Actor Peter Fernandez of Speed Racer Fame Dies at 83
Best known as the voice of the title character in the Speed Racer television series from the 1960s
Peter Fernandez, an actor, writer and producer who helped introduce the United States to Japanese animation in the 1960s when he adapted the Speed Racer series for American audiences, died July 15, 2010, at his home in Pomona, N.Y. He was 83 and had been battling lung cancer.
In addition to providing the voice of Speed Racer’s titular race-car hero, Fernandez wrote the English lyrics to the popular theme song, with its well-known refrain, “Go, Speed Racer, go!”
When Fernandez was tapped to bring the cartoon to the U.S., he was a former child actor who had worked in radio, and had developed a specialty in the English dubbing of foreign films and animation. In Japan, the series was known as Mach Go Go Go. The 52-episode series debuted in 1967.
Fernandez was born January 29, 1927, in New York City. When his father’s business failed during the Depression, he started modeling at 7 to help support the family. He eventually began acting, and in his teens appeared in several Broadway plays.
Following Army service during World War II, he sold stories to pulp magazines and acted in radio, television and feature films.
In the 1960s, he began dubbing and writing scripts for the Japanese animated series Astro Boy and Gigantor, which led to Speed Racer.
In the 2008 live-action film Speed Racer, Fernandez had a cameo as a radio announcer. He continued to work as a voice actor and director until about a year ago.
He is survived by his wife, three children, a brother, a sister and nine grandchildren.