Commercials: The Voice from Brooklyn

Alexander Scourby, 54, is a television anomaly — a performer who is often heard, but seldom seen. The rich, resonant bass that frets, in the name of Johnson & Johnson Band-Aids, "It's a dirty world," is Scourby's. The voice that expresses Eastern Air Lines' sentiment, "We want everyone to fly," is his. He is also the fellow on the tele phone commercial who explains warmly that "We may be the only phone company in town, but we try not to act like it."

There are nights on the tube when Scourby (pronounced Score-bee)...