-hour session. The voice work often informed the animators. If an actor gave a line a certain "twitch" or "stutter," the animators would incorporate that into the puppet’s movements. It was a symbiotic relationship between the vocal cords and the armature wire.
Behind the Scenes: The Roles That Almost Happened
There’s a lot of lore about who didn't make the cut. Patrick Stewart actually recorded a lengthy opening and closing narration for the film. He was wonderful, obviously—it’s Patrick Stewart. But the filmmakers felt his voice was too "grand" and "authoritative" for the quirky, scrappy vibe of Halloween Town.
They ended up cutting most of it, leaving only a few lines that were eventually performed by Ed Ivory. You can still find Stewart’s recordings on the soundtrack, and honestly, they’re beautiful, but they change the tone. It goes from a "weird little story" to an "epic saga," and Nightmare is definitely the former.
Real-World Impact and Legacy
The actors in this film didn't get huge paydays upfront. This was a "cult" movie that grew into a billion-dollar merchandising empire. Now, you can’t walk into a Hot Topic without seeing Jack’s face.
For the cast of The Nightmare Before Christmas, this movie became a career-defining project that they still talk about at conventions thirty years later. Chris Sarandon has often said that he gets more fans asking about Jack Skellington than he does about any of his live-action roles. There’s a timelessness to the vocal performances because they aren't tied to 1993 slang or pop culture references. They’re based on archetypes: the lonely hero, the trapped girl, the boisterous villain.
What You Should Do Next
If you want to really appreciate what these actors did, you've got to change how you watch the movie next time.
- Listen to the soundtrack first. Put on a pair of good headphones and just listen to the "Jack and Sally’s Song" or "Oogie Boogie’s Song." Without the visuals, you can hear the tiny breaths, the cracks in the voices, and the incredible orchestral layering Danny Elfman put together.
- Watch the "Making Of" documentaries. Specifically, look for footage of the recording sessions. Seeing Ken Page physically act out Oogie Boogie’s movements while standing at a microphone explains why that character feels so big on screen.
- Check out the live-to-film concerts. Every few years, Danny Elfman and members of the original cast (like Catherine O'Hara and Ken Page) perform the movie live at the Hollywood Bowl. Watching them inhabit these characters decades later proves that the voices weren't just "jobs"—they were parts of their actual personalities.
The magic of this movie isn't just the clay or the lighting. It’s the fact that when Jack Skellington sighs, you actually believe a skeleton is sad. That’s not CGI. That’s acting.