Star Wars: Voice Actor Tom Kane Retires Due To Complications From Stroke

From the newsreel narrator to the voice of Yoda in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, voice actor Tom Kane is very well known by Star Wars fans and many other franchises’ fans around the galaxy. Fans may also recall that this past October Kane suffered a stroke that left him with right-side weakness and damage to the speech center of his brain. Well, this weekend Tom’s daughter Sam posted an update on his health.

Tom Kane Has Retired From Voice Acting

In a post from Tom’s daughter on his Facebook page, she stated that the damage to his speech center is just too severe and because of this, her father has been forced into early retirement.

“Because of this stroke my dad has been forced into early retirement. The damage to his speech center is just too severe. He can not read well nor get out the words he wants, which is sort of required for voice acting. He has what’s called Apraxia which means he has difficulty moving smoothly from one sound, syllable or word to another. Groping movements like with his jaw, lips, or tongue to make the correct movement for speech sounds are impaired.

Essentially he knows exactly what he wants to say, he knows exactly what’s going on, but the words are trapped in his head, and when they do come out, it’s usually too slurred to understand. He has a handful of words he says perfectly, but just a handful. He relies on all forms of non verbal communication now. Thank god he’s an actor and great at charades.

I have SO much more to say about this like how many people miss having conversations with him, especially his children and wife. How fucked up it is that in a split second one of the most talented voice actors ever lost his voice and career.I’ll stop here or else I’ll cry and I’ve already done that like a thousand times this year!!”

Please Feel Free To Send Tom Kane Letters

Sam also added that fans can feel free to send him letters and that he has been working on his signature and would love to start autographing at home.

Please feel free to send him letters! I’ll be managing this PO Box, please add your email or Instagram handle so I can send pictures to you of my dad receiving your mail! He has also been practicing his signature and would love to start autographing from home!! Thanks for reading all this, please take good care of yourselves. -Sam

As always with requesting autographs please be sure to follow some of the autograph request best practices like including a self-addressed stamped envelope, limiting the number of items you send, and be respectful.

We Want To Hear From You

What are some of your favorite Tom Kane voiced characters? What are some of your favorite Tom Kane moments? Also, do you plan on sending Tom Kane a letter?  That Hashtag Show wants to hear from you!

You can tell us your favorite Tom Kane moments by leaving a comment below or hitting me up at starwarsnerd574. You can also join me at the Midwest Star Wars Fanatics fan page to chat about all things Star Wars. Also, make sure to stay up to date on all the Star Wars news by following us at ThatHashtagShow.com. More importantly, be safe, I can’t wait to see you all at Celebration 2022.