Voice Actor Tamio Ohki Passes Away At 89

Voice of Ghost in the Shell's Aramaki, planetarian's Hoshi no Hito

Voice acting agency Mausu Promotion announced on Tuesday that voice actor Tamio Ohki passed away on December 14 while being treated for an unspecified illness. He was 89.

Ohki is perhaps best known for voicing Chief Aramaki in both of Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence films. He made his debut in voice acting in anime with the 1968 Kyojin no Hoshi series, voicing the character Shigeru Suzuhara.

Since then, Ohki has been prolific in many anime productions, with major roles in such shows as A Dog of Flanders (Cozets), Voltes V (Professor Sakunji), Daimos (General Miwa), New Gigantor (Dr. Franken), Gunbuster (Captain Tatsumi Tashiro), The Heroic Legend of Arslan (Innocentis VII, Narrator), Eureka Seven (Ken-Goh), Rurouni Kenshin: New Kyoto Arc (Nenji Kashiwazaki), Wolf Children (Yamaoka), JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (Tompetty), Hal (Tokio), and Black Bullet (Kikunojō Tendō). He most recently voiced the titular Hoshi no Hito from the planetarian: Hoshi no Hito anime.

He is also known for providing the Japanese dub voice for the character of Professor X in the X-Men films, and Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.