Jonatán López, Spanish voice actor for Sonic, dies

Today we got the sad news that Jonatán López, former Sonic voice actor for Spanish, has passed away due to a cardiac arrest.

Jonatán voiced Sonic in Castilian Spanish for the first time in Sonic Underground during 1999, but he is mostly known for being Sonic’s official Spanish voice in the games since Sonic Generations in 2011.

Sonic Generations was also the first Sonic game to include Spanish voice acting, released at all the Spanish talking countries with his voice. Since then, he also played the role of Sonic in Sonic Lost World, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games: Sochi 2014,  Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal and Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice.  His voice acting was also used in Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Super Smash Bros 4 and Super Smash Bros Ultimate, as they reused voice clips from Sonic Generations, Sonic Lost World and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games: Sochi 2014.

In 2016, Jonatán López retired from voice acting, even if he was still very young, looking for a new professional career due to personal motives. He moved out from Spain to South America looking for new ventures in life. The Sonic role was picked out then by Ángel de Gracia,  Silver voice actor back then and current official Sonic voice in Spain who voiced the blue hedgehog in Sonic Boom tv show, Sonic Forces, Team Sonic Racing, Sonic the movie and all games released since then.

Today it has been made public that Jonatan Lopez passed away  in Peru last February due to cardiac arrest. It has not been made public before in respect of his family and close friends.  Although not much of his personal life had been made public, such as his birth date, it is widely known he was still a young person around his late 30’s – early 40’s.

His career as a voice actor started in 1996, when he studied voice acting at Barcelona. His career included being the regular voice for actors Frankie Muniz, Jason Biggs, Matt O’Leary, Anton Yelchin and Jonah Hill. Other famous roles of his were King Bob at the Disney’s cartoon series Recess, Shinichi Kudo from Detective Conan, Beast Boy at Teen Titans and Teen Titans go!, Bloo at Foster’s house of imaginary friends, Yoh Asakura at Shaman King, Tyler Crowley at Twilight, or Steve Wozniak at Jobs (2013).

He will be sorely missed, as many consider him as the best Spanish voice Sonic has ever had.  His voice has contributed into making Sonic a well known and loved IP in Spanish talking countries. Our deepest condolences to his family and friends.

This post was originally written by the author for TSSZ News.