Rick May

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Rick May
May in 2017
Born
Richard James May

(1940-09-21)September 21, 1940
Bassano, Alberta, Canada[1][2]
DiedApril 5, 2020(2020-04-05) (aged 79)
Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Alma materSt. Olaf College
Occupations
  • Actor
  • voice actor
  • theatrical performer
  • director
  • teacher
Years active1973–2020

Richard James May[3] (September 21, 1940 – April 5, 2020) was a Canadian-American actor, theatrical performer, director, and teacher.[1][4] May provided the English-language voice for Peppy Hare and Andross in Star Fox 64, the Soldier in Team Fortress 2, and Dr. M in Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, among other video game characters. He also played Inspector Lestrade in the long running radio show The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes from 1998 through 2020.

Early life

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May was born on September 21, 1940.[3] He was raised in Washington and Canada.[4] May attended Roosevelt High School in Seattle and St. Olaf College (class of 1962) in Northfield, Minnesota.[5][6] He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1960.[3]

Career

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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.[4] In one production of the Cotton Patch Gospel in Renton, May played all 21 roles with a variety of voices.[7] He retired from the Renton Civic Theatre in 2001 to begin his own theater company in Kirkland, Washington, and become a full-time actor.[8][9]

May began voice acting in video games in the late 1990s, including roles as Peppy Hare and Andross in Star Fox 64; various campaign characters, including Genghis Khan in Age of Empires II, and the Soldier in Team Fortress 2.[10]

From 1998 through 2020, May played Inspector Lestrade 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.[11] The last two episodes of The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes to feature May were recorded in late 2019,[12] and were first broadcast in May 2020.[13] May played the role of Inspector Lestrade longer than any other actor in the history of broadcasting.[12]

Death and tributes

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May suffered a stroke in February 2020, and was moved to a nursing home for rehabilitation. May died from COVID-19 complications at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle on April 5, 2020.[10][14][15] He was inurned in the columbarium at Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent on June 12, 2020.[16]

On May 1, 2020, Valve 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 reappear annually, on the anniversary of May's death.[17][18] The statues emit a number of pre-selected voice lines from the Soldier when approached.[18] 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 "Granary", which is the setting of the Team Fortress 2 video "Meet the Soldier".[19]

Many players in the community paid tribute to May's death in-game, where taunts and voice lines were played commemorating him. On most servers, a truce was called for both sides to pay tribute to the actor, and 21-gun salutes were fired on the map 2Fort.[20][21] Additionally, numerous animated shorts in Source Filmmaker were created and uploaded by the Team Fortress 2 community in honor of May.[22] On December 20, 2024, Valve released a new Team Fortress 2 comic dedicated to May.[23]

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Role
1973 American Graffiti Boy in the car
1982 Frances Policeman
1988 The Chocolate War Doctor
1990 Child in the Night Captain Hook

Video games

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His voice-overs include:[10]

Year Title Role
1997 Star Fox 64[10] Peppy Hare, Andross
1999 Age of Empires II Genghis Khan, others
2001 Freddi Fish 5: The Case of the Creature of Coral Cove Marty Sardini, Dadfish
2005 Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves Dr. M
2007 Team Fortress 2 The Soldier

Theater

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May performed in numerous roles throughout his theatrical career, including:[4][10]

References

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  1. ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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  6. ^ St. Olaf Magazine, St. Olaf Colleges, volume 67, number 3, Fall 2020, page 44.
  7. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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  16. ^ Richard James May's memorial page - Honor Veteran Legacies at VLM
  17. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  18. ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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