Chris Ayres, perhaps best known as Frieza’s English language voice actor, has passed away. Besides the iconic Dragon Ball character, Ayres also voiced Kei Kurono in Gantz, and Shingen Takeda in Sengoku Basara. He was 56 years old.
Ayres took over the Frieza role in Dragon Ball Z Kai, and voiced the character in Dragon Ball Super, as well as in the feature anime films Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F and Dragon Ball Super: Broly. Ayres was a tremendous talent and did an excellent job with Frieza.
Besides voice acting, Ayres was also a stage actor, scriptwriter, ADR director, and even a fight choreographer. He performed on and off Broadway during his varied career. Ayres’ final role was as Caller #1 in the animated short, The Dog Park: Prank Calls.
His partner and fellow voice actor Krystal LaPorte announced his passing on Twitter, writing, “Chris loved you all. How much he loved other people filled the vast majority of our conversations. To those of you who loved him back, thank you.”
“I hope that wherever you are,” LaPorte added, “the first thing you did was take a long, deep breath with your perfect lungs and danced again. I hope you saw a lot of people and animals I know you missed so deeply.”
LaPorte did not state the cause of death, but in 2017, Ayres was diagnosed with end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which required a double lung transplant. At the time, ANN reported that fundraisers were launched to raise $25,000 and cover the procedure.
Continuing, LaPorte wrote, “I know a lot of people are reading this will ask, ‘Is there anything I can do?’ Please be more like Chris. Please, if you learned anything from him, put it in this world. Please fill it with love and laughter, always.”
May he rest in peace.