From Oberhexer Vesemir (right) Geralt learns pretty much everything he can and knows. Now his actor has died.
Thousands of players know his voice. In two Witcher games, he was supported by us in the role of Geralt's foster father and Oberhexer Vesemir. Now William Roberts has fallen silent forever. The American actor and voice actor died in February 2025 at the age of 80.
Roberts was born in the US state of Oregon in October 1943 and gained his first acting experiences at the Shakespeare Festival there. After his school days, he studied theater at Californian Humboldt State College. He then emigrated to Great Britain, where he completed his studies in Manchester with a diploma in drama. There he also met his first wife with whom he founded two theater groups together.
In addition to the theater spectacle, Williams specialized in the synchronized speaking and reading of radio plays for the radio. He became known for his deep, sonorous voice. As a spokesman, you can hear him in anime films such as Patlabor 2 and Appleseed or the video games Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and the Witcher series. In private, Roberts was an enthusiastic pilot in his later life.
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The spectacular trailer for The Witcher 3 once roled role players from all over the world
Live well, old friend
After William's death only became known to a wider public in April, many fans and former companions on social media said goodbye to the deceased actor. The Witcher developers from the Polish Studio CD Project Red have now recalled Williams. On Twitter, the studio shared a video with which the team honors the Vesemir actor:
Link to Twitter content
This year we lost William 'Bill' Roberts, who presented Vesemir in the Witcher games. Today we say goodbye to him with gratitude.
You informed us that you gave us advice, you took care of us. Kaer Morhen will never be the same without you. Live well, old friend.
The video refers to one of the most emotional scenes from The Witcher 3; Attention, spoiler! – Vesemir's death. After the battle of Kaer Morhen, the heroes around Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer around Vesemir's stake and memory of their old friend and teacher gather.
Ciri remembers that she is a lot of her witcher craft from Uncle Vesemir
learned, explained Geralt that Vesemir died like a hero. At the time, many Witcher fans had 3 tears in their eyes at their first round in The Witcher – they could not believe that Vesemir should have died.
To say goodbye to the man with such an emotional scene, who brought Vesemir to life so convincingly, is of course a nice last gesture in memory of a personality like William Roberts.
