Fans (and maybe enemies, too -- he is far from universally beloved) may be surprised to know that Teller is actually a master of language with a rich baritone voice. He just chooses not to use either.

They may also be surprised to know that he made that choice before he ever started working with his longtime stage partner Penn Jillette. Penn & Teller, as they are both better known, have been working together for decades, but each has been in showbiz even longer.

"I had always liked the idea of working silent," Teller (who dropped his other name, legally, not long after dropping his voice) said in a 2013 interview with Variety magazine. "I was just interested in the idea that since magic was deception and lying, it was just an interesting thing to lie without speaking, to lead the audience to see the impossible thing without telling them what to think."

He generally maintains his silence in all of his various pop-cultural appearances -- on top of their long-running stage show at the Rio hotel in Las Vegas, Penn & Teller also have a TV show called "Fool Us," their latest of many TV forays -- however, he has made exceptions. He's done TV interviews and radio commentaries, and had a small speaking role in the mostly unseen 2012 indie picture "Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike."

That film was a very polarizing one, which is fitting since Penn & Teller are themselves polarizing figures. Their main claim to fame is as magicians who break the cardinal rule of magic: they reveal their secrets. Much of their stage shows are devoted to explaining the mechanics behind their tricks.

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