Gage

In less than a month, four voices connected to completely different generations of animation, anime and gaming have gone quiet. But the characters they gave life to never will. 🕊️ • Mike McFarland was far more than the voice of Master Roshi, Jean Kirstein and Buggy the Clown. As an ADR director, writer and producer, he helped shape the English-language sound of anime including Fullmetal Alchemist, Dragon Ball and Attack on Titan. His influence was often heard even when his own voice wasn’t. • Peter Cullen became something incredibly rare: a performer whose voice became inseparable from a hero. For more than four decades, Optimus Prime carried Cullen’s strength, dignity and warmth, inspired by his brother’s advice to be “strong enough to be gentle.” He also gave generations the wonderfully gloomy Eeyore. • Tim Curry could make almost any character unforgettable. Beyond Rocky Horror, IT and Clue, his voice work gave us Nigel Thornberry, an Emmy-winning Captain Hook, and Chancellor Palpatine. Few performers could make a character sound hilarious, sinister and completely larger-than-life quite like him. • And Hayden Panettiere reached audiences from childhood onward, voicing Dot in A Bug’s Life and Kairi in Kingdom Hearts before becoming the face and voice of Sam in Until Dawn. Her career crossed television, film, animation and gaming, giving different generations completely different reasons to remember her. Four very different performers. Four voices attached to characters millions grew up with. The microphones may be silent now, but press play, start a game or revisit an old episode, and they’re right there again. ❤️