Rick May (September 21, 1940 – April 8, 2020) was a Canadian-American

voice actor Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...

theatrical Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

performer, director, and teacher. May provided the English-language voice for Peppy Hare and Andross in ''

Star Fox 64 known as ''Lylat Wars'' in the PAL regions, is a 3D rail shooter video game developed by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It is the second installment in the ''Star Fox'' series and a reboot of the original ''Star Fox'' for the Super Nintendo Ente ...

'', the

Soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...

in '' Team Fortress 2'', and Dr. M in '' Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves'', among other video game characters. He also played

Inspector Lestrade Detective Inspector G. Lestrade, or Mr. Lestrade ( or ), is a fictional character appearing in several of the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Lestrade's first appearance was in the first Sherlock Holmes story, the novel '' ...

in the long running radio show ''

The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes ''The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'' is a series of radio dramas based on Arthur Conan Doyle's detective Sherlock Holmes. Written by Bert Coules as a pastiche of Doyle's work, the series was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2002, 2004, 2008 ...

'' from 1998 through 2020.

Early life

May was born on September 21, 1940. He was raised in Washington and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. May attended Roosevelt High School in Seattle and St. Olaf College (class of 1962) in

Northfield, Minnesota Northfield is a city in Dakota and Rice counties in the State of Minnesota. It is mostly in Rice County, with a small portion in Dakota County. The population was 20,790 at the 2020 census. History Northfield was platted in 1856 by John W ...

Career

May served in the U.S. military and was stationed in Japan, where he coordinated USO shows in Tokyo. May returned to the Seattle area to serve as the director of the Renton Civic Theatre and Civic Light Opera in Renton, Washington. In one production of the '' Cotton Patch Gospel'' in Renton, May played all 21 roles with a variety of voices. He retired from the Renton Civic Theatre in 2001 to begin his own theater company in Kirkland, Washington, and become a full-time actor. He began voice acting in video games in the late 1990s, including roles as Peppy Hare and Andross in ''

''; various campaign characters, including Genghis Khan, in '' Age of Empires II''; and the Soldier in '' Team Fortress 2''. From 1998 through 2020, May played

in the '' Imagination Theatre'' radio series ''The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes''. He also played Lestrade in the related radio series ''The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'', and played various roles in other ''Imagination Theatre'' radio dramas. The last two episodes of ''The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'' to feature May were recorded in late 2019, and were first broadcast in May 2020. May played the role of Inspector Lestrade longer than any other actor in the history of broadcasting.

Death and tributes

May suffered a stroke in February 2020, and was moved to a

nursing home A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of elderly or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as skilled nursing facility (SNF) or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms have slightly different meanings to i ...

for rehabilitation. On April 8, 2020, it was reported that May had died from complications related to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

Swedish Medical Center Swedish Health Services, formerly Swedish Medical Center, is the largest nonprofit health provider in the Seattle metropolitan area. It operates five hospital campuses (in the Seattle neighborhoods of First Hill, Cherry Hill and Ballard, and th ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. On May 1, 2020,

Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fitting ...

released an update to ''Team Fortress 2'' adding a tribute to May's voice work as the Soldier in the form of a new main menu theme titled "Saluting The Fallen" (a rendition of " Taps"), and locking the character image in the main menu to Soldier. The update also added statues of the Soldier saluting to most of the official in-game maps. These statues all featured a commemorative plaque dedicated to May, and remained in maps until June 1. The statues reappeared in the same locations on April 12, 2021 and 2022. The statues emit a number of pre-selected voice lines from the Soldier when approached. On August 21, 2020, a permanent tribute memorial was placed, in the form of a Soldier statue, and heads on the fence in front of the statue of the Soldier, in the map "cp_granary", which is the setting of the ''Team Fortress 2'' video " Meet the Soldier".

Acting credits

Theater

May performed in numerous roles throughout his theatrical career, including: *

Brutus Marcus Junius Brutus (; ; 85 BC – 23 October 42 BC), often referred to simply as Brutus, was a Roman politician, orator, and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar. After being adopted by a relative, he used the name Quintus Serv ...

(in ''

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...

'') *

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

(in ''

1776 Events January–February * January 1 – American Revolutionary War – Burning of Norfolk: The town of Norfolk, Virginia is destroyed, by the combined actions of the British Royal Navy and occupying Patriot forces. * January 1 ...

'') *

Tevye Tevye the Dairyman, also translated as Tevye the Milkman ( yi, טבֿיה דער מילכיקער, ''Tevye der milkhiker'' ) is the fictional narrator and protagonist of a series of short stories by Sholem Aleichem, and various adaptations of th ...

(in ''

Fiddler on the Roof ''Fiddler on the Roof'' is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial Russia in or around 1905. It is based on ''Tevye and his Daughters'' (or ''Tevye the ...

'') *

Willy Loman William "Willy" Loman is a fictional character and the protagonist of Arthur Miller's play ''Death of a Salesman'', which debuted on Broadway with Lee J. Cobb playing Loman at the Morosco Theatre on February 10, 1949. Loman is a 63-year-old tra ...

(in ''

Death of a Salesman ''Death of a Salesman'' is a 1949 stage play written by American playwright Arthur Miller. The play premiered on Broadway in February 1949, running for 742 performances. It is a two-act tragedy set in late 1940s Brooklyn told through a montag ...

'') *Alfred Doolittle (in ''Pygmalion'') *

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

(in ''Bully!'') * King Henry II (in ''

The Lion in Winter ''The Lion in Winter'' is a 1966 play by James Goldman, depicting the personal and political conflicts of Henry II of England, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, their children and their guests during Christmas 1183. It premiered on Broadway at the ...

'') *

(on radio in ''

'') His

voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non-Diegetic#Film sound and music, diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, th ...

s include: * Peppy Hare and Andross - ''

'' *Dr. M - '' Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves'' * The Soldier - '' Team Fortress 2'' * Genghis Khan - '' Age of Empires II''

Filmography

*''

American Graffiti ''American Graffiti'' is a 1973 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by George Lucas, produced by Francis Ford Coppola, written by Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz and Lucas, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard (billed as Ronn ...

'' (1973) as Boy in the Car *''

Frances Frances is a French and English given name of Latin origin. In Latin the meaning of the name Frances is 'from France' or 'free one.' The male version of the name in English is Francis. The original Franciscus, meaning "Frenchman", comes from the ...

'' (1982) as Policeman *''

The Chocolate War ''The Chocolate War'' is a 1974 young adult literature, young adult novel by American author Robert Cormier. It was adapted into a film in 1988. Although it received mixed reviews at the time of its publication, some reviewers have argued it is o ...

'' (1988) as Doctor *''

Child in the Night ''Child in the Night'' is a 1990 American television film broadcast during the 1990 May sweeps. It aired on the CBS Network before a subsequent release to home video and syndication. The psychological thriller stars JoBeth Williams as a child psy ...

'' (1990, TV Movie) as Captain Hook

References

External links

*
Rick May's website
(Archived) {{DEFAULTSORT:May, Rick 1940 births 2020 deaths American theatre directors Male actors from Seattle Military personnel from Seattle People from Kirkland, Washington American male stage actors American male video game actors American male voice actors American male radio actors Canadian male stage actors Canadian male video game actors Canadian male voice actors Canadian male radio actors Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Washington (state) United States Army soldiers Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the video game industry St. Olaf College alumni