American voice actor Billy Kametz passed away on Thursday, June 9, 2022. He was 35.
In late April, Kametz revealed in a video that he had been diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer and that he would be taking a hiatus from voice acting. The voice actor was based in Los Angeles, California, but he included in his announcement that he would be moving back to his hometown of Pennsylvania to stay with his parents while he focused on receiving treatment for his cancer.
In his video, Kametz also discussed that since he was taking a hiatus, he would be stepping away from several projects. “If you guys could do me a favor, anybody that is replacing me on any show if you could just please – it’s such a weird thing for an actor to have to do – if you just support the crap out of them and be their biggest cheerleader, that would make me really, really happy,” he said.
A few days after he uploaded the video, a GoFundMe campaign was launched to help fundraise for his treatment. As of writing, the campaign has raised $186,000 of the $150,000 goal. The organizers also mentioned that they will be closing the campaign on June 14, 2022 and that any funds that hadn’t already been used for Kametz’s treatments will instead go toward his funeral.
His family will hold a viewing on June 15, and the funeral will be on June 18. They also mentioned that in lieu of sending flowers, they would also appreciate donations to the Colon Cancer Coalition in Kametz’s honor.
Kametz’s career took off in 2016 when he landed the role of Aladdin in a Broadway-style musical at Disneyland. After his performance as Aladdin, he went on to land voice acting roles in video games and anime English dubs.
Some of his most well-known roles in video games include Ferdinand von Aegir (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Dr. Takuto Maruki (Persona 5 Royal), and Blue (Pokémon Masters). For his voice acting roles in anime, he was well-known for voicing Naofumi Iwatani (The Rising of the Shield Hero) (for which he won the top acting award in 2019 from Crunchyroll), Josuke Higashikata (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable), Osomatsu (Osomatsu-san), and Galo Thymos (Promare).
According to A. Jinnie McManus, Kametz “lived his dream as a fan of Japanese animation and video games who grew up to act in beloved roles that will now stand forever as his legacy.”
Kametz was born on March 22, 1987, and grew up in Pennsylvania. He is survived by his parents, sister, other relatives, and his girlfriend, fellow anime and video game voice actress Erica Lindbeck.
Rest in peace, Billy. Thank you so much for bringing to life our favorite characters.
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