{"id":1863,"date":"2026-05-18T18:14:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T18:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/05\/18\/tom-kane-clone-wars-and-powerpuff-girls-voice-actor-dies-at-64\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T18:14:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T18:14:00","slug":"tom-kane-clone-wars-and-powerpuff-girls-voice-actor-dies-at-64","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/05\/18\/tom-kane-clone-wars-and-powerpuff-girls-voice-actor-dies-at-64\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Kane, \u2018Clone Wars\u2019 and \u2018Powerpuff Girls\u2019 Voice Actor, Dies at 64"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\tTom Kane, the prolific voice actor whose body of work included popular turns as Yoda on Star Wars: The Clone Wars<\/a><\/em> and as Prof. Utonium on The Powerpuff Girls<\/em>, died Monday. He was 64.<\/p>\n

\tKane\u2019s death from stroke complications at a hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, was announced<\/a> by his talent agency, Galactic Productions. <\/p>\n

\t\u201cFrom his unforgettable performances in Star Wars<\/em> to countless animated series, documentaries and games, Tom brought wisdom, strength, humor and heart to every role he touched,\u201d it said in a statement. \u201cHis voice became part of our lives, our memories and the stories we carry with us.\u201d \t<\/p>\n

\tKane suffered a stroke in 2020 that left him unable to speak or write. He retired in 2021 but did manage to attend the Lexington Comic and Toy Convention in Kentucky in March, reuniting with the Powerpuff Girls <\/em>cast in his first public appearance in years.<\/p>\n

\tKane provided the mellifluous voice for the long-suffering valet Woodhouse on the FX animated series Archer<\/em>, taking the role over from the late George Coe<\/a> in 2014; played the rabbit Mr. Herriman on Foster\u2019s Home for Imaginary Friends<\/em>, Lord Monkey Fist on Kim Possible<\/em> and the smart monkey Darwin on The Wild Thornberrys<\/em>; and portrayed Magneto and Ultron for Marvel projects.<\/p>\n

\tBorn on April 15, 1962, in Overland Park, Kansas, Thomas Kane Roberts started voice acting when he was 15 and attending Shawnee Mission South High School. \u201cI started calling local advertisers and offered my services. It didn\u2019t occur to me anyone got actually paid for it,\u201d he said in a 2010 interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\tKane graduated from the University of Kansas in 1984 and began at Lucasfilm handling miscellaneous small voice parts for its video games starting in 1996. He took on Yoda for the first time in a game released in 1999. \t<\/p>\n

\tHe continued as Yoda on the TV series Star Wars: Clone Wars<\/em> in 2003, in the 2008 Clone Wars<\/em> film (where he also voiced Admiral Yularen) and for many other projects over the years. He also provided the wartime-like narration that kicked off each Clone Wars<\/em> episode.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI didn\u2019t work on being Yoda,\u201d he said. \u201cI saw the movies 53 times, so the voice was very much in my head. Everybody tries to do Yoda, not just voice-overs but everybody. I was doing stuff for LucasArts and I was goofing around and reading Yoda lines and what I didn\u2019t know was that Frank Oz [the original voice of Yoda] was directing a movie. They recorded it and played it for George [Lucas], and I\u2019ve been Yoda ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tMeanwhile, Kane voiced the dorky dad Prof. Utonium (and the villain HIM) on Cartoon Network\u2019s The Powerpuff Girls<\/em> from 2016-19. (He first handled the role for a 2008 short.)<\/p>\n

\tKane also served as the voice of the Walt Disney World Monorail System and the announcer for several Academy Award broadcasts.<\/p>\n

\tSurvivors include his wife, Cindy, whom he married in 1982, and their nine children, six through adoption and fostering.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tom Kane, the prolific voice actor whose body of work included popular turns as Yoda on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and as Prof. Utonium on The Powerpuff Girls, died Monday. He was 64. Kane\u2019s death from stroke complications at a hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, was announced by his talent agency, Galactic Productions. \u201cFrom his unforgettable performances in Star Wars to countless animated series, documentaries and games, Tom brought wisdom, strength, humor and heart to every role he touched,\u201d it said in a statement. \u201cHis voice became part of our lives, our memories and the stories we carry with us.\u201d Kane suffered a stroke in 2020 that left him […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,100,1166,85,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hollywood","category-obituaries","category-star-wars-the-clone-wars","category-tv","category-tv-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}