American voice actor, writer and director Mike McFarland, known for voicing Buggy the Clown in One Piece and Master Roshi in Dragon Ball, died on 9 September. He was 56.
McFarland died after battling glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. Anime News Network reported that doctors diagnosed him with the disease in 2025.
McFarland became one of the early and influential figures in Texas’s anime production scene. He began his career with Funimation and later continued working with Crunchyroll after the companies merged.
“Mike brought so much to all of us who knew him, and to all of the anime fans that knew his work. He was an incredible talent, a good friend to so many of us, and will be sorely, sorely missed,” Crunchyroll said in a statement to Deadline.
McFarland voiced Buggy the Clown in One Piece from 2007 until his death. He also voiced Master Roshi and Yajirobe in Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z.
His other notable roles included Jean Kirstein in Attack on Titan, Jean Havoc in Fullmetal Alchemist and Teppei Sugo in Psycho-Pass.
McFarland also lent his voice to Makoto Hyuga in the Evangelion film series, Sky Master in Heaven’s Lost Property, Goemon Ishikawa in Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine and George in Case Closed.
His more recent credits included Hiroshi Odokawa in Odd Taxi, Big Bad Wolf in Date A Live IV and E G Mine in Trigun Stampede.
Beyond voice acting, McFarland worked as a script writer, director and line producer. Through those roles, he made a lasting contribution to the English-language anime industry.
