Waalkes also works as a voice actor, providing the German voices of Mushu in Disney's Mulan, Sid the Sloth in the Ice Age franchise, and the Grinch in The Grinch, among others.
Waalkes was born as the second son of Karl Waalkes, a master painter, and his wife Adele (born Lüpkes). Together with his older brother Karl-Heinz, he grew up in the working-class district Transvaal in Emden. His parents were deeply religious Baptists and members of the Evangelic Free Church community of Emden, which taught a Bible-class that Waalkes visited regularly. He made his first public performance at the age of eleven years in a shopping mall in Emden, where he presented songs, including the Babysitter Boogie, a German version of the Baby Sittin' Boogie. He was awarded with a voucher of 30 Deutschmark and the book Mutiny on the Bounty. When Waalkes was twelve years old, he received his first guitar. In 1964, he performed for the first time in the area of Emden with his band The Rustlers, mainly covering songs by the Beatles. Waalkes was the front of the band, being the lead singer and the lead guitarist simultaneously. He toured with his band in the regions of Eastern Friesland for five years.
In 1968, Waalkes passed his final exams (Abitur) at a boys' grammar school in Emden. After having failed to obtain a university place in Freie Malerei ("free art studies"), he started to study art education at the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg in 1970, although he never pursued a teaching profession. Among others, he was taught by Hans Thiemann, a German painter.

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