Doc Harris, ‘Dragon Ball Z’ English Narrator, Dies at 76
Doc Harris, the original English-language narrator of the Dragon Ball Z anime series, has died. He was 76.
Harris died Saturday at Vancouver General Hospital after minor surgery, according to the Canadian trade publication Broadcast Dialogue.
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Born Gilbert Achinleck on Aug. 3, 1948, Harris started out working in Canadian radio stations before becoming a famous voice in the anime world.
His first job as Gil Harris was with CKOM in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in 1970. During the next three years, he moved between radio stations in Sudbury, Hamilton, and Toronto as Doc Holliday.
He then landed at Vancouver station CKLG in 1973 as disc jockey Doc Harris. For the next quarter-century, he had a successful radio career at such Vancouver stations as CFMI-FM, CKKS (KISS FM), CKST and news station CKNW as well as CFUN, CKNW and CISL.
But the anime world is paying tribute to Harris, who was the English-language narrator of Dragon Ball Z, the martial arts-heavy series and franchise that gave the world such characters as Goku, Piccolo, Bulma and Krillin. Dragon Ball was adapted into a popular anime series by Toei Animation.
The Dragon Ball Z animated series launched in 1989 and ran until 1996.
Harris narrated other anime series like Monster Rancher, Eat-Man ’98, Sister Blue and the Aegis Defenders video game.
In 2019, he voiced the role of Grogar for five episodes in the TV series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, which also had Tara Strong and Ashleigh Ball in the voice cast.
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