Mark Dodson, voice actor known for Gremlins and Star Wars, passes away at age 64

Mark Dodson, the actor who lent his voice to many beloved sci-fi and video game characters, has died.  He was 64.

The Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens actor, was in Evansville, Indiana for Horror Con, when he suffered a ‘massive heart attack’, his daughter told TMZ.

Dodson was well known in the industry for his ability to create multiple characters with his voice.

His first big role was as the creepy Salacious Crumb in 1983’s Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, and later for ewoks in Ewoks: The Battle for Endor.

He went on to provide the voices of several of the characters in the hit 1984 film Gremlins. 

‘It’s easier to tell you who I didn’t do [in Gremlins]’ the Missouri-born star told a reporter at Ohana Comic Con in February 2023. 

‘I didn’t do Stripe and I didn’t do Gizmo… I’m the majority of all the rest of the Gremlins in Gremlins One, everybody from the fan gremlin to the caroling gremlins to the gremlins in the theater to the gremlin on Santa Claus… I’m most all of them,’ he said. 

‘It was improvising, it was all improvising,’ he explained, ‘you can’t really script what a gremlin says.’

‘We would just try stuff, and basically if we got a laugh from the people in the crew and the other actors, I was there with Howie [Mandel] and Frank [Welker], it was like, “okay, good, let’s move on to the next gremlin.”‘ 

The star said he was ‘happy that people still love it,’ after nearly four decades. 

Dodson provided some of the sounds for the Zombies in Day of the Dead, written and directed by George A Romero.

The man of many voices shared his talents for some 40 years in Hollywood and the video game industry. 

His credits include: Star Trek Online and Heroes of Newerth.

More recently, he was hired for Ghostrunner II and Bendy and the Dark Rival.

The actor was a favorite of cartoon producer, who turned to him for projects such as Bonker and Darkwing Ducks.