Kōsei Tomita

was a Japanese actor and voice actor from Tokyo Prefecture affiliated with Production Baobab.

He was most well known for voicing Doraemon in the first half of the 1973 Doraemon television anime series and Shunsaku Ban, also known as Mustachio (Higeoyaji) or Daddy Walrus, in many Osamu Tezuka productions.

He was known for dubbing over Ernest Borgnine, Orson Welles, Charles Durning, Burt Young, Lee J. Cobb and many more. He also provided the Japanese dubbing voice of Mario (Bob Hoskins) in the 1993 Super Mario Bros. film.

Biography Early life Tomita was born in Oji Ward, Tokyo Prefecture (now part of Kita Ward) on February 4, 1936. He was raised in the family of a bank employee, with his childhood home located near Asukayama Park, famous as a recreation spot ever since the Edo period and would be crowded with people around the time cherry blossoms would bloom. His senior in the high school drama club was Nobuaki Sekine, and his junior was voice actor Toshio Furukawa.

Career After seeing the play The Blue Apple by the Tōgei Theater Company during high school, he aspired to become a stage actor, so he took the Tōgei entrance exam before graduating high school and became a trainee once he graduated. He wanted to become an actor, but because of his parents' opposition, he enrolled in the Faculty of Law at Chuo University, only to drop out after only a year. Amongst his fellow trainees was Isamu Tanonaka, During his time as a trainee, he would do any part-time job he could find to make a living, such as delivering newspapers and working as a sandwich man, and lived with actor Hatsuo Yamaya, who was also in the Tōgei Theater Company, inside a tiny 4.8 square meters room. he also did work in the media such as handling background noise/crowd noises in radio shows such as the Chikage Awashima Show, and appearing as an actor in television dramas during the live broadcasting era. By the end of the television drama Seven Detectives, which aired on TBS from 1961 to 1969, he had come to portray good and prominent roles. with his anime voice acting debut being in Astro Boy. As he became extremely busy after starting work as a voice actor, at his peak he had a schedule of performing in 11 regular shows a week and up to 60 a month, a period of getting only 2 to 3 hours of sleep that reportedly lasted for over 15 years.

After that, through Tonokai and Tokyo Artist Production, in 1969 he joined Aoni Production, established as a voice acting production, as a founding member. In an opening greeting letter, he announced his stage name change to "Kōsei Tomita" (富田 耕生), having been known as "Kōkichi Tomita" (富田 耕吉). He served as the de facto leader when 16 voice actors dissatisfied with Aoni Production, having grown to a large agency, left the company to establish Production Baobab independently in 1979. However, the other three except Tomita subsequently moved on to other agencies one after another, leaving Tomita as the last founding voice actor that remained with Baobab until the end of his life.

Final years

In 2009, he received an Achievement Award at the 3rd Seiyu Awards.

In 2014, following the death of Ichirō Nagai on January 27, Tomita officially took over the role of Jirokichi Suzuki in the Great Detective Conan television anime series for six years until his own death.

Death

Tomita died of a stroke on September 27, 2020, at the age of 84.

In the October 3 broadcast of Great Detective Conan that aired the same year, a memorial message screen crawl for Tomita appeared during a scene that featured Jirokichi.

+ List of voice performances in overseas dubbing (Animation) Series Role Notes Source Arthur and the Invisibles King Atlantis: The Lost Empire Jebidiah Allardyce "Cookie" Farnsworth Atlantis: Milo's Return Batman: The Animated Series The Penguin 1992 TV, Warner Bros. Animation Open Season McSquizzy Smallfoot Dorgle