The Samurai Voice Actor Interviews

William Ross (US voiceover - the voice of Shintaro in Stories 2-10/Seasons 2-10). He was born in Ohio in 1923 and died aged 90 in 2014. He married a Japanese lady Mishi.

After the closure of several Tokyo dubbing studios, in 1964, he founded his own dubbing company, Frontier Enterprises, also working as dialogue writer, dubbing director and voice actor. Frontier quickly became one of the big five early English dubbing houses, doing work for companies such as Toho, Toei and Shochiku. Frontier would go on to dub over 465 live-action and animated films and TV series. Ross was forced to rely on whatever native English speakers he could find in Tokyo back in the 1960's; much of which consisted of businessmen, musicians and students with little to no acting experience. Ross held auditions and made sure he hired the best people available, and trained them thoroughly. Ross' regular dubbing cast primarily consisted of expatriates living in Tokyo and members of the Far East Network, however. (Info courtesy of https://www.fandom.com)

The colour pic above was taken at his funeral service. He had an uncredited acting role in The Green Slime ('68) and played Captain Perry's aide in The Bushido Blade ('81). (Bin Amatsu had a role as the Samurai Baron Zen.)

Burr Middleton (US voiceover - The Samurai - voice of Genkaro and many others). In the TV credits he was listed as Burr Hoyle.
* Burr has the best memory of the days in Tokyo voice dubbing The Samurai, The Phantom Agents and numerous other Japanese shows and movies. It too a while to track him down and it required taking out a membership with IMDB just so I could get his agent's number. He has voiced numerous cartoons, radio/TV commercials and has appeared in small TV roles in Hunter, Matlock, New Twilight Zone and Star Trek: Enterprise. He's also a talented singer and musician.At the end of this interview he devotes a song to the Samurai fans down under.

Tom Korzeniowski (US voiceover - The Samurai - mostly voice of Bin Amatsu as Fuma Kotaro and Kongo Of Koga) * Tom didn't do any voice work for The Samurai until Story 4 - The Black Ninja series when he voiced Gensai The Wolf (played by Bin Amatsu). He was perfect to provide an evil menacing voice. After returning to the US from Tokyo he went on to become a TV reporter in Detroit, then Chicago, and in 1981 he had enough of television news and he joined a major health care corporation as a speech writer for senior executives. He also developed an in-house video studio for training and marketing productions. Tom remains a good friend of Burr Middleton. (Chatted with Tom on the phone in April 2020, he's still doing good and at the time of print ... staying indoors due to the coronavirus restrictions.)

Jean Le Roy (US voiceover - The Samurai)
* Jean provided a number of different voices but it appears he didn't voice any major character. He's now a member on the Samurai Facebook page.

Patricia Salmon (US voiceover - The Samurai - provided female roles including Oboro - sister of Fuma Kotaro)
* Today, Salmon is a private dealer and consultant, advising museums and individual clients from her home base in Hilo, Hawaii. She continues to collect art from the Taisho period because of its scarcity, and she travels regularly to Japan.

Other key voice artists included: Burr Hoyle (Middleton) (left), Robert Dunham (July 6, 1931 - August 6, 2001) and 'Smitty' (seen in studio). Dunham played the role of Captain Martin in The Green Slime (1968). Another regular voice was Mel Ballinger (FEN Sports Director) who provided some of the very deep voices.

And not forgetting, the late Cliff Harrington (1932-2013) - voice of Tombei. Military life brought Harrington to Japan where he would end up teaching English for 35 years. Beyond that, Harrington would become involved in the entertainment industry. He is perhaps best known for his brief appearance as Al in King Kong vs. Godzilla. He was a close friend of William Ross.