The voice behind the original PlayStation Crash Bandicoot, Brendan O’Brien, has sadly passed away.
Known for role as the iconic marsupial, as well as myriad other characters, O’Brien has died at the age of 60 years old.
In the original trilogy of Crash Bandicoot games, O’Brien voiced the majority of characters in the PlayStation series. As well as voicing the Bandicoot, the actor voiced nefarious villain Dr Cortex, Tiny Tiger and N. Gin.
Brendan O’Brien last recorded new voices for the franchise for Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath Of Cortex in 2001. His voice also appeared in latter games, but these lines were re-used archive footage.
O’Brien was largely absent from film, TV and games since the early 2000s However, the actor recently had a small appearance in the CW drama series Riverdale in 2020 as a Math Teacher.
The voice actor sadly passed away back in March of this year, but the news went relatively under the radar. Last weekend, fans of the franchise discovered the actor’s obituary and shared it online to honour the actor’s legacy.
“One of his proudest moments was coming up with the original voices for the ‘Crash Bandicoot’ video games during the Naughty Dog years of 1996 to 2004,” the obituary reads. “He encouraged nostalgic Crash fans in their own pursuits and loved signing their memorabilia. Like music, designing character voices for animation, radio and video games came naturally to him.”
Since the actor’s passing was made known, fans of the franchise have paid tribute to his work on social media, spreading the word of his legacy. Honouring the actor with lengthy posts and art, fans noted how iconic Brendan O’Brien’s voice work truly was.
“RIP Brendan O’Brien - the original voice actor for Crash Bandicoot, Dr. Cortex, N. Gin, and Tiny Tiger,” one fan wrote. “Thanks for all the amazing memories, from the iconic 'woah' to everything else. I'll always think of your voice when I think of these characters.
“Just heard about the passing of Brendan O’Brien, original Crash Bandicoot voice actor,” said Antonblast game developer Tony Grayson. “It’s a huge shock; I’d been a fan of Brendan’s for years, and recently he and I had been talking about having a role in Antonblast, too. Absolutely gutted and blindsided..RIP, man. 1962-2023.”
While O’Brien hasn’t been the voice of Crash Bandicoot for decades, the actor’s choice fuelled the childhoods of gamers all over the world. With the actor’s voice lines being memed into oblivion in the past few years, no one will forget the actor’s phenomenal voice work.
Explore new topics and discover content that's right for you!