'Pokémon' Voice Actress Rachael Lillis Diagnosed With Breast Cancer

Lillis, best known as the original English voice for Misty and Jessie, has had a GoFundMe set up by her sister

This is never easy. Voice actress Rachael Lillis, best known for her work with 4Kids Entertainment, including most prominently as the original English dub voices for Pokémon’s Misty and Jessie for the anime’s first eight seasons, corresponding movies, and Chronicles, has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Such has become severe enough that her sister, Lauren Orr, has set up a GoFundMe for medical expenses, including a home nurse.

The official campaign summary tells how Orr is seeking to move Lillis from a nursing home facility in Los Angeles that she’s been in since late January. She cannot go home yet, as the funds will also help secure a home care nurse who will help with cooking, hygiene, and administer medication. Lillis can barely walk as the breast cancer has spread to her spine.  While she is receiving care at the nursing home, the noise has become highly discomforting, making rest management difficult.  LIt seems it’s gotten pretty bad for the actress, but in the time it’s taken to write this, nearly 800 donors and counting have pushed the totals to more than 150% of the $20,000 at $30,000+. But every dollar can still help. Early on, it seems the campaign had garnered no more than 30 donors before the awareness boost. Over the course of writing this, the total went up from $22,000+, which was 110%, and from about 250 donors.

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The biggest push began when her costars, Veronica Taylor, the original voice of Ash, Eric Stuart, original Brock and James, current voice director Lisa Ortiz who started out as Misty’s sister Daisy and Saffron City Gym Leader Sabrina and now voices Explorer Onia on the current Horizons series, and Michele Knotz, who succeeded Lillis as both Misty and Jessie when production left 4Kids and the big recast happened. The two had met working on The World of Narue, and Knotz was a fan of her work as Utena in Revolutionary Girl Utena. Taylor ended up donating $1000, Stuart $500, and Ortiz $250. But that’s not all…probably. While there have been a lot of anonymous donors, there are some notable names with relatively hefty donations that would seem to indicate that they are them rather than a similarly named person. This includes Anjali Kunapaneni, the voice of protagonist Roy on Horizons, who donated $500, and Daman Mills, the voice of Dot’s Quaxly and Amethio of the Explorers, who pitched $100. Erica Schroeder, who voiced Unova’s Bianca, Hearthome City Gym Leader Fantina and her Drifblim, Serena’s Pancham, Sylveon, and mother Grace, Ash’s Unfezant and Sewaddle, and succeeded Kayzie Rogers as Jessie’s Wobbuffet early on in the Sun & Moon series until Team Rocket was no longer on the show, contributed $200. So did Sam Riegel, a prolific voice director now in western animation he also does voice work in (there’s a lot of Disney Television Animation), but in his early days far more prominent as Rex Raptor, Para (as in Para and Dox), and Arkana on Yu-Gi-Oh! and Donatello in 4Kids’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles than he was on Pokémon. Even Marvel Comics writer-artist Colleen Doran apparently pitched in $100. Patrick Seitz, whose resume is probably Riegel-length across anime and video games, donated a grand himself.

Lillis was even the voice of Ash’s Pikachu for some brief moments very early on when Ikue Ohtani’s voice was overlapped. In addition to voicing Misty and Jessie, Lillis’s Pokémon roles included Jessie’s doppelgänger Jessebelle, Misty’s Horsea, Goldeen, and Poliwag (which eventually evolved into a Politoed), as well as her and Daisy’s respective Luvdisc, Caserin and Luverin. The recurring Jigglypuff that got angry when everyone fell asleep to Sing and drew on them? That was her. The Detective Pikachu movie used her archive recordings for the Jigglypuff that appeared in the film. She also voiced Brock’s Vulpix and in her final role in the franchise, after more than a season of not being Jessie, Veilstone Gym Leader Maylene. Her other 4Kids work includes Sonic X, Dinosaur King, Tokyo Mew Mew/Mew Mew Power, Cubix, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Chaotic. Her last role was as Mito Freecss and Cocco in Hunter x Hunter, last appearing in 2019.

Last year, Carter Cathcart, who voiced Gary Oak most prominently when Rachael was part of the Pokémon cast and expanded his roles after she was gone, was forced to retire from a career that included all 25 years of sticking with the Pokémon anime due to advanced throat cancer. Tara Sands, best known as Bulbasaur and Ash’s rival Ritchie, updated her eBay autograph listings to directly benefit Lillis’s GoFundMe.

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Source: GoFundMe