Bio
He is known for playing tough or grouchy men in English-dubbed anime and video games. His career includes Hotohori in Fushigi Yūgi and Jin in Samurai Champloo. He also played the major character Hajime Saito in Rurouni Kenshin, in addition to numerous cameos and minor characters. He also does Don Patch in Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo as well as Gabumon and other voices in Digimon. He is even the English voice of Jet Link in Cyborg 009, the Narrator in Bleach, as well as Kisame Hoshigaki in Naruto and its sequel, Naruto: Shippuden. Kirk is now the official voice of Shadow the Hedgehog as of the 2010 release Sonic Free Riders. According to Anime News Network, Thornton boasts the most credits of any male voice actor who does English language dubbing, and in the field in general, is second only to Wendee Lee in total credits. To date he has been in over two hundred voice-over productions for Japanese animation.
Thornton is also well known for having played many different minor voice roles throughout the Power Rangers franchise (and similar series such as VR Troopers and Masked Rider). He has also had experience with ADR direction. Currently, he is co-directing the ADR for the popular anime series Bleach alongside Wendee Lee. He has also been working as a key grip on television shows such as Little Britain, Duck Patrol and Distant Shores. His career is reputedly difficult to track, due to the multiple names under which he has been credited.
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