Greg Cipes has been a true titan when it comes to giving a voice to Teen Titans’ Beast Boy since first taking on the role in 2003. Alongside playing the part of the DC hero in the original Cartoon Network series, Cipes would continue to play the part in the series, Teen Titans Go! and Young Justice, along with several films that focused on DC’s most popular team of teenagers. Unfortunately, the voice actor had troubling news to share with fans via his social media accounts as Cipes revealed that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s disease.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The new video sees Cipes in the recording booth, revealing the diagnosis to fans and discussing his past medical issues that he was able to overcome. Here’s what the voice of Beast Boy had to say, “Yo what’s up party people? Beast Boy in the house, aka Greg Cipes, in the house. Little update, I’ve healed myself from skin cancer, COVID, heavy metal poisoning, chronic disease in the bones, and now I got diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s disease, which I’m gonna beat to. You’re gonna be able to come with me on this healing journey and rejoice and learn a bunch. Adios and see you soon.” You can see the video from Cipes below.
Cipes’ Voice Acting Career
Beast Boy is far from the only animated character to be portrayed by the prolific voice actor. On his resume, Cipes has voiced Ben 10’s Kevin Levin, Ultimate Spider-Man’s Iron Fist, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Michelangelo, and too many other characters to list in one article. Since first airing in 2013, Teen Titans Go! has been a fixture of Cartoon Network with the voice actors from the original series returning to their roles. At present, the cable network hasn’t hinted at the series coming to an end as it recently breezed past its four-hundredth episode.
In 2022, Cipes discussed with the outlet Comics Beat how his take on Beast Boy in Young Justice reflected his real-life struggles, “Beast Boy’s issues paralleled what I’ve gone through my whole life. One way or another, what Beast Boy is going through in his world, I am going through it in mine. While I was recording these dark moments that Beast Boy went through in Young Justice, I was going through my own moments with tragedy and being sick. I channeled it into the character and into these scenes and it really just worked. People are responding in such a beautiful way to Beast Boy to being more vulnerable and this other side of Beast Boy that you’ve never seen before.”
Our thoughts are with Greg Cipes, his family, and friends during this difficult time.
