Why Bad Bernie From TMNT: Mutant Mayhem Sounds So Familiar

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" features age-appropriate stars in the roles of the four titular turtles, but the rest of the cast is filled with more recognizable names. Most of those supporting characters come in the form of Superfly (Ice Cube) and his gang of fellow mutants, who attempt to create an army of mutated animals to take over the world. Everyone from Rose Byrne and John Cena to Post Malone has a role in the crew.

However, not every character in "Mutant Mayhem" is a mutant. The turtles also tussle with some classic New York City crooks, including Bad Bernie, voiced by Michael Badalucco. Badalucco's name isn't one you might have conjured as quickly as the film's bigger stars, but his voice will surely sound familiar to a lot of moviegoers.

A true veteran of Hollywood, the actor has been appearing on the big screen for over four decades, and he's arguably been even more successful in his TV career. Here's why Badalucco — the voice of Bad Bernie — sounds so familiar.

Most actors would love to have a historic film like Martin Scorsese's "Raging Bull" be their first proper film credit. For Michael Badalucco, who played an unnamed soda jerk in the movie, that's actually the reality. Badalucco had similarly minor roles in a number of other big films through the '80s and early '90s, including "Desperately Seeking Susan," "Miller's Crossing," "Sleepless in Seattle," and Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever."

Moving further into the '90s, Badalucco started getting some bigger parts, playing Mathilda's father in the acclaimed 1994 film "Léon: The Professional" and infamous serial killer David Berkowitz in Spike Lee's 1999 thriller "Summer of Sam." He played another real-life criminal in the 2000 Coen brothers classic "O Brother, Where Art Thou," portraying George "Baby Face" Nelson. The very next year, he played an even bigger role in the Coens' next picture, portraying Frank Raffo in "The Man Who Wasn't There."

Though he's appeared in dozens of films, Michael Badalucco is probably best known for his leading role as lawyer Jimmy Berluti on the acclaimed ABC legal drama "The Practice." A complicated man with his own share of struggles who tries to do the right things, Jimmy stays at the center of the show for all eight seasons.

Both Badalucco's longest-running role and his most critically acclaimed, his performance on "The Practice" earned him a Primetime Emmy win in 1999 for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series. He was nominated again the next year but lost to Richard Schiff of "The West Wing," which also stole the award for best drama series from "The Practice" that year.

Running from 1997 to 2004, "The Practice" was one of Badalucco's first TV roles, and it kicked off a small-screen career that's still going strong today. Though he's never again been a series mainstay, he has had small parts on many similar crime shows and legal dramas, popping up in everything from "Bones" and "Monk" to "Boardwalk Empire" and "Lilyhammer."

In more recent years, Michael Badalucco has split his time pretty evenly between the big and small screens. After an eight-episode stint on "The Young and the Restless" as Mark Hogan in 2010, he played Arty in the Hulu miniseries "The Confession" alongside John Hurt and Kiefer Sutherland. He then appeared in the short-lived CBS spy comedy "Chaos" as Fred Farmer before returning to the big screen for films like John Turturoo's "Fading Gigolo" and 2015's "Addiction: A 60's Love Story."

Badalucco's most high-profile role in the last few years is probably that of Howard Gross, father of Ben Gross, on the Mindy Kaling Netflix comedy "Never Have I Ever." Playing the father of one of the high school saga's main protagonists, Badalucco shows up in a handful of episodes. However, since his character is infamously absent from his son's life, he never becomes too major of a player.

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" is one of Badalucco's first voice-acting roles ever, and it could signal more to come. The actor has done everything and then some in a career that's spanned nearly 45 years, and there's no doubt that he has lots more in store.