Ryūsuke Ōbayashi is a veteran Japanese voice actor, actor, and narrator with a career spanning from 1966 to the present. Born on March 13, 1946, in Fukuoka Prefecture, he is employed by the talent management firm 81 Produce. He was formerly credited under the stage name Ryūnosuke Ōbayashi, and his real name is Shōchi Ōbayashi.

Ōbayashi is best known for his work on several landmark anime franchises. He is widely recognized as the voice of Sōun Tendō, the often-flustered and easily moved father of the titular character in the long-running comedy series Ranma ½. Another of his most iconic roles is Captain Kiichi Gotō, the shrewd and lazy yet highly effective leader of the Patlabor unit's Section 2, a character he voiced across the television series, multiple films, and original video animations, including Patlabor: The Movie, Patlabor 2: The Movie, and WXIII: Patlabor the Movie 3.

His filmography includes significant roles in the science fiction genre, most notably as Exsedol Folmo, the strategic advisor and member of the Zentradi, in both The Super Dimension Fortress Macross television series (1982) and its theatrical film adaptation, Macross: Do You Remember Love? (1984). He later reprised this role in Macross 7 and the film Macross Delta: Zettai Live!!!!!!. He was also a familiar presence in the Gundam metaseries, providing the voices for Ben Wooder in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and Rakan Dahkaran in Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ.

Beyond these flagship roles, Ōbayashi has built an extensive career with a wide variety of characters. His other notable television animation credits include Yasuo Iwakura, the distant and emotionally closed-off father of the protagonist in the psychological series Serial Experiments Lain, as well as roles in Rurouni Kenshin as the arrogant swordsman Raijuta Isurugi, in Monster as Fritz Vardemann, and in Heavy Object as Councilor Flide. He has also taken on narrator roles in series such as Taisho Otome Fairy Tale and WataMote.

In the world of video games, Ōbayashi has lent his deep and authoritative voice to several notable titles. He is known for voicing Judge Ghis in Final Fantasy XII, Emperor Strada in Asura's Wrath, and has regularly voiced his Gundam characters, such as Rakan Dahkaran, in numerous entries in the Super Robot Wars series. Additionally, he has an extensive body of work in dubbing foreign films and television series into Japanese, providing the Japanese voice for characters in productions like The Dark Knight, Happiest Season, and the animated feature The Animatrix.