Izetta, One Piece, Arslan voice actor Cole Brown passes away

After working on FUNimation’s English dubs for more than a decade, voice actor Cole Brown passed away on November 18th. He was 60 – such an early loss for a man who gave us so much joy. His multitudes of roles included One Piece‘s Blackbeard, Vahriz in The Heroic Legend of Arslan and Heaven Canceller in A Certain Magical Index, as well as the Celestial Spirit King in Fairy Tail, and the narrator for Jormungand and Desert Punk.

Just this season, Brown was voicing Lord Redford in FUNimation’s dub of Izetta: The Last Witch. They announced his passing to fans on Thursday, and stated that David Wald, who also voices Fairy Tail‘s Gajeel Redfox, will be taking his place in the role from now on.

A hero in more than the 2D realms, Brown also served as a firefighter and paramedic. He will be missed in all the lives he touched, as an actor or otherwise, and our thoughts are with his loved ones at this time.