Mike McFarland, Voice Of Master Roshi And Jean Kirstein, Dies At 56
McFarland's death closes out a career spent on both sides of the booth, since the same person cast the English voice of Jean Kirstein and ran the ADR direction and scripts behind many of the dubs fans know those characters from.
Reporting from 1 source: Beneath the Tangles.
Mike McFarland died on September 9, 2026 at 56, according to a remembrance published by Beneath the Tangles. He voiced Master Roshi and Yajirobe in Dragon Ball, Jean Havoc in Fullmetal Alchemist, Jean Kirstein in Attack on Titan, and Buggy in One Piece, and worked as an ADR director, script writer, and producer. The writer interviewed him in 2018 at Wizard World Austin and recalls him as gracious.
He was 56. The characters listed in the remembrance span the biggest dubs of the past two decades, and the roles were only part of the job: McFarland also directed ADR, wrote scripts, and produced English-language versions of anime series and films.
The writer met him at Wizard World Austin in 2018 and ran into him at other events over the years, describing him as consistently gracious and noting the same account from people who worked with him. The 2018 conversation covered acting, writing, directing, and the process of bringing stories to English.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.
Sources
- Beneath the Tangles Beneath the Tangles