Henry Djanik

Henry Djanik — Biography

Though he worked in cinema, Henry Djanik, a French actor of Armenian descent, earned his lasting reputation in dubbing. Regarded as one of the great voices of French dubbing, he was the regular French voice of Anthony Quinn in most of his films and of Telly Savalas in Kojak. Born Arthur Djanikian, he died in 2008.

His on-camera career began in the early 1950s and ran into the early 1990s. He played William Bosco in Cet homme est dangereux (1953) and Bébert in Les 3 font la paire (1957); in the following decades he appeared in productions such as Les gros bras, Le grand bidule, Biribi, Peur sur la ville and I... comme Icare, and 588 rue Paradis (1992) was among his later films. His voice also reached animated films: in Tintin et le temple du soleil he voiced a bandit, and in Le Big-Bang he spoke for Darth Vader.

His most lasting dubbing work came from television. He was the voice of Mister T. in L'Agence tous risques and of Ikki in the animated series Les Chevaliers du Zodiaque, and from 1977 to 2000 he voiced Eeyore, known in French as Bourriquet, in the Winnie the Pooh adaptations. He also worked on Conan the Adventurer, Bravestarr, Blackstar and Thundercats.