Pokemon: Professor Oak Voice Actor Unsho Ishizuka Passes Away At 68

It's a sad weekend for Pokemon fans. Veteran voice actor Unsho Ishizuka has reportedly passed away earlier this week. He was 68 years old.

Ishizuka lent his voice to Ash Ketchum's mentor Professor Oak in the original Pokemon series that debuted in 1997. Although the voice actor has continued working until earlier this year, Aoni Production announced that Ishizuka passed due to esophageal cancer on August 13.

Tekken game director Katsuhiro Harada paid tribute to Ishizuka. The voice actor took over as Heihachi Mishima when original voice actor Daisuke Gori passed in 2010.

Professor Oak might be Ishizuka's best-known role but the veteran actor has lent his voice to several memorable characters. His first notable work was as the narrator in the 1984 animated series Giant Gorg. He also worked on Lupin III, Rurouni Kenshin, Cowboy Bebop, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and One Piece. Ishizuka's most recent voice works were in Banana Fish, Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online, and Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These.

Japanese fans are certainly familiar with Ishizuka's voice since he has dubbed several Hollywood films over the past 34 years. He dubbed Liam Neeson's lines in films like Taken, A Walk Among the Tombstones, and Run All Night. Ishizuka also worked on Laurence Fishburne's dialogues in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice for Japanese audiences.

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