Christopher Ayres, best known as the voice of Frieza in the Dragon Ball series, has passed away on October 18 at the age of 56. He worked on many iconic anime over the course of his almost 20-year career in animation, such as Initial D and the Dragon Ball series. Ayres also served as an ADR director for the English dubs of various anime. He was diagnosed with end-stage cardio obstructive pulmonary disease in 2017 and has been open about his struggles with the disease online. Krystal LaPorte, fellow voice actor and girlfriend of Ayres, posted on Twitter about Ayres’s passing. LaPorte wrote, “On October 18th at 8:40pm, my world went dark. Christopher Owen Ayres passed away peacefully, held close by his mother, brother, and girlfriend.” She also thanked his dedicated fans by writing, “Chris loved you all. How much he loved other people filled the vast majority of our conversations. To those of you who truly loved him back, thank you. To those of you who stayed in touch, checked on him, reminded him that he was so, so much more than his job. You were the fuel of his fight. You fed the dreams of a future that kept him going longer than any normal person could go. I hope where you are, the first thing you did was take a long, deep breath with your perfect lungs and dance again.”
