Hi all!
Some sad news to share, the Gatchaman community has lost another of the voice actors from the original Gatchaman TV series. Hideo Kinoshita, who was the voice of the omnipresent Narrator, passed away on March 8th. His wife, Yumi Kinoshita, announced his passing yesterday in her blog. The cause of his death was not revealed. He was 82 years old.
Born in July of 1931, he began his acting career after her graduated from Meiji University in 1953, acting on stage and in commercials. He began voice acting in anime productions in 1960, when he gave life to Cho Hakkai, the pig in the famous novel "Saiyuki," better known here as "Journey To the West." His first starring role was as Sinbad in 1962 anime film "Arabian Nights * The Adventures of Sinbad."
In his role as the Narrator, Mr. Kinoshita was one of only three regular members of the "Gatchaman" voice cast to appear in all 105 episodes of the series, along with Katsuji Mori as Ken and Mikio Terashima as Berg Katse. Occasionally, he provided the voices for minor guest characters that appeared in episodes, including sailors, reporters, ISO Representatives, and the voice of Joe's father.
After the mid-1970s, Mr. Kinoshita did very little acting work. Instead, he assisted in his wife's career as a top manicurist, and eventually became the Vice President of the nonprofit Japan Nailist Association. His last voice acting role came in 1999, when he dubbed the voice of John Spencer in his role as Chief Al Travis in Japanese release of "The Negotiator"
His daughter, Mihori Kinoshita, has followed in her mother's footsteps as a manicurist.
While Mr. Kinoshita may be lost to us now, we are fortunate that we can continue to enjoy his performances and appreciate his contributions to the world of "Gatchaman."
James
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Playing darts with the Condor's feather shuriken... 
