Hans-Eckart Eckhardt was a German actor and voice artist with a career spanning over four decades, from the mid-1970s until his passing in 2021. Born on March 29, 1953, in Pforzheim, West Germany, he began his professional career on the stage in 1976 before transitioning to film and television work. His early on-screen career included roles in productions directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Hans Neuenfels. In addition to his acting work, Eckhardt was also a radio presenter and news anchor for the station SFB in Berlin, and his voice became widely recognized across Germany as an announcer for the television game show Wheel of Fortune.

As a voice actor, Eckhardt was prolific in providing the German dubbing for numerous characters in international films and television series. His work encompassed a wide range of genres, including live-action and animation. Notably, he was the German voice for actor Vin Diesel in the film Guardians of the Galaxy. In the world of animation, he voiced characters such as Iouzen in The Boy and The Beast, Hound in the Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy series, and Emperor Zarkon in Voltron: Legendary Defender.

Within the specific realm of anime, Eckhardt contributed his distinctive voice to a multitude of prominent series. He was a recurring presence in the German adaptations of popular shows, often lending his voice to authoritative, powerful, or older characters. For instance, he voiced the role of Yoshitsugu Ootani in Gakuen Basara: Samurai High School and the narrator for the 2018 version of Captain Tsubasa. In Golden Kamuy, he portrayed the formidable convict Tatsuma Ushiyama across the first two seasons of the anime. Another notable and recurring role was that of the FBI agent Andre Camel in the Detective Conan franchise, appearing in three films: Detective Conan: Dimensional Sniper, Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare, and Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet. His other anime credits include Yakov Nikitin in Dr. Stone, Ddraig in the High School DxD series, and Sari Shagan in No Guns Life.

Eckhardt was particularly well-known to fans for his work in the series That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and its spin-off, The Slime Diaries, where he voiced the character Riguldo. This role, along with his many others, formed a significant part of his later career and endeared him to a new generation of anime viewers in Germany.

Throughout his career, Hans-Eckart Eckhardt received recognition for his performance work, including an award for Best Off-Theater Production in 1984 and the award for Best Actor in a Short Film at the Toronto Short Film Festival in 1985 for his role in Altmanns Regel. He continued to work actively in the industry up until his death on September 20, 2021, at the age of 68, leaving behind a substantial legacy in German film, television, and voice acting.