Morgan Freeman admits he used a coach to get his iconic voice

It may just be the most iconic voice in movie history but Morgan Freeman had to put in lots of hard work to sound the way he does now.

Ask someone what the first thing they'd recognise about Morgan Freeman is and chances are they'll tell you it's his deep, luscious voice which has purred across an impressive list of projects.

It's the kind of voice lots of people will try and copy but never quite manage to replicate properly, and there are plenty of movies which would be incredibly difficult to imagine without him sounding the way he does.

A line like 'get busy living or get busy dying, that's goddam right' wouldn't have hit anywhere near as much in The Shawshank Redemption had it not been Freeman's voice delivering the line.

It's not all down to the voice, of course, as over the course of his career he's picked up an Academy Award and been nominated several more times but it is one of those tools which has made him so recognisable.

BBC/The Graham Norton Show

However, Freeman hasn't always had that iconic voice and we're not just talking about the earliest years of his life.

It would be a bit weird for a toddler to be sounding like Morgan Freeman, but even once he'd grown up a bit it took some work before he got the voice we all know and love.

Freeman credits the work of a teacher at the Los Angeles City College (LACC) where he was allowed to take classes for free after getting a job there as a transcript clerk.

The actor went into LACC with a southern accent and came out with the voice we now unmistakably associate with Freeman.

He's spoken about this several times, largely because everyone wants to know what the deal is with a voice like his, and Freeman has explained that he needed to be taught how to speak to get the voice he has now.

Castle Rock Entertainment

One of the many interviews Freeman has given about his voice was to Larry King in 2016, where he explained how his teacher taught him to speak with a new voice.

He said: "The voice started when I was in college, in my first efforts in officially learning the talent, the business of acting.

"You should be trying to get your instrument honed and part of your instrument is the voice. I had an instructor, Robert Whitten at the LACC who nailed elocution, diction, breath control all of that into his students.

"You make a record at the beginning of his class and at the end of the class you made a record so you could hear the difference."

Freeman revealed that his voice became deeper thanks to the lessons after being taught how to relax his throat, but he now doesn't remember what he used to sound like.