Voice Actor, Chris Ayres who is most well known for his voice of the space tyrant, Frieza in multiple Dragon Ball projects has passed away at the age of 56.
The news of his passing was revealed by fellow voice actress and girlfriend, Krystal Laporte on Twitter. In the tweet she posted a message and three pictures of the couple together throughout the years, she added that Ayres had “passed away peacefully, held close by his mother, brother, and girlfriend,” on October 18th.
“Chris loved you all. How much he loved other people filled the vast majority of our conversations. To those of you who loved him back, thank you,” Laporte said in a screenshot Twitter message.
“I hope that wherever you are, the first thing you did was take a long, deep breath with your perfect lungs and danced again. I hope you saw a lot of people and animals I know you missed so deeply.”
At this time no cause of death was provided but in November 2017, Ayres was diagnosed with end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a progressive lung disease. When it comes to severe cases, a double lung transplant is considered for a patient to survive.
At the time when Ayres was diagnosed a YouCaring fundraiser was launched to raise $25,000 USD to cover the procedure. Ayres took the procedure almost a year ago with additional surgeries on his lungs following to clear out complications twice, his last one happened in July of this year.
Ayres voiced Frieza for 12 years after taking over the role in Dragon Ball Z Kai. He would pop up again in 2015’s Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’, Dragon Ball Super, Dragon Super: Broly and multiple Dragon Ball video game projects like Xenoverse.
He was also known for his other voice acting roles which also included Kei Kurono from Gantz, Prince Soma from Black Butler, and Shingen Takeda from the Sengoku Basara series. His final role was Caller #1 in the animated short, The Dog Park: Prank Calls. Aside from voice acting, Ayres was also a stage actor, scriptwriter, ADR director, and fight choreographer.
“I know a lot of people are reading this will ask, ‘Is there anything I can do?’ Please be more like Chris. Please, if you learned anything from him, put it in this world. Please fill it with love and laughter, always,” Laporte said in a statement.
Rest in Peace Chris.
