"Life, Stephen, and Stephen Hawking: This is Dr. Dennis H. Klatt  You probably never heard of him  He is the American computer scientist who gave  Stephen Hawking his artificial voice in the winter of 1987,  at least 5 years before it would have been available.  Over 300 individual recording clips of Dr. Klatts actual  voice are what we heard when Stephen Hawking 'spoke'.  Dr. Klatt knew Stephen Hawkings life expectancy was  short, so he completed the programming in record time.  Stephen Hawking was extremely grateful and sent Dr. Klatt  a personal letter of thanks and an invitation to visit him.  It was not meant to be. Dr. Klatt died of cancer less than  a year later. He had worked on the voice program while  undergoing chemotherapy, and (ironically) even  after the cancer had taken his own voice.  Over the years, every time Professor Hawkings voice  technology was upgraded he was offered 'better', more  natural sounding voices, even one that was customized  to sound like his original voice, British accent included.  He always refused, saying ""Thank you, no, my  late friend Dennis voice IS my voice"". Wholesome Hawkings"
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