Star Wars: Yoda Voice Actor Tom Kane Suffers Stroke
Star Wars voice actor Tom Kane has suffered a stroke, his family has revealed. Kane is best known [...]
Star Wars voice actor Tom Kane has suffered a stroke, his family has revealed. Kane is best known for voicing Master Yoda, Admiral Yularen, and the narrator in Star Wars animated series The Clone Wars; he was also the voice of Woodhouse in Archer, Professor Utonium in The Powerpuff Girls. That's not to mention the number of other big franchises and both animation and gaming that Kane influenced with his voice acting - the list is truly staggering. Sadly, at this time, Kane is still suffering damage from the stroke that prevents him from efficiently verbally communicating, and though recovery is possible, his doctors warn "that he may not do Voiceovers again."
Here's is the statement posted by Tom Kane's family:
Hi everyone! This is Tom's daughter, Sam. Our family wanted to share why my dad has been MIA. About two months ago he had a left side stroke that gave him right sided weakness and damage to the speech center of his brain. This means right now he cannot efficiently communicate verbally, nor read or spell. He is still competent and very much himself, but can only get out a few words right now. As many of you might know about strokes, it is possible for him to gain these functions back and we have found him excellent care in Kansas City for speech, occupational, and physical therapy, but for now, we have been warned by his Neurologist that he may not do Voiceovers again.
As (briefly) explained above, Tom Kane truly is one of those voices many fans may not even know the value so much, until hearing of this tragic incident. One look into his filmography reveals hit games like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Call of Duty: WaW and Black Ops I - III; he was even Magneto and Ultron in multiple Marvel gaming and animation projects. His retro '50s serial voice made Powerpuff Girls' Professor feel like every ideal dad of that era, and his Clone Wars announcer gave that sci-fi show its odd wartime serial feel. He also got to voice the live-action version of Admiral Ackbar in Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi.
Off-screen, Kane's work landed him the honor of becoming the new voice of Walt Disney World's Monorail System, and he also took over as the voice of the announcer for The Eric Andre Show.
That's all to say: Tom Kane has a massive fanbase that's now joining with his family, colleagues, and friends, in hoping he makes a full recovery.