Brendan O’Brien, original voice actor of Crash Bandicoot, dead at 60

Brendan O’Brien, the original voice actor of the hit 1996 PlayStation game Crash Bandicoot, has died at 60.

O’Brien lent his voice to both the game’s main character Crash and arch nemesis Dr. Neo Cortex.

He was part of the Naughty Dog production until 2004 and while his association with the now iconic game ended 19 years ago, he has since been synonymous to his work on Crash Bandicoot.

In his obituary, it described how much working as the two characters meant to him.

"One of his proudest moments was coming up with the original voices for the 'Crash Bandicoot' video games during the Naughty Dog years of 1996 to 2004. He encouraged nostalgic Crash fans in their own pursuits and loved signing their memorabilia. Like music, designing character voices for animation, radio and video games came naturally to him," the obituary read.

Furthermore, the official Twitter page of Crash Bandicoot paid a touching tribute to O’Brien.

"Sharing our sincere condolences to Brendan O'Brien's loved ones for his passing. He was an incredible talent who brought Crash Bandicoot and other Crash characters to life. He will forever live on in the hearts of Crash fans," the account writes.

After the original Crash Bandicoot game, O’Brien went on to reprise his role in other games that were, Crash Team Racing, Crash Bandicoot: Warped and Crash Bash.

His last stint as the bandicoot was in 2001’s Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex however, it emerged, via archival footage, that multiple subsequent Game Boy Advance games featured his voice.

Before landing his role for Naughty Dog, he previously worked for HBO’s animated series Spawn where he "provided additional voices", as per comicbook.com.

While working on the project, O'Brien found out about the stint with Naughty Dog and the rest was history.