Daniel Beretta, French voice of Arnold Schwarzenegger, has died

A month after Alain Dorval, another figure in dubbing passed away: the actor Daniel Beretta, French voice of Arnold Schwarzenegger, died at the age of 77 on the night of Friday to Saturday in Ajaccio, his daughter announced AFP. “He died in his sleep,” said Barbara Beretta, an actress who also specialized in dubbing. “He was an Ajaccian at heart,” his friend Christophe Mondoloni, deputy mayor of Ajaccio, told AFP. “He had been living here for 50 years,” added the elected official.

Born in Audincourt (Doubs), the actor, also a singer-songwriter, “was very invested at the cultural level, providing good advice for island actors”, according to Mr. Mondoloni. He notably “produced the official anthem of the Ajaccio carnival in the 80s” and was “a member of the board of directors of the Palatinu performance hall from 2015 to 2020.”

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Before lending his warm and deep voice to “Schwarzy”, Daniel Beretta started his career in music, in a duo with Richard de Bordeaux in the 1960s, then began to tread the boards and film sets. The performer of the title role of the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar has also collaborated with Nino Ferrer, with whom he co-wrote La Rua Madureira, Mireille Mathieu, Paul McCartney and Ennio Morricone.

It was at the end of the 1980s that he began to dub Arnold Schwarzenegger, for the film Double Détente, thanks to an improvised audition by telephone where he heard the voice of the star exclaiming “he's got the job !”, he told AFP in 1994.

In addition to Terminator 2, True Lies and other films by the former California governor, Daniel Beretta also lent his voice to the character of Lumière in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, to Ubisoft's Splinter Cell video game series and to Japanese animated films Ghost in the Shell.

His death caused many film fans to react on social networks, after the death of Alain Dorval, French voice of Sylvester Stallone, in February and that in 2020 of Patrick Poivey, who dubbed Bruce Willis.