Actor Dominique Paturel, French voice of JR Ewing in “Dallas”, a hit series from the 1980s, died at the age of 90, his family said on Tuesday at Saint-Brieuc hospital.
“My uncle died Monday evening at the hospital in Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d’Armor). He had been suffering from diabetes for some time and had to be amputated. His general condition has deteriorated recently”, indicated to the ‘AFP his nephew Loïc Paturel. The funeral will take place Friday at 2:30 p.m. in Pordic (Côtes-d’Armor), “the family cradle, where he will be buried”, continued his nephew.
“He was one of the last to have played under the direction of Jean Vilar (famous director, founder of the Avignon festival). He had nearly 80 plays to his credit and around thirty films. He was part of this generation that knew how to do everything”, adds Loïc Paturel.
But his uncle was best known to the general public for the dubbing of JR, an unscrupulous character, who has become a cult, from the American series “Dallas”.. “I had a wonderful chance. Maybe, thanks to the dubbing, I had this choice to be able to accept or refuse theater or television projects that did not suit me.“, he had said one day to the site “Objectif Cinéma”.
Dominique Paturel (no relation to the singer and actress Sabine
Paturel) dubbed a hundred characters. He was the French voice of Michael Caine, Terence Hill, Robert Duvall, Frank Sinatra or Vittorio Gassman. It can also be heard in the French versions of films like “The Laureate”, “Patton”, “Barry Lyndon”, “The President’s Men”, “Elephant Man”, “Mad Max 2”, “Millenium” and many of iconic American series (“Colombo”, “The Invaders”, “Agency All Risks”, “Desperate Housewives”…) Previously, in the 1960s and 70s, he was a familiar face on the small screen thanks to series like “The Knight of Maison-Rouge” or “d’Artagnan”. In the cinema, it has been directed by renowned directors, such as Christian-Jaque, André Cayatte or Philippe de Broca.
