Billie Mae Richards was a Canadian voice actress whose career included work on several animated productions that were written in the United States and animated in Japan, effectively placing her in the category of an English-language voice actor for what is often considered proto-anime or cross-cultural animation. She was born on November 21, 1921, in Toronto, Ontario, and began her performance career in radio, notably voicing the character of the Kid on the long-running Canadian series Jake and the Kid from 1950 to 1956. Her ability to convincingly voice young male characters became a defining feature of her work.

Richards is best known to general audiences as the voice of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in the classic 1964 Rankin/Bass television special, a role she reprised in Rudolph's Shiny New Year and Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July. For this performance, she was credited as Billy Richards to conceal her gender. However, within the context of Japanese- animated productions, she had several significant roles. From 1966 to 1969, she voiced the character Bobby Bond in the series The King Kong Show. This program was a production of the Rankin/Bass studio, which famously contracted with Japanese animators, including the studio MOM Production, to create its distinctive style of limited animation. Her role as Bobby Bond placed her in the company of other voice actors who worked on these transnational projects, such as Carl Banas and Paul Soles. Her other appearances in Rankin/Bass productions animated in Japan included roles in Willie McBean and His Magic Machine, The Smokey Bear Show, and The Daydreamer.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Richards was a prolific voice in the Toronto dubbing and animation community. She appeared in the original Spider-Man television series and voiced all the female characters and the young male leads in The Undersea Adventures of Captain Nemo. In the 1980s, she became the voice of Tenderheart Bear in The Care Bears Movie and its sequel, as well as the DIC-produced television series, and later voiced Brightheart Raccoon in the Nelvana-produced Care Bears Family series. Her career continued with guest roles on live-action television shows such as Maniac Mansion, My Secret Identity, and War of the Worlds, as well as a small part in the 1998 horror film Shadow Builder. Billie Mae Richards passed away on September 10, 2010, in Burlington, Ontario, leaving behind a legacy as a versatile performer who brought a beloved holiday character to life and contributed to the early era of cross-cultural animation between North America and Japan.