Anime director and voice actor Mike McFarland died on September 9th, 2026 at 56 years old from glioblastoma; an aggressive form of brain cancer. Known by many fans as the voices of Master Roshi and Yajirobe from the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z series, Jean Kirschtein from Attack on Titan, Buggy the Clown in One Piece and countless other works, McFarland’s impact on the english animated dub community is not only his voice acting but his dedication to a craft.
After joining the Funimation team in 1997, McFarland started his voice acting career as Master Roshi two years later in the hit anime Dragon Ball. He also became the ADR or voicing director for the Dragon Ball series and many others during his time with the company such as Ouran High School Host Club, Yu Yu Hakasho, and Fullmetal Alchemist.
With McFarland’s voice direction and passion to have English dubbing emulate the same emotions and inflections as their Japanese voice actor counterparts, many of the animes he worked on became wildly popular in the west. News of McFarland’s condition spread after his colleague Colleen Clinkenbeard posted that he had gone to the hospital for what he assumed was an ear infection, but had sadly been a brain tumor. Voice actors J. Michael Tatum and Brandon McInnis launched a GoFundMe for McFarland’s care in January of 2025.
Voice actors such as Matthew Mercer, Tatum, Clifford Chapin, AmaLee, Casey Mongillo, and Ryan Colt Levy all took to social media to express their heartfelt grievances at the passing of a mentor and a friend, citing their fond memories and McFarland’s passion for voice direction. While McFarland’s loss is heartbreaking to anime fans and to those that knew him, his work lives on in the voices of characters he’s provided, and the anime he helped shape in the industry.
