OH MY GOD!!! Richard Epcar can break you in two!
But enough stubs, let's get on with the article.
Richard Michael Epcar (born April 29, 1955) has been acting for well over 30 years, starting out in theater (as the Count himself in Dracula, among others) before moving into television and voice acting. While still relatively new at voice acting, Richard already had a few years under his belt by the time that he was introduced to his first anime, Robotech. He is best known for his portrayal of Batou from Ghost in the Shell (1995) and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, which he considers to be his all-time favorite role, and has appeared in numerous anime and video games. His deep-yet-laid back voice and considerable range has proven to be perfect for playing badasses, Large Hams, and the occasional mentor and father figure.
He is also an ADR director, doing such works as Lupin III, Noein, Bobobo Bo Bobo Bo, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
Outside of voice acting, Richard has appeared in television shows such as Matlock, Columbo, and Babylon 5; movies such as 1992's Memoirs of an Invisible Man and Gunfighter in 1999, commercials for Coke Zero, and other media.
In 2008, he started up a voice production company "Epcar Entertainment, Inc" with his wife Ellyn Stern. He's also a drummer for the LA River Band, and a huge fan of James Bond.
You can find him on his personal website here.
Notable roles by Richard Epcar:
Anime
- Armorhide in Transformers: Robots in Disguise
- Batou in Ghost in the Shell and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
- Bendot and Gozu in Hunter × Hunter (2011 series)
- Black Ghost in Cyborg 009
- The titular character in Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo
- Commander Daguza Mackle in Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn
- Etemon and Myotismon (Vamdemon) in Digimon Adventure
- Merukimon (Mercurymon) in Digimon Data Squad
- Tuwarmon in Digimon Fusion
- Eugen in Granblue Fantasy (reprised his role for Granblue Fantasy Versus, Versus: Rising and Granblue Fantasy: Relink)
- Foreman Kurobe in Coppelion
- Coach Genji Kamogawa in Hajime no Ippo
- Genma Himuro in Ninja Scroll
- Giovanni and Matt in Pokémon Generations
- Guld Goa Bowman in Macross Plus
- Haeda Gunnel and Orcus in Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
- Halloween in MÄR
- Inspector Heinrich Lunge in Monster
- Helbram in The Seven Deadly Sins
- Hercules in Pluto
- Hiko Seijuro XIII and Raijuta Isurugi in Rurouni Kenshin
- Houndoom in Pokémon
- Old Man Joseph Joestar in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency epilogue, Stardust Crusaders, and Diamond Is Unbreakable
- Kannosaki in Witch Hunter Robin
- Kei Munakata in éX-Driver
- Kouichiro Toudou and the Narrator in The Asterisk War
- Kyouki Koriyama and the titular character in Noein
- Lupin III:
- Daisuke Jigen in the Geneon dub of the Lupin III: Part II series, and the Discotek dubs for Lupin III: The Italian Adventure and Lupin III: Part 5.
- Inspector Koichi Zenigata in the Funimation dub of the Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine series, and the Bang Zoom! Entertainment dubs of Gravestone of Daisuke Jigen and Goemon Ishikawa's Spray of Blood
- Manda in Naruto
- Racer X in Speed Racer X
- Ray Dark in Inazuma Eleven: Ares
- Sloan in Durarara!!x2
- Tadao Hiiragi in Lucky Star
- Tomoru Sakishima in Nagi-Asu: A Lull in the Sea
- Wheeler in Captain Harlock
- Wolf Daddy in Blood Lad
- Young Yhwach/Fake Zangetsu, Go Koga, and Yhwach in Bleach
Asian Animation (non-anime)
- Wombat, Mr. Ding, Sage, and Elder in Stitch & Ai.Additional uncredited roles
Live-Action TV & Film
- A lot of Monsters of the Week in Power Rangers, from MMPR to Wild Force
- Barbarax in Power Rangers Lost Galaxy
- Buck* in Rise of the Planet of the Apes
- Colonel Icebot, Dark Heart, and others in VR Troopers
- Farnsworth in Street Hawk*
- Jake in Hard Time on Planet Earth*
- Karato and Lightningborg in Beetleborgs
- Louis in V*
- Mr. Terror in Mighty Med
- Narration for The Devil's Rejects
- Some of the other Riders that showed up in Masked Rider (ZX and V-3)
- Taylor in Memoirs of an Invisible Man
- Additional voices and ADR looping for All Good Things, Beauty and the Beast (1987), The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), Deadpool (2016), Deadpool 2, Gilmore Girls, Gladiator, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, I Love You, Beth Cooper, Independence Day, Inspector Gadget (1999), The Man in the Iron Mask, Mortal Kombat: The Movie, The Devil's Rejects, The Proposal, Se7en, X-Men: First Class and Xena: Warrior Princess
Video Games
- Ace in Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. ("The Nonary Games" version)
- Akuma in Street Fighter V (replacing Dave Mallow)
- Ansem, Seeker of Darkness and Terra-Xehanort in the Kingdom Hearts series (from KHII onwards)
- Azazel in Tekken 6 (Scenario Campaign only)
- Baofu in the American translation of Persona 2
- Berith and Dr. Aleister from Demon's Score
- Biff Tradwell in ModNation Racers
- Brigan in Odin Sphere
- Cancer and Libra in Mega Man Star Force
- Cyrus Temple in Saints Row IV ("Zero Saints Thirty" only)
- Demitri Maximoff and Bourd Rade in Cross Edge
- Dong Zhuo in Dynasty Warriors (from DW4 onwards; uncredited)
- The Elf Priest in Warcraft III
- Farli in Stonekeep
- Flay Gunnar and Zeppel Kriever in Mana Khemia Alchemists Of Alrevis & Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy
- Former Amaterasu CEO in Master Detective Archives: Rain Code
- Dr. Gabriel Lantis in Star Ocean: Second Evolution and King Airyglyph XIII in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
- Gaius van Belsar and Ilberd Feare in Final Fantasy XIV (Los Angeles cast)
- Geese Howard in Tekken 7
- Hope in Shin Megami Tensei IV
- The Joker and Raiden in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
- Raiden in Mortal Kombat 9, Mortal Kombat X, Injustice 2, and Mortal Kombat 11
- The Joker in Injustice: Gods Among Us, Infinite Crisis, Injustice 2 and Mortal Kombat 11
- Kanbe Kuroda in Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes
- Keithgriff Hazeldine in Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk
- Knight Argent Heinkel in Bravely Default
- Kurt in Tales of Graces
- The Narrator in Bayonetta
- The Narrator and Tsar Nicholas II in Shadow Hearts: Covenant
- Poseidon in Smite
- President Adam Benford in Resident Evil 6 (Motion Capture only)
- Principal Kobayakawa in Persona 5
- Robo Knight and Yuffo in the Power Rangers Megaforce tie-in game.
- Sawyer in Pokémon Masters
- Skywarp and additional voices in Transformers: War for Cybertron
- Taichiro Sugai and the Arena Announcer in the .hack//G.U.
- Thunderbeak in the 20th anniversary release of Shady's Poopong
- Tiny and Butch in ClayFighter series (C1, Tournament Edition and C2: Judgment Clay)
- Ulrich "Pops" Olsen in Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy
- Emperor Walhart in Fire Emblem: Awakening
- Jedah in Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
- Oliver and Hardin in Fire Emblem Heroes
- Leopold von Bergliz in Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes
- Xin Zhao in League of Legends
- One of the Yoga Instructors in Wii Fit
- Colonel Zachary Arnold in Supreme Commander
- Ziggy in the Xenosaga series
- Alexandros Mograne in World of Warcraft Shadowlands
Western Animation
- Commissioner Jim Gordon in Batman Unlimited: Animal Instincts
- Danny/Ciro, Zull, and additional characters in the first English dub of Puppy in My Pocket: Adventures in Pocketville
- Julius Caesar in The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show
- Gladiator in X-Men: The Animated Series (uncredited)
- Grier in Huntik: Secrets & Seekers
- Lali in The Jungle Book (1967) (uncredited)
- Mr. Noisy in the American dub of The Mr. Men Show
- Saikhan in The Legend of Korra
- Serpentor in the Action Force redub of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero
- Sudden Death in NFL Rush Zone: Guardians of the Core
- Little John in Once Upon a Studio
Tropes relating to Richard Epcar's work:
- Approval of God: Richard heavily approved of Ben Affleck as Batman for the DC Extended Universe.
- Creator Backlash: Since he voiced Chief Saikhan in The Legend of Korra, he didn't like how The Last Airbender turned out.
- Creator's Favorite: Richard loves voicing the Joker, since he was a Batman fan growing up.
- Creator's Favorite Episode: Since he is a James Bond fan, he likes one movie per era.
- For the Sean Connery era, he likes Goldfinger.
- For the Daniel Craig era, he prefers Casino Royale.
- Creepy High-Pitched Voice: As the Joker, he uses this.
- Doing It for the Art: The reason he does anime dubbing, even though it pays nothing compared to doing video games and western animation. Despite being a union-only member, anime is how he entered the voice acting business (as opposed to his other fellow union-only voice actors like James Arnold Taylor and Nolan North who entered the voice acting businesses other than anime).
- Evil Laugh: As the Joker, he's expected to do that.
- Irony: While he has voiced in tons of video games, he is bad at playing them with the exception of GoldenEye (1997).
- Playing Against Type: Often plays over the top big guys, cool mentor figures and old guys and villains. His role as Principal Kobayakawa, while both a big guy and a minor villain, is more of a wimpy, Gonk Dirty Coward.
- Promoted Fanboy: He talked about how much of a fan he is of Batman and was beyond thrilled to voice the Joker. Related to this, the Batman Unlimited films see him as the Trope Namer for The Commissioner Gordon.
- Star-Making Role: Batou.
- Trademark Favorite Food: He likes drinking martinis.
I am the one true Master of the Fist! —Hah, that was just a joke. The truth is...YOU'LL DIE LAUGHING JUST FOR ACCESSING TV TROPES! HEE HEE HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!! TO THE NETHERREALM WITH YOU!
