Bob Magruder, born Robert Olin Magruder on April 12, 1932, in Houston, Texas, was an American voice actor and narrator whose career spanned several decades and encompassed a wide variety of media. His path to voice acting was not direct, beginning instead in the world of radio. He started as a disc jockey at the age of nineteen and later worked in newsrooms, including a stint where his news director was Dan Rather. After serving as an officer in the Navy during the Korean War, where he wrote for Armed Forces Radio, he returned to broadcasting, working in sales and management at radio stations in Houston, San Antonio, New Orleans, and Dallas.

In his early forties, Magruder left the corporate side of broadcasting to pursue performance full-time. This decision was fueled by a lifelong hobby of acting in local theatre productions. After a performance at the Dallas Repertory Theater, an agent suggested he had potential in voice-over work, leading him to establish a long and successful career as a freelance voice talent. He became known for his deep, distinctive voice and his philosophy that successful voice acting relied more on interpretation and creating a character than on the inherent quality of the voice itself.

Throughout his career, Magruder was a prolific voice artist, performing in thousands of radio and television commercials, documentaries, industrial films, and feature films. He was also a dedicated teacher of the craft, conducting workshops to help develop new voice talent. His most prominent and long-running role was as the narrator for the syndicated reality television series Cheaters, a position he held for 15 years.

In the realm of anime, Bob Magruder contributed his voice to several English dubs produced by Funimation. He is notably recognized for voicing the character Pope Matthai Reese in the English adaptation of A Certain Magical Index II, a role that was announced at Otakon in 2014. Other anime credits include providing additional voices for the films Wolf Children and Soul Eater, and he is also credited with voicing the narrator and the character Igneel in the popular series Fairy Tail. His work also extended to Christian animation, where he voiced the character of Old John in a series of films including God with Us (2011), To Every Nation (2017), and The Messengers (2017).

Bob Magruder passed away on January 2, 2015, in Dallas, Texas, at the age of 82. He was remembered by colleagues and friends not only for his professional skill and generosity but also for his humor and dedication to his craft, working actively until his final illness.