Barbara Dale Goodson (born August 16, 1949) is a Brooklyn-born voice actor. Her best-known roles are either older women (or old ladies in general) or young boys (and back in the day, The Smurfette too). She is very well known as either Laharl or Rita Repulsa. Her capacity for ham knows few bounds.
She is notable for being one of the first actors to get regular work dubbing anime, being very prominent throughout the 80s and early 90s, appearing in many projects considered gateway drugs for anime fans at the dawn of the medium's popularity, and many titles regarded as classics today. She has also appeared in many older anime dubs that have since been redone over the years.
These here are the roles of the great Evil Overlady Barbara Goodson! HAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!:
- The announcer and old Akane Kurashiki in Virtue's Last Reward
- Agatha June and Pee-Wee in G-Force: Guardians of Space (80s dub of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman)
- Agnes Gobbleblobber/Steve the Gimp in Mr. Pickles
- Airi in Fist of the North Star: The Movie
- Akira Akebono in Daigunder
- Alcyone in Magic Knight Rayearth
- Ashley Kafka in Spider-Man: The Animated Series
- Beatrice in Wowser
- Blinky and Kelly Brown in The Noozles
- Bobby Bear, Mama Rabbit, and Mikey Mole in Maple Town
- C. Clumby Clumbernut in Bugsnax
- Young Chirin in Ringing Bell (Chirin No Suzu) (English dub)
- Chiyo in Naruto Shippuden
- Credelle and Menow (Sheila's mother) in Tweeny Witches
- Danny in the Space Adventure Cobra game
- Jane Flower in the original movie (1995 Streamline dub)
- Dinky's Mother and Mama Bir in Bird Boy: The Forgotten Children (English dub)
- Doris Lang in Vampire Hunter D (1992 Streamline dub)
- Enya Geil (Enyaba in dub) in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders
- An unnamed Firebender shaman in the two-parter "Beginnings" of The Legend of Korra
- Fumi Tachibana in Weathering With You
- Goku (Zero) in Dragon Ball (short-lived Harmony Gold dub in the 80s)
- Hanae Yamanaka in Ajin
- Hel in Fire Emblem Heroes
- Ivette in The Snow Queen (1957) (1985 dub)
- Kaori and Takashi in AKIRA (80s Streamline Pictures dub)
- Katy the Caterpillar/Butterfly and Denise in Katy La Oruga (Katy the Caterpillar) and it's sequel Katy, Kiki y Koko (known as Katy & The Katerpillar Kids) (English dub)
- Keiko Megata in Doomed Megalopolis
- Kiki's mother in Kiki's Delivery Service (1990 Streamline dub)
- Lady Vashj in Warcraft 3, World of Warcraft and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
- Laharl in Disgaea
- Lala Hiyama in Knights of Sidonia
- Marianne Lenoir/Backwarder in Miraculous Ladybug
- Marie Crystal in Robotech
- Marle in Final Fantasy VII Remake
- Masao Nohara (Max) in Crayon Shin-chan (short-lived Phuuz dub)
- Mitsune Konno "Kitsune" in Love Hina
- Mother Talzin in Star Wars: The Clone Wars
- Mrs. Claus in Netflix's Stop Motion adaptation of Alien Xmas
- Naota Nandaba in FLCL
- The Old Hag in The Witch and the Hundred Knight
- Parnelle in High Guardian Spice
- Pazu in Castle in the Sky (80s dub released by Streamline)
- Reu in Mugen Souls Z
- Rita Repulsa in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Power Rangers Zeo, Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, Power Rangers in Space, and Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid note
- Robo-Rita in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always
- Also voiced both Sprocket, Orbus and Somnibot in Zeo.
- Other roles in PR she voiced included Icy Angel from Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, Notacon from Power Rangers Time Force and the female voice of Mandilok in Power Rangers Wild Force.
- Ryuta Kondo in Barefoot Gen (1995 Streamline dub)
- Princess Annushka in Saban's Adventures of Oliver Twist
- Shinya Oda in Persona 5 (including Royal)
- Spike/Kakeru in Ape Escape: Pumped & Prime
- Star Summers in Tekkaman Blade
- Tetsuro (Joey) in the film version of Galaxy Express 999 (1980 New World Pictures dub, her first anime role)
- Tilda Miller in Godzilla: Singular Point
- Torogai, the First Queen in Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit
- Yui Takanaka in Mega Zone 23 Part 1 (1995 Streamline dub)
- Suzy Sue (Yui) in Part 2 (80s Harmony Gold dub)
- Yuzuha, Young Yosho, and Ryoko Balta (not the OTHER Ryoko) in the Tenchi Muyo! franchise
- Unico in The Fantastic Adventures of Unico and Unico in the Island of Magic note
- Zirconia and Falion in Sailor Moon (Viz Media dub, in this case, the newer one)
- Red in Fraggle Rock: The Animated Series
Tropes associated with Barbara Goodson:
- Large Ham: As Rita Repulsa and Laharl.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: When she isn't voicing elderly characters, she occasionally voices non-human male and female characters with a notably cute appearance, with Baby Chirin, Katy the Caterpillar, and Unico being the most notable examples where she uses her "cute voice".
- Silver Vixen: Even as she reaches age 73, not only does she still look rather young
◊, but even with her being cast as elderly characters, her vocal chords still also lend the way for younger roles. - Woman of a Thousand Voices: While she's able to voice elderly characters, even at the age of 73, she's still able to pull off her younger sounding voice for characters; Reu from Mugen Souls Z being the most recent example.
