His face may have been unfamiliar, but his deep, comforting voice resonated in the ears of millions of moviegoers for more than fifty years. Benoît Allemane, known for his work in the dubbing industry, died at the age of 82, on Sunday January 5, 2025, as announced by his friends on the Facebook network. This complete actor, who started his career in the theater, notably played the French voice of Morgan Freeman in around forty films released since 1992, including some box office successes such as “The Escapees”, the “Batman” trilogy by Christopher Nolan , “Invictus”, “The Fall of London” or even “Elusive”.
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The French Santa Claus was him
But his role as a voice actor did not stop at the only actor winning the 2005 Oscars (“Million Dollar Baby”), since Benoît Allemane also lent his warm voice to James Earl Jones in “The Hunt for Red October”, Brian Cox (“Braveheart”), George Kennedy (the “Is There a Cop?” saga) and even Commander Edwin Spangler in the series “Malcolm”. He had also signed several performances in the world of animation, helping to make “Super Baloo” endearing in the eponymous series, Charlie the Rooster in Looney Tunes, “Babar” in the adventures of the baby elephant or Zeus in the ” Hercules” signed Disney. Finally, he played the French Santa Claus for a long time, both on the ephemeral channel dedicated to the man with the white beard, and in television spots and animated films.
Voice actor but actor above all
This dubbing icon, whose behind the scenes he explained on the set of “Voix Ouf” on Allociné (see video above), sometimes appeared on screen. The faithful of “Plus belle la vie” thus followed the Auvergne interpret René Cassagne in the flesh, while he had also filmed in front of the cameras of the series “Alice Nevers” or “Julie Lescaut”, of “J’ accuse” directed by Roman Polanski (2019) or even more recently “Bonnard, Pierre et Marthe” (2023). A long career punctuated by classics.
