Talent agency 81 Produce announced on their website today that Toshiya Ueda, a voice actor overseen by their agency, passed away on February 8 at the age of 88. His cause of death was not disclosed by the agency.
Past roles, activities and more
Toshiya Ueda was born in 1933 in Sapporo, Hokkaido.
He was a prolific dubbing of English media, had a part in the Japanese dubbing of The A-Team, worked on a variety of other English dubbing, and played the part of Owl in the Japanese dubbing of Winnie the Pooh and Kingdom Hearts, and Splinter in the Japanese version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Some more notable roles in Japanese dubbing include his work as Dana Elcar, Itzhak Stern from Schindler’s List, and playing various characters in House of Mouse.
In terms of anime, he spoke Nefertiti Cobra from One Piece (the king of Alabastia and father of Vivi), played Blaine from Pokemon, and was known for his role as Tomio “Grandpa Tommy” Tamura in the anime Prince Mackaroo, a role which he has held since 1998. He also voiced Georges Lazare in Vampire Wars, Noriaki Watanabe in Midoriya High School Koshien and Viik in the Promised Neverland. In addition, he also had small roles in anime such as Dirty Pair, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, Lupine III: Part Two, Master Keaton, Gatchaman, Doraemon and Golgo 13.
He was also known for his voice over work in several NHK special documentaries, as well as his radio work for TBS. He also worked on the voices of several tokusatsu characters from Choushinshei Flashman, Hikari Sentai Maskman and Gekisou Sentai Carranger.
The roles listed here are by no means exhaustive. Ueda has over 100 credits in his anime work alone, and over 100 in his English media dubbing. He had a long and storied career in Japanese dubbing and animation.
On his agency’s site, they wrote the following about his death:
“Toshiya Ueda, an actor we represent through our agency, passed away on February 8, 2022. In accordance with the wishes of the family of the deceased, the funeral service was limited to immediate family members only. We would like to express our deepest gratitude and thanks for your kindness and support throughout his life.”
