Mike McFarland, best known as the English voice of Master Roshi in Dragon Ball and Buggy the Clown in One Piece, has died aged 56 after a battle with brain cancer. McFarland died on Wednesday from glioblastoma, surrounded by friends and family at a care facility in Dallas, his friend and fellow voice actor Brina Palencia told TMZ. He began working in anime dubbing in 1997, when he became one of the first voice actors in Texas to be hired by anime distributor Funimation Entertainment.
He went on to become a voice actor, ADR director, script adapter, and line producer, working on English-language versions of some of the best-known Japanese animated series of the past three decades. In addition to Dragon Ball and One Piece, his acting credits included Jean Kirstein in Attack on Titan, Jean Havoc in Fullmetal Alchemist, and Teppei Sugo in Psycho-Pass. He also provided voices for English dubs of Japanese anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion, Lupin III, Tokyo Ghoul, My Hero Academia, Odd Taxi, and Trigun Stampede.
He also did voice work in video games including World of Warcraft and Fire Emblem Heroes, as well as the Borderlands and Street Fighter franchises. His best known work is in the long-running pirate adventure anime One Piece, where he voiced the character Buggy from 2007 until his death. The series, which started in 1999, follows Monkey D Luffy and his crew as they search for the legendary treasure known as the One Piece.
In a 2021 interview with Kotaku, as One Piece passed 1,000 episodes, McFarland described his approach to playing Buggy, saying: “Rather than just hitting all of the technical aspects…it all needs to sound like this is a real world where everything is happening and it doesn’t need to be anything less than that.” New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
McFarland’s illness became public in January 2025, after he withdrew from Central Florida Comic Con after doctors discovered a brain tumour. His One Piece co-star Colleen Clinkenbeard wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that McFarland had initially gone to hospital “with what he assumed was an ear infection and turned out to be a massive brain tumour”, and shared a GoFundMe appeal after he underwent emergency surgery. In August 2025, McFarland was diagnosed with glioblastoma following multiple brain-tumour surgeries, according to Anime News Network.
J Michael Tatum, his friend and fellow voice actor, paid tribute to McFarland, describing him as a friend and mentor of more than 20 years. The love you created endures, but damned if I know how we’ll get on without you around to share it back with,” he wrote on X. Matthew Mercer, who voiced Levi Ackerman in Attack on Titan, called McFarland “terrifyingly clever and witty”.
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