“Benoit Allemane, a friend I shared with many, many people, passed away last night“, wrote the director and actor Lionel Auguste on his Facebook account Monday January 6, as spotted by The Voice of the North. The well-known French voice of actor Morgan Freeman (Seven, The Escapees, Bruce Almighty) passed away on Sunday January 5. Actor Benoît Allemane had just celebrated his 82nd birthday.
Benoît Allemane was born in Clermont-Ferrand in 1942, reports the website of his hometown. He had studied at the National Theater School in Strasbourg. He notably played on stage in Le Tombeur by Robert Lamoureux alongside Michel Leeb. He began dubbing for Morgan Freeman’s first voice in 1991 in Robin Hood and then in the Prince of Thieves.
On television, fans of the Malcolm series may remember his voice portrayal of Commander Edwin Spangler (played by Daniel von Bargen). However, the actor was not intended exclusively for dubbing. In an interview given to AlloCiné and published on YouTube in December 2024, Benoît Allemane confided having been “terribly bad at the beginning“. “I will never do dubbing, it’s not for me“, he said to himself at the time.
“I never made sure that the dubbing took up more space than the theater.” Finally, he moved to the 70s, and learned the trade by dubbing himself for television, during scenes shot outdoors. It was only in the early 90s that he was contacted by a studio “to give it a try” dubbing, he says in an interview published by the City of Clermont-Ferrand. “The Americans wanted to change Morgan Freeman’s voice. I was chosen. It was a gift obviously.”
