The Funimation and Crunchyroll veteran voiced Master Roshi in ‘Dragon Ball Z’ and directed English dubs for ‘Attack on Titan’ and ‘Fullmetal Alchemist.’
ByTrey Alston
September 12, 2026
Key Takeaways
- Mike McFarland, the voice actor behind Buggy the Clown in One Piece and Master Roshi in Dragon Ball Z, died September 9 at a Dallas care facility at age 56.
- McFarland had been battling glioblastoma, a brain cancer diagnosed in August 2025 after emergency surgery earlier that year, and friends and family were with him when he died.
- Beyond voice acting, McFarland worked as a line producer and ADR director for Funimation and Crunchyroll, directing English dubs for Dragon Ball, Attack on Titan, YuYu Hakusho and the Rebuild of Evangelion films.
- Crunchyroll confirmed his death in a statement calling him “an incredible talent” and “a good friend to so many,” while fellow actors including J. Michael Tatum and Matthew Mercer shared tributes.
Mike McFarland, the voice behind Buggy the Clown in One Piece and Master Roshi in Dragon Ball Z, has died at the age of 56.
According to Deadline, the veteran anime actor and dub director died on Thursday (September 10) surrounded by friends and family. He had been fighting brain cancer.
Crunchyroll confirmed his death in a public statement on Instagram. “Mike brought so much to all of us who knew him, and to all of the anime fans that knew his work,” the company wrote. “He was an incredible talent, a good friend to so many of us, and will be sorely, sorely missed.”
Born Michael McFarland on July 14, 1970, in Texas City, Texas, he joined Funimation in 1997. Two years later, he landed Master Roshi in Dragon Ball Z,the first major role in a career that would run nearly three decades.
Buggy the Clown later became his signature role. He first voiced the One Piece pirate in 2007 and stayed with the character until his death.
His range stretched far past those two franchises. He was Yajirobe in Dragon Ball, Jean Kirstein in Attack on Titan, Jean Havoc in Fullmetal Alchemist, Teppei Sugo in Psycho-Pass, and Mashirao Ojiro and Ectoplasm in My Hero Academia.
Later credits included Hiroshi Odokawa in Odd Taxi, Big Bad Wolf in Date A Live IV and E.G. Mine in Trigun Stampede, alongside work on One-Punch Man and Tokyo Ghoul.
Beyond the microphone, McFarland was a central force in the anime industry in other ways. He also worked as a line producer, ADR director and ADR script adapter for Funimation and later Crunchyroll, steering English dubs of the Dragon Ball franchise, YuYu Hakusho, and Attack on Titan.His goal was to match the tone of the original Japanese versions, and he pointed to Cowboy Bebop and Wolf’s Rain as the standard.
His health issues came to light in January 2025, when he pulled out of Central Florida Comic Con because of an illness later revealed to be a brain tumor. Voice actor Colleen Clinkenbeard wrote that he had gone to the hospital believing he had an ear infection and instead went straight into emergency surgery.
A second operation followed in April 2025 to track down an unknown infection, and by that August, he was diagnosed with glioblastoma.
