Frieza's English voice actor battling potentially fatal lung disease, has been unable to work for most of 2017
Extensive medical procedures lead family to reach out to community for financial aid
Unfortunate news coming from Houston today as Dragon Ball Z voice actor, Christopher Ayres, finds himself facing an irreversible lung disease.
Ayres, who is best known for voicing the villainous Frieza, was diagnosed earlier this year with end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (C.O.P.D), which will prove fatal without a double lung transplant.
A YouCaring fundraiser has been started in an effort to help Ayres and his family with medical costs, as despite having insurance and income, multiple major surgeries and constant care have led to insurmountable bills.
"In preparation for transplant, he learned that he would also need two additional surgeries (double bypass, and oral maxillofacial) before he can move forward with transplant," reads an excerpt from the YouCaring page.
"Due to hospitalization, and rehabilitation Chris has not been able to work since March. In spite of being insured, the deductibles, and non covered expenses have been continuous, and are exhausting his and his family’s resources. While it’s hard to determine exactly how much assistance will be needed at this stage of the process, these costs have become a concern."
In addition to voicing Frieza, Ayres has directed multiple anime titles including The Nerima Daikon Brothers, Beyond the Boundary and Another and Bodacious Space Pirates.
Understudy Daman Mills will voice Frieza for upcoming works should Ayres be unable to continue. At this point, we do not know if Ayres' voice is the one that appears in Dragon Ball FighterZ.
Our best wishes go out to Ayres and his family, and we'd like to extend a special thank you to the man that incited so many beautifully terrorizing emotions as we anxiously watched one of Dragon Ball's most iconic villains over the years.
Here's a quick interview with Ayres from 2015 from AfterBuzz TV:
