The voice actor and actor born in Dijon in Côte-d’Or died yesterday of a dazzling illness. Jacques Frantz enjoyed coming back to the city of the Dukes where he took his first steps on stage as a child.
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The warm and powerful timbre, he had lent his voice 67 times to Robert de Niro and Mel Gibson 34 times during his career. A true dubbing monster, but also a film and theater actor, the Dijon native Jacques Frantz died yesterday at the age of 73 from a “lightning disease” his daughter announced in a statement.
Al Capone in The Untouchables, Martin Riggs dans The lethal Weapon, Sullivan dans Monsters, Inc., all those inimitable and charismatic voices that rocked the ears of young and old alike, it was him. Jacques Frantz was one of those mythical voice actors, who could be recognized in a few words, even hidden behind the features and physique of another actor.
A Dijon childhood
In 2005, Jacques Frantz told us about his childhood in Dijon. “I have a lot of memories here”. Each time he returned to his hometown, the one who played for Coline Serreau, Claude Chabrol or Gérard Oury, appreciated making a stop at the Fontaine-lès-Dijon pond.
“That’s where I used to go sledding when I was little, with my brother Jean-Philippe. We were told a lot of stuff. Saint-Bernard was supposed to have been born here, in the castle. He would have seen a day the pond opened, and glimpsed the crusaders of the second or third crusade. We all took ourselves a little for very big people when we were small and when we were there riding on our sledges “.
There is my life, my childhood, my emotions, my loves, my dreams. Dijon is a whole patchwork of stuff.
From his father, curator of historical monuments, Jacques Frantz had inherited a real passion for the architectural heritage of the city of 1000 spiers. “While going to school, I passed beautiful houses 4 times a day”.
It is in the courtyard of the Bar of the Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy that the actor will also take his first steps on stage, on the occasion of the Nuits de Bourgogne festival. “We put on the costumes, we hid. And we put on the costumes at full speed because we did a lot of stuff. The actors’ dressing rooms were in the kitchens, a magnificent place, like there are plenty of in Burgundy. magical”.
From the age of 16, Jacques Frantz enrolled in the conservatory of dramatic art. He will begin his professional career in 1969, in a theatrical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.
The tributes of the profession
Some of his colleagues and many anonymous have expressed their sadness following the announcement of the disappearance of the Dijon voice actor. Jean Dujardin, on his Instagram account, paid tribute to the “beautiful human and beautiful artist that he was”. The two actors notably played together in the film Counter-investigation in 2007.
In commentary, the actress Emilie Dequenne took the opportunity to greet “a delicious man” and an “actor’s wonder”.
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Still on Instagram, François-Xavier Demaison, son of Jacques Frantz in the feature film Like brothers in 2012 wrote: “You were a voice, an incredible presence”.
Columnist and TV critic Eric Naulleau, for his part, spoke of his “pleasure to find his vast carcass and his beautiful voice on a theater stage”.
Jacques Frantz was not only the voice of Robert de Niro or Mel Gibson, but also a very talented actor and comedian. It was always a pleasure to find his vast carcass and his beautiful voice on a stage. pic.twitter.com/GtSjHMYnrJ
– Eric Naulleau (@EricNaulleau) March 17, 2021
An inseparable voice of Robert De Niro, whom he accompanied for nearly half a century, the Dijonnais Jacques Frantz will have played a total of 26 plays, around thirty films and made his vocal cords vibrate 447 times for the cinema. , television and even video games.
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