Wolfgang Ziffer was a German voice actor and actor, born on October 26, 1941, in Wuppertal, Germany, who passed away on December 12, 2022. He was a prominent figure in the German dubbing industry, though he was rarely seen in live-action film or television roles. After completing his acting training, Ziffer performed at the renowned Schillertheater in Berlin. It was there that fellow actor Thomas Danneberg persuaded him to try voice acting, leading to his prolific career in synchronization.

Ziffer became well-known for lending his distinctive, often high-pitched and excitable voice to a wide array of characters, particularly in animated films and series. One of his most recognized roles was as the titular character in the anime series Calimero, about a little black chick with an eggshell on his head. He also voiced the neurotic rabbit Roger Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the parrot Iago in Aladdin, the flugsaurier Petrie in The Land Before Time, and Digit in An American Tail. In the German children's series Benjamin the Elephant, he was the voice of the raven Gulliver. His anime work also included providing the voice for Inspector Yokomizo in the long-running series Detective Conan and the voice of the dragon Shenlong in Dragon Ball.

A recurring theme in his career was voicing robotic characters. He was the German voice of the robot Number 5 in the Short Circuit films, V.I.N.CENT in The Black Hole, and notably, the protocol droid C-3PO. He took over the role of C-3PO from Joachim Tennstedt for the Star Wars prequel trilogy, starting with The Phantom Menace in 1999, and continued in this role for the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. Beyond animation, Ziffer dubbed numerous actors in live-action productions, including Thom Bray as Murray 'Boz' Bozinsky in Riptide and Richard Dawson as Corporal Peter Newkirk in Hogan's Heroes.

In addition to his work as a voice actor, Wolfgang Ziffer was also active as a dubbing director and dialogue writer, contributing to German-language versions of series like Detective Conan and The Mentalist, and films such as Parasite. He was married to actress Edeltraud Elsner, and their daughter, Julia Ziffer, also became a voice actress.