Rik Thomas, also spelled Rick Thomas,[1] is an English businessman and former film dubber. A lieutenant colonel of the British Special Forces, Thomas was discharged and settled in Hong Kong in the early 1970s after serving in Vietnam and the Congo. His career in film dubbing began in 1972, when he was approached about entering the business while at a pub.[2] By the '80s, Thomas and his wife, Ina Chow, formed and ran the dubbing studio Chasen Company, organizing and performing in dubs of various Asian films.[1] Sometime later, he either renamed Chasen or established another dubbing company called Omni Productions, which he ran with Chow.[3] Over the course of his career, he performed in numerous English dubs of Toho science fiction films, beginning as early as 1980's Magnitude 7.9. He notably voiced Lieutenant Gondo in Godzilla vs. Biollante, Yasuaki Shindo in vs. King Ghidorah, Commander Aso in vs. Mechagodzilla II, vs. SpaceGodzilla and vs. Destoroyah, Hirotoshi Isayama in GMK, and Prime Minister Igarashi in the Kiryu duology. Thomas made his final contribution to the Godzilla series as UN Secretary-General Daigo in the English dub for Godzilla Final Wars. Sometime around 2005, Thomas sold Omni Productions to dubber Victor Lee and retired with his wife to Penang, Malaysia.[4][5]
Selected filmography
Voice actor
Magnitude 7.9 (1980) as Professor Marumo / chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff / bearded man [English export dub]
↑Thomas was stated to be 60 years old in issue 30 of Giant Robot magazine, published in 2003.
References
This is a list of references for Rik Thomas. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
↑Giant Robot. Issue 30. 2003. Formerly a lieutenant colonel of the British Special Forces who served in Vietnam and the Congo, Rik was discharged and settled in Hong Kong in the early '70s. In 1972, while tossing back a few pints in a pub, a stranger asked Rik if he wanted to try dubbing. He said, "Why not?" and his second career began.
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Thomas circa 2003, from Giant Robot #30.
Thomas in profile
Rik Thomas (background) with Craig Allen et al. at Shanghai Studio in the 1990s
