Genzô Wakayama

Genzō Wakayama (若山 弦蔵, Wakayama Genzō, September 27, 1932 — May 18, 2021) was a Japanese actor, voice actor and DJ. He moved to Sapporo, Hokkaido as a youth and graduated from Sapporo South High School.

Due to his low bass voice, Wakayama often voiced villainous or calm characters. He is the official Japanese dub-over artist of actors Sean Connery, Gene Barry, Peter Graves, Raymond Burr, Hugh O'Brian and John Bromfield. Also, He was the first dub-over artist of Lee Marvin in his early days. As a disc jockey, Wakayama hosted a program on TBS Radio from 1973 to 1995 that ran for 5,700 installments. Wakayama also narrated over 800 episodes of the television jidaigeki Abarenbo Shogun from 1978 to 2003.

He died due to heart failure on May 18, 2021. A private service was held by his family.