Kazuo Hayashi is a veteran Japanese actor and voice actor, born on October 17, 1945, in Tokyo, Japan. He began his career in 1969 and was active for several decades, affiliated with the talent management firm Theater Echo. His birth name is Kazuo Sugita.

Hayashi is best known for his work in anime, tokusatsu, and the dubbing of foreign films and television series from the 1970s through the 2000s. One of his most significant and personally cherished roles was as Gije Zaral in the 1982 anime film Space Runaway Ideon: The Contact and its sequel, The Ideon: Be Invoked. He was so fond of the character that he maintained the same hairstyle in his personal life.

He also had a long-standing association with the Space Battleship Yamato franchise, providing the voice of the character Yasuo Nanbu in several installments. These included the films Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato (1978), Yamato: The New Voyage (1979), Be Forever Yamato (1980), and Final Yamato (1983), as well as the television series Star Blazers: The Comet Empire and Star Blazers: The Bolar Wars. His other notable anime roles included Lt. Henry Steiger in The Super Dimension Century Orguss (1983), Clow Reed in Cardcaptor Sakura and its film adaptation, Hound Asterion in Saint Seiya, and roles in the anime anthology Seishan Anime Zenshu, such as Isamu Saito and Uranari Koga from Botchan.

Beyond anime, Hayashi was a prolific presence in the Super Sentai and Kamen Rider tokusatsu series, frequently voicing monster and villain characters. His roles included Bio Hunter Silva in Choudenshi Bioman, Sword General Budoh in Seijuu Sentai Gingaman, and Computer Psyma Beast Cyber Gildo in Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGo-V. He was also active in the dubbing of foreign films and television series, such as providing additional voices for the Japanese dub of The Last Emperor.

Kazuo Hayashi was also skilled in traditional Japanese dance, or buyō.