Jacques Ferrière

A round face, wavy hair and sometimes mustachioed, Jacques Ferrière was a lookalike of classic French writer Honoré de Balzac and he did embody him twice on TV (Rêves d'amour (1962), Eugène Sue (1974)). But he could also play Danton (in an episode of "La caméra explore le temps") or a mere monk (in the popular series "Thierry la Fronde"). On the big screen he was less present in the flesh (a few secondary roles in Le corniaud (1965), Le franciscain de Bourges (1968) and a few others) than off-screen (he indeed provided the voice of dozens of tough guys in the French post synchronized versions of popular American movies, among whom Telly Savalas, Richard Jaeckel, Strother Martin, Danny Aiello... Also very active in the theater, Jacques Ferrière lent his talent to over twenty plays signed William Shakespeare, Boris Vian, Arthur Miller, Eugène Ionesco, Albert Camus... As if all that was not enough, Jacques Ferrière even formed a comedy duo with Michel Muller. It was back in the 1960's. The protean performer finally retired in 1993 and died in 2005 of Alzheimer's disease, aged 72.