NEW YORK, NY.- Rachael Lillis, an actress who voiced the original English versions of Misty and Jessie, popular characters in the 1990s Pokémon anime television series, and later in the franchises movies and games as well, died Saturday in Los Angeles. She was 55.
The cause was cancer, according to Laurie Orr, one of her sisters.
Lillis started voice acting in the 1980s, according to her IMDB page, but her big break came in the late 1990s when she was cast in the English version of the Pokémon TV series, a popular Japanese anime based on the Pokémon video games. In hundreds of episodes over eight years, Lillis voiced the characters Misty, a trusted friend of the main character, Ash Ketchum, and Jessie, one of the shows villains.
She also voiced those characters in two Pokemon movies as the cultural phenomenon grew.
Lillis, who lived in Los Angeles, also was the voice of Jigglypuff, whose fairy song put listeners to sleep and was one of the creatures the characters pursue.
Lillis, who had dozens of other voice credits to her name, had a strong sense of humor and a talent for voice acting, said Eric Stuart, who voiced James, the other member of Team Rocket in the Pokémon series, and worked with Lillis for many years.
If you met her, youd not say this was so natural for her, Stuart said in a phone interview. Rachael in real life was pretty low key, kind of quiet and sweet. The minute she stepped in that booth it was like this whole other energy came out.
Stuart first met Lillis in the mid-1990s, when there were not a lot of people dubbing anime into English.
Later, when Stuart became a director, he hired Lillis for other projects. Pokémon changed Saturday morning cartoons, Stuart said.
Lillis brought her A-game to work even when tired, said Veronica Taylor, who voiced Ash Ketchum, the main character in the Pokémon television series. Recording the voices on Pokémon in the 1990s was not a high-paying job, and the actors all worked second jobs, Taylor said.
Rachael Lillis was born July 8, 1969, in New York state, the youngest of six girls. She graduated from Smith College, where she was premed, Orr said.
Her mother, Constance Lillis, was a homemaker, and her father, John Lillis, is retired from maintenance management and from the Navy.
Besides her roles on Pokémon, Lillis voiced other characters in anime franchises in the 1990s, including Catty in Gall Force and Utena Tenjô in the television series Revolutionary Girl Utena.
Lillis most recent voice acting credit was in an episode of the animated series Ollie & Scoops in 2019. The pandemic proved to be a difficult time for her to keep working, Taylor said, partly because of a lack of recording equipment at home. Last year, Lillis traveled to London for a Pokémon cast reunion, appearing on a panel with Taylor and Stuart.
Meeting fans at conventions and answering their questions was one of Lillis favorite parts of the job, her former colleagues said. She really enjoyed the interactions she had with people, Taylor said.
This article originally appeared in
The New York Times.