Voice Over Talent Industry News

Mike McFarland, the voice of Master Roshi and Yajirobe in Dragon Ball, of Buggy in One Piece and of Jean Kirstein in Attack on Titan, died on September 9. He was 56. He had undergone surgery to remove a brain tumour in January 2025, a second operation that April, and was diagnosed with glioblastoma in August of that year. Voice actress Brina Palencia, who had helped organise the fundraising campaign that supported him through his illness, confirmed the news, which was first reported by TMZ and Anime News Network on September 10.

Most obituaries will lead with the characters, and rightly. McFarland's Master Roshi was, for a generation of English-speaking fans, the definitive version of the old turtle hermit: lecherous, lazy, and then, when it counted, the most serious person in the room. His Yajirobe was comic cowardice with a core of decency. His Buggy the Clown in One Piece was gleeful noise. His Jean in Attack on Titan was the opposite, a young soldier whose arrogance slowly turns into leadership. Add Makoto Hyuga in the Evangelion films, Hiroshi Odokawa in Odd Taxi, and roles across Case Closed, Fullmetal Alchemist, the Lupin III films and Trigun Stampede, and you have a range most performers would be content with.