Mike McFarland Diagnosed With Brain Tumor

[eledoremassis02]

According to what I've seen online (no official word from what I can see), Mike McFarland passed away

Edit: Anime News Network updated his page (no article yet)
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encycl ... hp?id=1122

[JulieYBM]

Yeah, seems like a few of his industry friends and colleagues have been paying tribute on social media the last few hours. What a shame, he was really young. He seemed like a really nice guy from what I was able to gleam over the years, too.

It's really surreal to see someone from those early years of FUNimation pass away. He and Sabat were the first two hired and were regular folks who worked at FUNimation back when it was just ten guys in a tiny office pumping out dubs on a dime.

Hopefully his family doesn't have to deal with any extra bullshit following this, either.

[eledoremassis02]

Yeah, seems like a few of his industry friends and colleagues have been paying tribute on social media the last few hours. What a shame, he was really young. He seemed like a really nice guy from what I was able to gleam over the years, too.

It's really surreal to see someone from those early years of FUNimation pass away. He and Sabat were the first two hired and were regular folks who worked at FUNimation back when it was just ten guys in a tiny office pumping out dubs on a dime.

Hopefully his family doesn't have to deal with any extra bullshit following this, either.

I didn't know that about him being one of the first recasts. Out of all the new voices when FUNi switched over, I always liked his take. Wasnt a fan of the Dragon Ball dub but he was easily tops for me there.

[JulieYBM]

Yeah, seems like a few of his industry friends and colleagues have been paying tribute on social media the last few hours. What a shame, he was really young. He seemed like a really nice guy from what I was able to gleam over the years, too.

It's really surreal to see someone from those early years of FUNimation pass away. He and Sabat were the first two hired and were regular folks who worked at FUNimation back when it was just ten guys in a tiny office pumping out dubs on a dime.

Hopefully his family doesn't have to deal with any extra bullshit following this, either.

I didn't know that about him being one of the first recasts. Out of all the new voices when FUNi switched over, I always liked his take. Wasnt a fan of the Dragon Ball dub but he was easily tops for me there.

Yeah, he and Sabat did the 1998 dub of Movie #2: Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle. That was FUNimation's big test before they decided to do the rest of the Dragon Ball Z dub down in Fort Worth, if memory serves.

[TheRed259]

One of the best voices of Master Roshi.

May his soul rest in peace.

[OmegaRockman]

Fuck cancer. 56 is far too young.

Mike McFarland was one of the greatest actors and directors at Funimation. I've praised his Muten Roshi a ton over the years, and for good reason. Even with the less than stellar scripts he was given, he always managed to land both the goofy and dramatic sides of the character in ways that felt true to that Toriyama spirit. He also had a great everyman voice that worked so well for characters like Havoc in FMA and Odokawa in OddTaxi. His Buggy is every bit as legendary as Shigeru Chiba's (and as a big fan of Chiba, I don't say that lightly), and when he took over for Helmeppo I could hardly tell the difference. And that doesn't even begin to cover his other supporting roles and bit parts. Such a stellar performer.

As for his directing work, the two big series that come to mind are Fullmetal Alchemist (which he co-directed with Colleen Clinkenbeard) and One Piece. I remember listening to the commentary track on Conqueror of Shamballa and being absolutely blown away by the amount of care that he and Clinkenbeard put into casting and making sure everything sounded great, and it absolutely paid off; the FMA dub has such naturalistic performances that if I didn't know better I might be convinced that the show was prelay.

The One Piece dub must've been such a gargantuan ship to steer. Keeping track of a cast that large, many of whom would return in those roles literally a decade later, all while playing the catch-up game AND voicing two major characters is a monumental task. Just getting the thing to be solidly GOOD would be an achievement, but he managed to make the One Piece dub one of the best Funimation ever put out. As expected with such a long series, the dub's directors have shifted over the years, but none of them would've been able to keep the show sounding so consistently great without the foundation McFarland laid. And even then, I think his era was the absolute best. The modern dub, while still great, sounds a tad rushed in places, like there isn't necessarily time for extra takes. But McFarland's era always sounds on point, taking the time to get things just right. I dunno how to describe it fully; it just HITS.

Long story short, Mike McFarland was one of the greats. His work deserves every bit of praise it gets, and from everything I've heard, he was also a joy to work with. An absolutely generational talent whose work I'll miss dearly. My heart goes out to him and his loved ones, and I hope he rests well.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

May he RIP. He was a great Roshi and I loved what I saw of the One Piece dub.

[Lord Beerus]

Horrible news to wake up to.

RIP

[WittyUsername]

Wikipedia hasn’t updated his page yet, but if his co-stars and people who knew him personally are saying he’s dead, then it’s fair to assume he’s dead. He was also one of the four OG FUNimation voice actors who was still around in some capacity with the company, the other three being Chris Sabat, Laurie Steele and Brad Jackson.

RIP

[Dbzfan94]

Horrible news. I always loved not just his performance as Roshi but Yajirobe and Eighter too. And honestly for me, his Baby in GT is a stand out voice for me, one of the reasons I enjoy the Baby saga so much. Never met him at a convention or anything but he sounded like a great guy too. RIP to a legend, and one of the true OGs of the Funimation cast

[SHINOBI-03]

Losing one of the OG FUNimation voices is heartbreaking and a scary reminder to the time how long I have been into Dragon Ball or even following this website and Podcast as Mike "Vegetto EX" doing the McFarland Roshi voice stuck in my mind from the early Daizenshuu EX days from nearly 20 years ago!

[PowerPhantom245]

Such a sad news...

[Vegetto95]

While I personally am not at all a fan of his voicework in the Dragon Ball dubs, I got NOTHING against the guy as a human being whatsoever. 56 is certainly way too young, and this is definitely very tragic news. Crazy to think he'd been doing voices for FUNi for damn near half his whole life at this point.

I just hope he wasn't in a great deal of pain since it seems like he was diagnosed over a year and a half ago. Fuck cancer.

Rest in peace, Mike.

[coola]

Lost my dad to cancer 13 years ago as well, fuck cancer, RIP one of best English dub voice actors.

[Tian]

It's really tragic to learn that we lost another member of the big Dragon Ball voice acting family.

My deepest condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.

[CodeOfMe]

Rest in peace.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I believe this is only the second time to date as of now that a FUNimation VA/director and someone affiliated with the Dragon Ball franchise on the U.S English side of things has passed, with the previous being Brice Armstrong (OG DB's narrator, Captain Ginyu.etc) back in 2020 as it's tended to be largely the older members of the original Japanese voice cast, those who were in the Ocean/Blue Water dubs and other foreign dubs for the most part in recent years.

Anyway RIP Mike, and it's crazy to think he went all the way back to the early in house days with the initial dub of Dragon Ball movie 2, as him, Chris Sabat, Brad Jackson and Laurie Steele were among the first of the new cast when the transition happened back in 1998 even before dubbing started up on DBZ again a short time later.

[The Accountant]

His voice of Roshi will always be memorable. Talented and accomplished voice actor. Rest in peace.

[WittyUsername]

There’s an unfortunate irony in the fact that Mike McFarland’s most famous role was an immortal old man, only for him to die relatively young.

Come to think of it, Kōhei Miyauchi was one of the first voice actors on the Japanese side of Dragon Ball to pass away, wasn’t he?

[jjgp1112]

I believe this is only the second time to date as of now that a FUNimation VA/director and someone affiliated with the Dragon Ball franchise on the U.S English side of things has passed, with the previous being Brice Armstrong (OG DB's narrator, Captain Ginyu.etc) back in 2020 as it's tended to be largely the older members of the original Japanese voice cast, those who were in the Ocean/Blue Water dubs and other foreign dubs for the most part in recent years.

Anyway RIP Mike, and it's crazy to think he went all the way back to the early in house days with the initial dub of Dragon Ball movie 2, as him, Chris Sabat, Brad Jackson and Laurie Steele were among the first of the new cast when the transition happened back in 1998 even before dubbing started up on DBZ again a short time later.

Chris Ayres as well