Beau Billingslea
One of the few black guys who specialize in anime voice acting.
Beau M. Billingslea (born September 1, 1953) is an American actor and voice actor. He is best known as the voice of Jet Black from the popular anime Cowboy Bebop. In addition to voice acting, Billingslea has appeared in many popular TV series as a prolific guest actor. Before he got into acting, he played football at the University of Connecticut.
Much like James Earl Jones and Keith David, his natural, deep pipes often cast him into Scary Black Men and narrators. Though being said, his roles aren't limited to black people and is capable of voicing Badasses in general.
Beau Billingslea has performed in the following roles:
- Black Heaven: Oji Tanaka(Stage name Gabriel). And the Scary Black Man who beats the crap out of Watanabe because he incidentally flipped the middle finger on him.
- Cowboy Bebop: Jet Black
- Cyborg009: G. Junior/Cyborg 005
- Digimon Adventure: Ogremon
- Digimon Tamers: Musyomon
- Digimon Data Squad: Leopardmon
- Dino Zaurs: Dino Mammoth
- Fist of the North Star: Jackel
- Gungrave: Bear Walken
- Gankutsuou The Count Of Monte Cristo: Giovanni Bertuccio
- Iczer One: Narrator
- Immortal Grand Prix (microseries): Yammer
- Last Exile: Godwin (as John Daniels)
- Macross Plus: Col. Millard Johnson (as John Billingslea)
- Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket: Richard Lunland
- Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory: Colonel Kowen
- "Monster": Milan Kolasch (Ep. 62)
- Naruto: Homura, Raikage
- Outlaw Star: Narrator
- Rave Master: Bear/Dearhound
- Reign: The Conqueror: Antigonos
- Rurouni Kenshin: Senkaku (ep 36) (as John Billingslea), & Hiruma Gohei
- Saiyuki Gunlock: Gato
- Samurai Champloo: Matsunosuke Shibui (ep 1)
- Street Fighter II the Animated Movie: Dee Jay (as John Hammond)
- Wolf's Rain: Sea Walrus (ep 22)
- Hannah Montana: The Movie: Mayor
- Cowboy Bebop: The Movie: Jet Black
- Final Fantasy VII Advent Children: Barret Wallace
- Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War: Marcus Snow (uncredited)
- Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War: Anthony"Bedivere"Palmer (uncredited)
- Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed: Grid Core (uncredited)
- Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana: Delsus's father (uncredited)
- Bionicle: The Game: Toa Onua Nuva
- Breakdown (video game): Nexus
- Death By Degrees: Lukas Hayes (uncredited)
- Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-: Barret Wallace
- Dynasty Tactics 2: Guan Yu, Dian Wei (uncredited)
- Dynasty Warriors 4: Cao Ren, Dian Wei (uncredited)
- Dynasty Warriors 5: Cao Ren, Dian Wei (uncredited)
- Dynasty Warriors 5: Xtreme Legends: Cao Ren, Dian Wei (uncredited)
- Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires: Cao Ren, Dian Wei (uncredited)
- Dynasty Warriors 6: Cao Ren, Dian Wei (uncredited)
- Dynasty Warriors 7: Cao Ren, Dian Wei (uncredited)
- Front Mission 4: Carl Thammond, Hermes Sturges (uncredited)
- Inherit the Earth: Okk
- Kingdom Hearts II: Bo'sun (Undead Pirate A)
- Outlaws: "Buckshot" Bill Morgan
- Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire: Rakeesh Sah Tarna (credited as "Bo Billingsley")
- Radiata Stories: Gerald (uncredited)
- Resident Evil Outbreak File #2: Mark Wilkins, Jim Chapman
- Samurai Warriors: Kenshin Uesugi (uncredited)
- Samurai Warriors: Xtreme Legends: Kenshin Uesugi (uncredited)
- Star Ocean: Till the End of Time: Adray Lasbard, Berial (uncredited)
- Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht: Representative Helmer
- Warriors Orochi: Cao Ren, Dian Wei (uncredited)
Beau Billingslea provides examples of the following tropes:
- Badass: A lot of his roles
- Hey, It's That Voice!
- Large Ham
- Pigeonholed Voice Actor
- Scary Black Man: Some of his characters, although he isn't limited to black people.
- Best example is in Black Heaven that in addition Oji Tanaka, he also voices a Scary Black Man who beats the crap out of Watanabe. With Cluster F-Bomb to go.
- And Watanabe is voiced by Steve Blum, which makes hilarious context of Jet beating the crap out of Spike
- The Narrator: He also have a few roles like this as well.
- Token Minority: He's actually one of the very few black people who specialize in English dubs in anime.