Mickey Curtis

Curtis voiced Mendelo al-Hedia in the original Japanese version of Cowboy Bebop, bringing a veteran performer's presence to the role. His casting reflected a career built as much on music and stage charisma as on formal voice training, since his path into acting began decades earlier in film rather than in the anime industry. The part stands as one of his more notable contributions to anime voice work.

Curtis is regarded as one of the founding figures of Japanese rock, starting out as a rockabilly performer in the 1950s before forming the psychedelic band Mickey Curtis & The Samurai, which brought him overseas recognition in the late 1960s. After the group broke up in the early 1970s he returned home to focus on producing other artists. His screen career began in 1958 with a part in Kihachi Okamoto's film All About Marriage and grew to more than seventy movie credits, alongside side pursuits as a race car driver and the owner of a motorcycle shop in Tokyo's Meguro district. He is fluent in six languages, including Japanese, English, French and Thai, and was born to English-Japanese parents.