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The smooth-talking gangster Benny, the man responsible for putting a bullet in the Courier's head at the start of the game, is voiced by Matthew Perry. It's a genuinely different kind of role for him compared to the sitcom work he was best known for, and he leans into the sleazy charm really well.
Casting Wayne Newton as the radio host Mr. New Vegas is one of those decisions that just makes too much sense. Newton had been performing in actual Las Vegas for decades and was practically synonymous with the city, so having him play the smooth-voiced DJ of the Mojave's own radio station was a perfect bit of stunt casting that also happened to work brilliantly.
Michael Dorn, best known for playing Worf, returns as the super mutant Marcus, a character he'd already voiced back in Fallout 2. It's a nice bit of continuity for long-time fans, bringing back the same actor for a character who'd been off-screen since the second game in the series.
Kris Kristofferson, the country singer and actor from the Blade films, voices Chief Hanlon, the tired old NCR soldier who's grown disillusioned with the war for Hoover Dam. His weathered, gravelly delivery fits the character's exhaustion perfectly, which is probably exactly why he was cast.
The relentlessly cheerful, slightly unsettling Yes Man is voiced by Dave Foley of Kids in the Hall and NewsRadio fame. His upbeat, chipper tone is exactly what makes Yes Man so quietly creepy, since he's happy to help you no matter which ending you're steering the Mojave toward.
Obsidian clearly wanted Elvis all over this game, but they couldn't afford the licensing to actually use his music. Instead you get quest names that nod to his songs and films without ever playing them, like Nothin' But a Hound Dog, Return to Sender, and Viva Las Vegas. It's a clever workaround for a budget problem that ended up becoming its own little easter egg trail for fans who know their Elvis catalogue.
The performers at the Aces theater in the Tops, led by Tommy Torini, are called the Rad Pack Revue, a direct play on the real-world Rat Pack of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and friends. It goes a step further too, since actual Sinatra and Martin recordings show up on the in-game radio, tying the joke together nicely.
During the G.I. Blues quest you can find three men camped out named Roy, Wayne, and Farris. Put those together and you get Roy Wayne Farris, the real name of 80s wrestling star The Honky Tonk Man. It's such an obscure reference that even people who've played the game dozens of times tend to miss it completely.
In Old World Blues there's a tiny but surprisingly tough deathclaw called Stripe, and yes, that's a direct reference to the gremlin of the same name from the 1984 film. Get too close to him and he'll actually flee toward a fountain, mirroring the exact spot where the movie's Stripe meets his end.
During Honest Hearts, the tribal character White Bird can randomly blurt out the line 'take drugs, kill a bear,' which sounds completely out of place coming from him. It's actually a nod to an old advice animal meme format that was floating around online at the time, and the contrast between his character and the line is exactly what makes it land.
