McFarland was 56 years old.
Mike Mcfarland, who is most known as the original voice actor for Master Roshi and Yajirobe from Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, has unfortunately passed away. The news was announced by his former co-star and friend, Tiffany Vollmer, who voiced the original Bulma. He was 56 years old.
McFarland was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2025, after cancelling an appearance at the Central Florida Comic Con event. He was taken to surgery and was subsequently recovering, but would later be diagnosed with glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer, in August of that same year.
Much of his recovery period was kept in private, with the news of his passing only being publicly announced by Tiffany Volmer, whom McFarland had worked with for Dragon Ball.
Who was Mike McFarland?
Mike McFarland was an American voice actor, ADR director, script writer, and line producer mainly working on English dubbing for anime. His career began in 1997, and broke out in 1999 when he was cast as Master Roshi in Funimation's English dub for Dragon Ball Z. McFarland would reprise his role as Master Roshi a number of times, with his last appearance as the character in Dragon Ball Super.
Besides Dragon Ball, McFarland also worked on a number of smash-hit tiles, which include: Fullmetal Alchemist, Baki the Grappler, and One Piece, Attack on Titan, and Tokyo Ghoul, to name a few. McFarland also worked on the original 2001 anime Fruits Basket as Ritsu Soma, a role he would later reprise in its 2019 remake.
McFarland also directed a number of dubs under Funimation, including the Rebuild of Evangelion movies, Attack on Titan, Barakamon, Handa-Kun, and more.
McFarland also voiced in video games, with his last role being Caellach from Fire Emblem Heroes.
The industry mourns this profound loss. Rest in Peace.