Published on Aug 8, 2011 
 
 Open the Pod bay doors, HAL. "I know you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and that is something I cannot allow to happen." 
 
 Alright, HAL, I'll go in through the emergency airlock. 
 
 "Without your space helmet, Dave, you're going to find that rather difficult." ||||| Mr. Rain’s HAL has become the default reference, not just for the voice, but also for the humanesque qualities of what a sentient machine’s personality should be. Just ask Amazon’s Alexa or Google Home — the cadence, the friendly formality, the pleasant intelligence and sense of calm control in their voices evoke Mr. Rain’s unforgettable performance. As we warily eye a future utterly transformed by A.I. incursions into all aspects of our lives, HAL has been lurking. 
 
 To Scott Brave, the co-author of “Wired for Speech: How Voice Activates and Advances the Human-Computer Relationship,” HAL 9000 is a mix between a butler and a psychoanalyst. “He has a sense of deference and of detachment,” Mr. Brave said, adding that he saw a ripple effect on, for example, the iPhone’s virtual assistant. “When I listen to something like Siri I feel there is a lot in common.” 
 
 Even when Kubrick was making the film, the director sensed HAL’s larger implications. He said in a 1969 interview with the author and critic Joseph Gelmis that one of the things he was trying to convey was “the reality of a world populated — as ours soon will be — by machine entities that have as much, or more, intelligence as human beings. We wanted to stimulate people to think what it would be like to share a planet with such creatures.” 
 
 So how was this particular creature created? 
 
 The “2001” historian David Larson said that “Kubrick came up with the final HAL voice very late in the process. It was determined during ‘2001’ planning that in the future the large majority of computer command and communication inputs would be via voice, rather than via typewriter.” ||||| Today we lost Douglas Rain, a member of our founding company and a hugely esteemed presence on our stages for 32 seasons. He will be greatly missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.pic.twitter.com/dxcffgGEiA ||||| Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Hal discovered a plan by Dave (Keir Dullea) and Frank (Gary Lockwood) to disconnect him 
 
 Actor Douglas Rain, who was the voice of the sinister computer Hal in sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey, has died, the organisers of a theatre festival he founded have said. 
 
 Rain died at the age of 90, according to the Stratford Festival in Canada. 
 
 The actor performed for 32 seasons at the Shakespearean festival and was nominated for a Tony Award in 1972. 
 
 But he will be best remembered as the voice of Hal 9000, the AI computer in Stanley Kubrick's landmark 1968 film. 
 
 Hal controlled the spacecraft's functions, but ended up rebelling against its human commanders when they planned to disconnect him after suspecting he was malfunctioning. 
 
 The film is regarded as a cinematic masterpiece and won an Oscar for Kubrick for best visual effects. 
 
 Rain's chilling, dry voice is key to the drama, but he wasn't the first choice to play the computer. 
 
 The director originally selected Oscar winner Martin Balsam - but decided he was "too colloquially American". 
 
 He also considered actor Nigel Davenport in the role, but later concluded he did not want a British voice. 
 
 So he called upon Rain after hearing his voice in the 1960 documentary Universe, according to The New York Times. 
 
 The actor recorded all his lines in 10 hours over two days, with the director sat "three feet away, explaining the scenes to me and reading all the parts", he said. 
 
 But, according to the New York Times, Rain never saw the finished film. 
 
 Stratford Festival's artistic director Antoni Cimolino said the actor shared Hal's intelligence - with added "warmth and humanity". 
 
 Anthony Hopkins said Hal influenced his performance as serial killer Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. 
 
 Beyond 2001, Rain was an accomplished stage and screen actor, and earned his Tony nomination for his role in Robert Bolt's Vivat! Vivat! Regina! on Broadway. 
 
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– Canadian actor Douglas Rain never appeared before the camera in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, but anyone who's seen the movie will vividly remember him anyway. Rain provided the voice for the HAL 9000 computer, which eventually turns against the human astronauts when it realizes they intend to disconnect him. "I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that," Rain informs astronaut Dave Bowman when Bowman famously asks him to open the pod bay doors (see the movie clip here). Rain has died at age 90, reports the BBC. The news was announced by the Stratford Festival, of which Rain was a founding member. Earlier this year, the New York Times wrote a story about Rain's role in the movie, noting that he wasn't Kubrick's first choice. Kubrick picked Martin Balsam, but he then decided the actor sounded "too colloquially American." He turned instead to Rain after hearing his voice in a 1960 documentary called Universe. "I think he's perfect," Kubrick wrote at the time. "The voice is neither patronizing, nor is it intimidating, nor is it pompous, overly dramatic, or actorish." The article makes the case that Rain's calm cadence has influenced how devices such as Amazon's Alexa and Google Home are heard today—and Anthony Hopkins used it as a model for his Hannibal Lecter. Rain wasn't primarily a voice actor, though: He had a distinguished career on the stage. (See where the movie ranks on a list of sci-fi classics.)